Music is an integral part of every wedding celebration. While the style of music played at weddings varies quite considerably around the world, sentimental songs and atmospheric orchestral pieces are always vitally important in setting the scene for a couple’s big day.
While wedding music is very much down to personal choice, trends often develop with some songs becoming staples – particularly when it comes to the first dance.20 most popular first dance songs 2022
To see which songs have been popular in 2022, Wedmatch has analysed Spotify playlists, looking at which tunes are most likely to feature on those all-important wedding playlists, in particular, the songs that people most often choose to accompany their first dance.
To find the most popular wedding songs overall they looked at 10,363 Spotify playlists containing a total of 856,586 total songs. The playlists analysed included the following key words: ‘wedding’, ‘wedding prep’, ‘ceremony’, ‘first dance’ and ‘reception’.
The analysis revealed that the most popular first dance song was American singer-songwriter, Haley Reinhart’s, version of the Elvis classic ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’. Featuring on 26% of first dance playlists, this was the must-have piece of music for weddings in recent years. This was followed by Jack Johnson’s 2006 hit ‘Better Together’ (15% of first dance playlists) and ‘Perfect’ by Ed Sheeran (14% of first dance) playlists.
Ed Sheeran was the only artist to appear twice in the top 20 first dance songs, the second song being ‘Thinking out loud’ which was in position seven and featured on 11% of first dance playlists. He appeared five times overall in the top 100 first dance songs, more than any other artist.
The top 20 most popular first dance songs for 2022 (so far) were:
- Can’t Help Falling in Love, Haley Reinhart
- Better Together, Jack Johnson
- Perfect, Ed Sheeran
- Stand by Me, Ben E. King
- All of Me, John Legend
- Marry Me, Train
- Thinking out Loud, Ed Sheeran
- Your Song, Elton John
- A Thousand Years, Christina Perri
- You Are The Reason, Calum Scott
- At Last, Etta James
- Say You Won’t Let Go, James Arthur
- Everything, Michael Bublé
- You Are the Best Thing, Ray LaMontagne
- Can’t Take My Eyes off You, Frankie Valli
- Make You Feel My Love, Adele
- I Get to Love You, Ruelle
- From the Ground Up, Dan + Shay
- The Way You Look Tonight, Frank Sinatra
- Speechless, Lady Gaga
Further findings from all the data (combining all playlist categories) showed that the TikTok hit ‘About Damn Time’ by Lizzo was the only new song to be in the top 50 for 2022 at 29 overall and 14 for Wedding Prep.
Shania Twain’s ‘Man! I feel like a Woman!’ went from being in position 82 in 2020 to 31 in 2021 and eight in 2022 – meaning it has increased drastically in popularity despite being released 23 years ago. ‘Wannabe’ by the Spice Girls has also increased over time, moving from position 37 in 2020, 14 in 2021 and five in 2022.
The 90s songs growing in popularity at weddings may largely be attributed to the demographic of people that will likely be getting married in recent years. The average age to get married in the US is 28 for women and 30 for men, which means that they will have been born in the 90s.
Steven Inge, Founder of WedMatch said: “Music is such a big part of a person’s wedding day and something that is extremely personal, particularly when it comes to the first dance as it is an important aspect of the day for both of the couple.
“However we’re not altogether surprised to see certain trends appear in our data, such as Ed Sheeran appearing twice in the top 10, making himself the king of wedding dances with his romantic classics.”
The full research of the most popular wedding songs can be found here.
