Photo Credit: Katy Perry by Simon Wedege Petersen / CC by 3.0
Katy Perry’s 2011 hit “The One That Got Away” has been claimed by a new generation on TikTok, becoming the Global and US Song of the Summer 2026.
As the warm summer air turns crisp and cool on the cusp of fall, TikTok reveals its annual Songs of the Summer list, celebrating the musical trends that defined the season on the platform in 2026. Nostalgia reigns supreme once again on TikTok, and the top track of the summer, both domestically and globally, is the 16-year-old hit, Katy Perry’s “The One That Got Away.”
“The One That Got Away” was released as a single in 2011 from Perry’s hit record, Teenage Dream. The track has been discovered by a new generation on TikTok over the summer, where the community has used it to soundtrack over 42 million videos and received over 55 billion views. Now, the song is back on the charts worldwide, including the Billboard Global 200, where it has spent the last 21 weeks.
The track’s resurgence has even led Katy Perry to release a director’s cut featuring new narration from the legendary Stevie Nicks—also a TikTok darling.
“It’s surreal to see ‘The One That Got Away’ having this moment, all these years later. The thing about music is that you never really know where a song is going to end up or when someone is going to find it,” said Katy Perry. “From seeing it being chosen in the “choose your own adventure” section of my Lifetimes Tour concert film to seeing people discover it on TikTok and make it part of their own stories has been really special to watch. It’s nice to revisit an amazing chapter while watching another unfold.”
In addition to Perry’s track, the U.S. TikTok community embraced a wide range of songs this year to soundtrack their summer. This year’s picks clearly reflected the younger generations’ nostalgia for 2016, especially with Mac Miller’s “Cinderella (feat. Ty Dolla $ign).” The track became one of TikTok’s biggest love songs of the summer and landed at #2 on the U.S. list.
Going even further back on the wave of nostalgia, Lenny Kravitz’s 1991 hit, “It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over,” took the #3 spot in the U.S. The song was featured in FX’s “Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette” and quickly took over TikTok’s For You feeds.
Another captivating track on the list is Shakira and Burna Boy’s “Dai Dai,” which earned the #9 spot after it became the anthem of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Creators celebrated countries around the world over the soccer-filled summer and recreated Shakira’s iconic dance moves—and Shakira herself even joined in on the trend.
On a global scale, Zara Larsson was a major driver of content on TikTok this summer. TikTok dubbed the Grammy-nominated artist the Outstanding Contribution to the Summer. Her infectious pop anthems and viral choreography led to some major Pop Girl Summer trends on TikTok, leading to fan edits, makeup tutorials, dance challenges, and more.
TikTok is celebrating the Songs of the Summer 2026 with the launch of a major new social campaign, “Songs of the Summer, Vol. 2026.” The campaign highlights the standout themes, tracks, artists, creators, and cultural moments that defined the summer of 2026 on TikTok in the form of a digital mixtape. The “Songs of the Summer, Vol. 2026” campaign dives into three of the biggest cultural moments that soundtracked this summer for the global TikTok community:
- Pop Girl Summer: Zara Larsson – “Midnight Sun”
- Nostalgia Revival: Katy Perry – “The One That Got Away”
- K-Pop Summer: CORTIS – “REDRED”
“TikTok’s Songs of the Summer once again show how our community embraces music in all its forms, from emerging artists finding a global audience to much-loved catalog tracks being discovered by a whole new generation for the first time,” said Tracy Gardner, Global Head of Music Business Development at TikTok.
“From new fans discovering Katy Perry’s ‘The One That Got Away’ 15 years after its release and sending it back into charts around the world, to Zara Larsson finding incredible new momentum and defining ‘Pop Girl Summer,’ TikTok is where music culture is shaped and fandom grows, connecting artists and songs with new audiences and turning discovery into momentum that reaches far beyond the platform.”
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