Music is a huge part of the summer experience. The season’s biggest songs and artists are indelibly linked to our summer memories, and will be remembered for years to come. Today, YouTube reveals the UK’s 2019 Soundtrack to the Summer.

Leading the way as the UK’s official Song of the Summer is Lil Nas X’s record-breaking ‘Old Town Road’ (featuring BillyRayCyrus) with 41.5 million views – a staggering lead of 18.5 million views over its nearest challenger, Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello’s ‘Señorita’. The success of ‘Old Town Road’ has been repeated the world over, topping the chart in over 50 countries and territories including the USA, Canada and Australia.

The UK Top 10 Songs of the Summer features six tracks from domestic artists. Ed Sheeran (with JustinBieber) is the highest ranked at #3 with ‘I Don’t Care’, while LewisCapaldi’s huge breakthrough is reflected as the only artist to have two songs in the chart – ‘Someone You Loved’ at #4 and ‘Hold Me While You Wait’ at #10. The other UK artists to make the list are Stormzy (‘Vossi Bop’, #4), Dave (‘Location’ featuring Burna Boy, #7) and Mist (‘So High’ featuring Fredo, #8).

The Top 10 is completed by Billie Eilish’s ‘bad guy’ (#6) and the long-running popularity of Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s ‘Shallow’ has continued, placing the song at #9.

Top 10 Songs of the Summer
(Source: YouTube data, United Kingdom, 1 June - 15 Aug 2019)

.#Song Main Artist Views
1 Old Town Road (feat. Billy Ray Cyrus) Lil Nas X 41.5M
2 Señorita Shawn Mendes, Camila Cabello 23M
3 I Don't Care Ed Sheeran, Justin Bieber 21.8M
4 Someone You Loved Lewis Capaldi 20M
5 Vossi Bop Stormzy 19M
6 bad guy Billie Eilish 17M
7 Location (feat. Burna Boy) Dave 13M
8 So High (feat. Fredo) Mist 12M
9 Shallow Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper 11M
10 Hold Me While You Wait Lewis Capaldi 10M

Domestic artists lead the UK’s Artists of the Summer chart, with Ed Sheeran’s leading tally of 94.5 million views driven by the huge success of his current album ‘No. 6 Collaborations Project’. That figure is almost 50million ahead of LewisCapaldi in second place, while Dave at #9 is the only other British artist to feature.

‘Old Town Road’ is the driving force behind Lil Nas X reaching third place. He’s followed by a host of international superstar names – Billie Eilish, Eminem, ArianaGrande, ShawnMendes and PostMalone – while Marshmello’s growing profile has seen them break into the chart at #9.

The Top 10 Artists of the Summer have accumulated a total of 480millionUK views in the qualifying period (June1st to August 15th) – an average of 4 million views per artist each week.

Top 10 Artists of the Summer
(Source: YouTube data, United Kingdom, 1 June - 15 Aug 2019)

.#Artists Views
1 Ed Sheeran 94.5M
2 Lewis Capaldi 55.6M
3 Lil Nas X 49.9M
4 Billie Eilish 49.6M
5 Eminem 48M
6 Ariana Grande 41M
7 Shawn Mendes 39.9M
8 Post Malone 34.6M
9 Marshmello 34M
10 Dave 33M

YouTube has also identified the UK’s Biggest Cultural Summer Music Moments. These were identified by analysing the size of a video’s viewing spike during a cultural moment compared to the views that the track received a week before. As with the Songs of the Summer and Artists of the Summer charts, YouTube defined the summer period as running from June 1stto August 15th.

The most memorable moment of this summer’s Glastonbury came when Dave plucked a fan from the crowd to perform ‘Thiago Silva’ with him. That fan – AlexMann – made the most of his moment in the spotlight, racing through the rhymes without missing a beat and becoming a social media sensation in the process. That resulted in views of Dave x AJ Tracey’s ‘Thiago Silva’exploding by more than 3000%.

Rising talent can also benefit from such cultural music moments. The Manchester based independent artist LUSAINT saw her‘More Than Friends’video gain a 1000% increase in views when it featured in ‘Love Island’. Large numbers of the show’s fans discovered the song after it soundtracked a pivotal scene featuring the series’ eventual winner Amber Gill.

The emotional power of music and sport combined to create two other big moments this summer. After Liverpool triumphed over Tottenham to win the 2019 UEFA Champions League Final, the club’s anthem ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ echoed through a sweltering summer night. That triggered a 500%+ increase of views ofGerry & The Pacemakers’ definitive version of the song.

In July, England’s cricket team made history by winning the WorldCup for the first time. In dramatic, thrilling scenes, England emerged victorious via the narrowest of margins making heroes of the team. The official song of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019,LORYN’s ‘Stand By’ (featuring Rudimental), subsequently gained an increased audience of over 200%.