Enjoy my special Valentine’s Day playlist!  I’ve selected my top 14 love songs of 2024 to enjoy this Valentine’s Day.

To listen to the playlist, click the link below to access it through Spotify!

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5QUaFc3mZzN7jG1nrAaR7j?si=CWTwUrs8RM2rZDhmGtglZA

1. So High School, by Taylor Swift

This should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me. My favorite artist has never disappointed me and continued that streak this year. In an album largely about growth, heartbreak, healing, and rediscovering yourself, there is a sliver of the delicate beginnings of new love. This song feels like spending hours gushing to your friends about someone you’ve been dating, starry eyed and giggly. So High School had me blushing, kicking my feet, and drawing hearts on my Converse, taking me back to teenage crushes and daydreams.

2. Close To You, by Gracie Abrams

Call it love, call it lust, call it a crush, no matter your interpretation this song has the Valentine’s Day spirit. I mean, “pull the trigger on the gun I gave you when we met” might be one of my favorite ways ever to say, “love at first sight.” Anytime I want to feel like I’m watching a classic romcom, I listen to Gracie Abrams. This song is My Best Friend’s Wedding, Sixteen Candles, and Two Weeks’ Notice bundled together, full of longing and hope and fate.

3. Die With A Smile, by Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga

This is the duo I didn’t know we needed. This would certainly not be the first time Bruno Mars made it onto a Valentine’s playlist, and it will not be the last. The man who would take a grenade for you, who would give you his wallet if you wanted it, is back to say if the world was ending, he’d want to be next to you. Lady Gaga adds so much depth to this duet (THE HARMONIES), though she is not always quite so romantic in her own music, this song certainly brought it out of her. I have been walking around the house belting this involuntarily, and I think it’s safe to say that will continue for at least another few months.

4. BIRDS OF A FEATHER, by Billie Eilish

I had thought that no matter where Billie’s music went, her most romantic song would always be Ocean Eyes. That said, this year BIRDS OF A FEATHER has given Ocean Eyes a run for its money. There hasn’t been a chart-topping song that has so boldly taken on the theme of soulmates in a while, it went out of fashion for some reason. Hearing Billie sing, “I knew you in another life, you had the same look in your eyes” is just the fix for the soulmate theme comeback.

5. Juno, by Sabrina Carpenter

For a singer, songwriter, and actress, Sabrina makes me laugh more than most comedians. Her lyrics reflect how she talks, direct, candid, assured, and with incredible comedic timing. For those of you who have seen Sabrina perform this on her Short n’ Sweet tour, you’ll know that this is the number where she’ll arrest an audience member (and sometimes a guest star) for being too attractive, handing them a pair of the fuzzy pink handcuffs she sings about. This is the perfect giddy and confident love song for a Valentine’s Day playlist.

6. you look like you love me, by Ella Langley and Riley Green

Now, I am not normally a person who leans towards country music. Of course I love Dolly, and before you even think it, yes, I know the Taylor music I first fell in love with was, in fact, country. That said, I’m more of a pop/rap/musical theatre/folk girl myself. you look like you love me, however, has all the elements of a song that would make me occasionally gravitate towards this genre. Reminiscent of Home by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros (a song I’ve loved since it came out when I was 10), you look like you love me features a catchy melody and lots of talking, a jarring style to some, but something I think, when done right, is a brilliant storytelling method.

7. Spring Into Summer, by Lizzy McAlpine

Since 2022, Ceilings by Lizzy McAlpine has been on all of my playlists. In all that time, I’m ashamed to say I didn’t listen to the rest of Lizzy’s stuff. I only started listening to her other songs this past summer and realized that she is one of my favorite lyricists. Spring Into Summer is from her 2024 album, Older (and Wiser), and stands out as one of the only hopeful love songs. The rest of the album is a coming-of-age story that explores independence, adulthood, losing people, and becoming the person you want to be. Spring Into Summer is like coming up for fresh air, a sweet and vulnerable declaration of love.

8. Scared To Start, by Michael Marcagi

This is the dance off into the sunset song. The end credits, happily ever after that every romcom movie lover knows by heart. It’s the song that begs the question, what happens after happily ever after, but then proceeds to answer it in the idyllic way we’d like all scary questions to be answered. Michael Marcagi sings the type of answers I’ve always hopefully supplied when people have asked me disturbing questions. Questions like: Do I think Andie Anderson and Ben Berry stayed together after How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days ended? And, do I believe it’s realistic for Kathleen Kelly and Joe Fox in You’ve Got Mail to have been able to put aside the fact that they were on opposite sides of the modern bookselling industry, and actually have a successful relationship? I appreciate the idealist perspective Michael Marcagi takes in this song, it’s romantic, and certainly the energy everyone needs on Valentine’s Day.

9. Beautiful Things,by Benson Boone

I would say this was probably my mom’s favorite song of the year. Every time she hears Benson Boone, her eyes light up and she says, “oh I love this song.” She’s not wrong, Beautiful Things is pretty electric, and very reflective of a fear inherently tied to love: the fear that you’ll lose something so important to you. The real showstopper of this song isn’t the lyrics, though, it’s the sheer power of Benson’s voice. He has such a range and, if anyone’s seen him perform this at any award shows or concerts, you’ll know that he has SUCH a great stage presence. I am a sucker for the wow factor of those backflips. This song defines that feeling of being so euphoric and anxious all at once that you want to break into gymnastics.

10. Bobby Sox, by Green Day

This song surprised me. A lot. I wasn’t even considering Green Day when making this playlist at first, nor do I think I have ever had a Green Day song on a playlist about love. That said, what a fun, upbeat, and playful love song. I can see this being used well in screen soundtracks, during a romantic montage, as an opening credits track, or, as a song the dishy love interest plays with their rock band at a gig they invited the main character too. The lyrics are strange but fitting for Green Day. My favorite: “we’ll walk the cemetery, and I’ll kiss you again, and make our dead friends blush.”

11. Good Luck, Babe!, by Chappell Roan

Good Luck, Babe! stands out as a song about endings, rather than the beginnings and forevers found in the rest of this playlist. This is a song about arriving at a crossroads in a relationship, knowing your partner is going to regret the way they acted, and, yet, knowing you must put yourself first and part ways. The romance of a song like this is in knowing what love should feel like, and knowing you deserve to have that feeling. Chappell sings, “think I’m gonna call it off, even if you call it love, I just wanna love someone who calls me baby.”

12. Heather On The Hill, by Nathan Evans

In listening to the happy-go-lucky love songs that came out this year, this one stuck out to me. Nathan Evans is a Scottish singer songwriter who gained popularity by singing sea shanties on TikTok, and he absolutely has the voice for it! Heather On The Hill is a folksong depicting the beginnings of a love story set in Scotland. The landscape and scenery in this song are so vividly described, you almost feel like you’re sitting around a campfire on a cool evening hearing Nathan sing you a timeless tale of romance, the music carrying across the hills all the way to the sea.

13. Lose Control, by Teddy Swims

This is the one to slow dance to. Put it on the speakers, dim the lights, grab your partner, and dance. In the refrigerator light, if you’re Taylor Swift fans. Teddy Swims has a powerhouse voice that was meant to deliver ballads like this one, a ballad that isn’t cutesy, but, rather, kind of steamy. This song falls in the same category as Beautiful Things, in that it’s a song my mom introduced me to this year because she loves it.

14. Diet Pepsi, by Addison Rae

This is a song you either love or hate, but no matter what your opinion of it, there’s no denying Diet Pepsi is CATCHY. I never made a conscious effort to listen to this song, it just sort of appeared on all my media platforms, and then other artists I liked were bringing Addison Rae on as a guest at their shows to perform it. This meant, strangely, I knew all the lyrics and had been humming it for weeks before I even knew what it was called. Diet Pepsi wormed its way into my heart, and this playlist, and I think it does a great job of joining So High School on this list representing the nostalgic romance factor.