1. Dancing in the Moonlight – Toploader
Throwback to some rom-com from the early 2000s you just can’t put your finger on. Dancing in the Moonlight is guaranteed to make you feel giddy and wanting to dance. Maybe it’s the beat, maybe it’s that little twinkle in the intro, heck…maybe it’s the moonlight.
“Everybody here is out of sight. They don’t bark and they don’t bite. They keep things loose; they keep it tight. Everybody’s dancing in the moonlight”.
“We like our fun and we never fight. You can’t dance and stay uptight. It’s a supernatural delight. Everybody was dancing in the moonlight.”
2. Vienna – Billy Joel
You’ll understand why this song is so important when you know the backstory as to why Billy Joel wrote this song. Long story short, Billy Joel found his estranged father in Vienna, Austria. While there, he saw an elderly womxn sweeping the streets. Shocked, he asked why an old womxn was doing such awful labour. His father replied (and to paraphrase because I, unlike Billy Joel, was not chilling in Vienna chatting to his pops), “She’s being useful and doing a service that benefits everyone”. He explained that in Vienna, everyone in society matters. The street sweeper has dignity and purpose, even in her old age, and was not wasting her life away at home. So no matter what you do or where your life goes, “Vienna waits for you”. This serves a massive reality check for all of us as we get sucked into the fast-pace hustle of university life.
“Slow down, you crazy child, you’re so ambitious for a juvenile. But then if you’re so smart, then tell me why are you still so afraid?”
“Slow down, you crazy child, and take the phone off the hook and disappear for a while. It’s all right, you can afford to lose a day or two. When will you realize, Vienna waits for you?”
3. Dancing Queen – ABBA
I’m quite the ABBA fan, knowing all their hits, so when I went to Mamma Mia 2: Here We Go Again, I damn well cried my eyes out while still trying to be a “Super Trouper”. I have no shame. But out of all of ABBA’s greatest numbers, Dancing Queen will never fail to get everyone pointing fingers and their best friends electing them as the Dancing Queen while they boogie like they’re at a 1970’s disco that “plays the right music”. We tap into our individual seventeen-year-old’s spirit, full of hope and wonder, “young and sweet”, and dance like no one is watching.
“Anybody could be that guy. Night is young and the music’s high. With a bit of rock music, everything is fine, you’re in the mood for a dance”
4. Valerie – Amy Winehouse
We all wish we could sing like the iconic Amy Winehouse. We all can’t. But that will never stop us. Countless magical, wine-drunk-nights have been spent trying to hit all of those notes like Amy Winehouse. There’s never been a bad moment when this song comes on. However, it still leaves me guessing: who is this mysterious Valerie? Why would she leave Amy for so long? And why won’t she just come on over? Whoever Valerie is, we all sing it thinking of a special-someone we’d like to pop by. The music makes you feel kind of sexy, so much so, that if you’re Valerie, I’m sure you’d come on over after hearing this song.
“Won’t you come on over. Stop making a fool out of me. Why don’t you come on over Valerie?
5. Take Me On – A-ha
Yes, it’s become a meme, BUT FOR GOOD REASON. Making you 90s babies feel like you missed out big time on the 80s, A-ha’s beat makes you want to jam out in some spandex with blue eye shadow and big hair. Funnily enough, the music video is quite sincere. The main singer and his love interest run around in a comic book making you feel some genuine heartache, especially for all of us who’ve fallen for fictional characters.
“I’ll be coming for your love, okay?”
6. Love on Top – Beyoncé
It’s Beyoncé – need I say more? Whenever new love appears and you get that warm, fuzzy feeling in your heart, butterflies in your tummy, and you really need a song to dance in your room to and sing in the mirror about your newfound feelings? Love on Top would be it. Not only am I “smiling from ear to ear” about new love, but it’s those multiple octave changes at the end. Only God can do that.
“I can see the stars all the way from here. Can’t you see the glow on the window pane? I can feel the sun whenever you’re near. Every time you touch me I just melt away”
7. Be the One – Dua Lipa
Speaking of new love, have you ever wanted to just start belting ABBA’s “Take a Chance on Me” but in a way cooler style? Dua Lipa serves you Be the One. The thrills of new love, the back and forth witty banter, the smiles across the room…they’re all fun. But at the end of the day, you just want them to know that you, despite being the complicated yet delightful mess that you, are ‘the one’ and worth the risk of falling in love with. Simple right?
“Oh, baby, come on, let me get to know you, just another chance so that I can show that I won’t let you down and run. […] I could be the one”
8. Carolina – Harry Styles
This is a little shout-out to those Directioners from way back in 2012. Yes, those huge posters you bought at Musica are safely hidden in storage, but you’ll never get over your first love: Harry Styles. Now we’ve all grown up, even Harry. He’s not singing generic songs about a girl with descriptions that are vague enough to fit the description of literally every girl who listens to that song. No. Harry is singing about a girl he met on a blind date who he just can’t stop thinking about. A blind date! Which friends are setting up these incredible blind dates and where can I find them? So while we sit with jealousy at this incredible Carolina, it makes us kind of happy knowing that in the future, we may be sitting on a blind date with a Harry Styles type of fellow, thinking we’re way out of his league, but really are naturally able to enchant him with our laid-back, down to earth charms, incredible wit and knowledge, smooth confidence to “get into parties without invitations” – enough to make him write a song about us.
“How would I tell her that she’s all I think about? Well, I guess she just found out”
9. Green Light – Lorde
The most perfect and accurate beat about a break-up. It’s that awkward phase in the middle of crying, eating tubs of ice cream and moving completely onwards. It’s that phase when your ex is already with someone else (probably singing Love on Top), and here you are: wishing so badly you could move on. You just need that damn green light to move forward. Lorde’s song Green Light is my ‘green light’. Unlike most break up songs, Green Light makes you want to dance as wildly and carefree as Lorde. And when you do, you shake off all those burdens of your ex and feel one step closer to getting there.
“Cause honey I’ll come get my things, but I can’t let go. I’m waiting for it, that green light, I want it. I wish I could get my things and just let go. I’m waiting for it, that green light, I want it”
10. Reality Check – Noname, ft. Eryn Allen Kane & Akenya
The music and vibe in Reality Check already makes you nostalgic of some good 90s RnB – that’s reason enough to make you happy. But the message? Well that hits your soul. As Noname promises, this is a reality check. So to all you dreamers, especially you creatives, who keep promising themselves they’re going to do it: they’ll apply, they’ll send through their work, they’ll write that story, they’ll sign up to perform, they’ll showcase their art:
“Don’t fear the light that dwells deep within. You are powerful beyond what you imagine. Just let your light glow”
And finally to conclude, here’s just some cheesy, musical wisdom: Baz Luhrmann – Everybody’s Free to Wear Sunscreen