TikTok has released its annual round-up of the tracks, artists and trends that defined its sprawling music ecosystem in 2025 – a year in which the platform’s gravitational pull on the charts became impossible to ignore. Eight of the ten US Billboard No.1s began life as TikTok moments. Whatever debates continue about TikTok’s influence, the numbers sketch a clear picture: this is where songs begin their ascent.
KATSEYE take Global Artist of the Year
TikTok’s Global Artist of the Year was KATSEYE, the internationally assembled girl group who, in just two years, have built a phenomenal fanbase. With 15 million platform followers, 30 billion video views and a catalogue of hooks apparently built for clipped choreography, they’ve become a fixture on For You Pages from Seoul to São Paulo.
Two tracks defined their 2025: ‘Gnarly’, which spawned a global dance challenge bolstered by appearances from LE SSERAFIM, TXT, ENHYPEN and Camila Cabello, and ‘Gabriela’, which crossed over from trend to bona fide streaming success, securing the group their first Grammy nominations. Even their Gap campaign – set to Kelis’ ‘Milkshake’ – was reinterpreted ad infinitum, proof that the group operates at the seam between pop fandom and brand-driven virality.
“We had an unforgettable year on TikTok,” the group said in a statement, crediting their fans – EYEKONS – for translating their “chaos” into a worldwide surge of momentum.
Jess Glynne’s ‘Hold My Hand’ becomes TikTok’s UK Song of the Year
Ten years after release, ‘Hold My Hand’ returned to prominence via a cascade of Jet2 holiday edits and reunion videos, ultimately earning TikTok’s UK Song of the Year. The track’s simple emotional directness proved unusually durable, its rediscovery prompting Glynne to reflect on a song that – while once ubiquitous – found unexpected new life with younger listeners encountering it for the first time.
The result is a rare second chapter for a mid-2010s pop single.
A 1962 ballad becomes TikTok’s Global Song of 2025
The year’s most surprising resurgence came from Connie Francis, whose 1962 recording ‘Pretty Little Baby’ became TikTok’s Global Song of the Year. The track soundtracked more than 28 million videos – family clips, soft-focus pet diaries, flower montages – accumulating 68.6 billion views. Kylie Jenner’s video with daughter Stormi alone crossed 130 million.
The rediscovery propelled Francis back into the charts on both sides of the Atlantic, made ‘Pretty Little Baby’ her most-streamed song, and even brought the singer onto TikTok for the first time. “To think that a song I recorded 63 years ago is captivating new generations is truly overwhelming,” she wrote in her debut post.
The year’s most-saved music: Swift, sombr and Tate McRae
TikTok’s Add to Music App feature has now been used more than three billion times, cementing its role as a driver of off-platform streams. In 2025:
- Taylor Swift took Most-Saved Artist, powered by the frenetic anticipation around ‘The Life of a Showgirl‘.
- sombr’s breakout hit ‘back to friends’ became the Most-Saved Track, moving from early-year virality to a billion-stream heavyweight.
- Tate McRae’s So Close To What became the Most-Saved Album, extending the rise that began when ‘Greedy’ first caught fire on TikTok in 2023.
Music Trend of the Year: Doechii’s ‘Anxiety’
Doechii’s ‘Anxiety’, originally a 2019 demo built around a Gotye sample, re-entered public consciousness this year after TikTok users urged its official release. Once it dropped in March, it catalysed one of 2025’s most visible dance trends, anchored by a Fresh Prince of Bel-Air routine. Will Smith and Tatyana Ali even reunited to join in, with Doechii appearing in the clip.
The song went on to score 10.4 million creations, 51.6 billion views, and chart success on both sides of the Atlantic – culminating in five Grammy nominations, including Record and Song of the Year.
Songwriter of the Year: EJAE
Behind many of the year’s biggest moments sits EJAE, TikTok’s Songwriter of the Year. Known for her work with Red Velvet, aespa, TWICE and LE SSERAFIM, she became newly visible through the fictional girl-group soundtrack KPop Demon Hunters – a Netflix smash amongst pre-teens. Its runaway single ‘Golden’ racked up 9.8 million creations, topped global charts, and positioned EJAE as one of the unheralded forces behind modern K-pop’s mega hits.
A year defined by women setting the pace
Reflecting on the data, TikTok’s Global Head of Music Business Development, Tracy Gardner, noted that women – not just performers, but songwriters – drove many of the platform’s biggest moments. KATSEYE’s polished maximalism, Doechii’s genre-bending nerve, Connie Francis’ unexpected renaissance and EJAE’s behind-the-scenes authorship all point to a landscape where new artists, legacy voices and industry craftspeople can all become visible through the same community-driven mechanism.
