Your Spotify Wrapped, But Make it Therapeutic: The Top Songs of 2025

It's the most wonderful time of the year… the season of Spotify Wrapped, Apple Music Replay, YouTube Music Recap, or whatever your music platform of choice calls it. Once a year, your music app gathers all of your listening data into an animated report card of sorts. This easily shareable presentation exposes your top artists, favorite genre, and that guilty pleasure song you accidentally played 115 times in the past 11 months.

For a music therapist, this is especially exciting. A personalized report of a person’s musical habits? Sign me up. It’s like getting a glimpse into someone’s inner world—their emotional soundtrack, neatly summarized in a cute little infographic. Wrapped season is a fun, data-filled reminder that music isn’t just something we listen to… it’s something that shapes us. What we turn to when we’re sad, when we need to focus, when we need energy—it doesn’t just fade into the background. It becomes part of who we are.

And as reports of 2025’s top songs start to roll in, it’s the perfect time to take stock of what the general public has been listening to. For music therapists, keeping up with current music isn’t just a matter of professional curiosity—it’s practically a sport. We’re constantly trying to stay on top of new TikTok sound bites, Disney movie musicals, and obscure client requests. The hits of 2025 tell a story—not just of what’s popular, but of what people are genuinely connecting to.

So, with that in mind, I decided to take a deep dive into a few of the top songs of 2025 (according to Spotify) and explore their therapeutic implications. Because behind every viral hit is a potential intervention, an opportunity for connection, a mood booster, or—at the very least—a solid way to build rapport.

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Top Songs of 2025

luther (with sza) - Kendrick Lamar

In my experience, the hardest part of incorporating current music is sidestepping the lyrical landmines—explicit language, age-inappropriate themes, and metaphors you definitely don’t want to explain. This song requires remarkably few lyric swaps (depending on your population) and comes from a Pulitzer Prize–winning rapper.

“luther” takes its name from Luther Vandross, the legendary soul and R&B singer. The track samples Vandross’s version of “If This World Were Mine” with Cheryl Lynn, and much like its inspiration, “luther” centers on longing, devotion, and the desire to give someone everything—in an ideal world. The recurring line “if this world were mine” creates a surprisingly useful clinical entry point. It naturally invites the question: What would you do if the world were yours?

The phrase also lends itself easily to lyric substitution, allowing clients to rewrite the bar in a way that reflects their internal world. This can be taken in several directions depending on therapeutic goals:

• Relational focus: “If this world were mine, I’d give you…”

• Self-compassion focus: “If this world were mine, I’d give myself…”

• Future-oriented or values-based focus: “If this world were mine, these are the changes I would make…”

Each variation uses the refrain as a scaffold for exploring what clients want to give, receive, or change—using a song that many people have already heard, including during the Super Bowl halftime show.

Die With a Smile - Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars

Two of the most popular artists of the 21st century combined forces, so it's no surprise that people loved it. Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga are each iconic in their own right, and brought their distinct styles together.

For music therapists, duets like this open up unique clinical opportunities. Working with two simultaneous voices challenges clients to shift attention, track layered melodies, and stay oriented in the music. In individual sessions, this might look like assigning a different instrument to each vocal line, inviting the client to alternate attention between them, or taking turns with the therapist to mirror the structure of the duet. Depending on your population, these tasks can support goals such as auditory perception, impulse control, grounding, and reality orientation.

The same concept can be applied to group settings. Dividing participants into two “teams”—one following Bruno Mars’s part and the other following Lady Gaga’s—creates an engaging musical challenge that requires sustained attention and cooperation. When both artists sing together, both teams join in, forming a shared musical moment that strengthens group cohesion. Beyond the cognitive and grounding benefits, group duets promote social attunement, role differentiation, and a sense of collective accomplishment.

A well-chosen duet doesn’t just sound good—it creates musical structure for connection, regulation, and creativity.

BIRDS OF A FEATHER - Billie Eilish

Billie Eilish has a talent for creating songs that balance emotional depth with memorable melodies. Lyrically, “BIRDS OF A FEATHER” explores themes of closeness, trust, and choosing connection even when it feels uncertain. Musically, it offers a repetitive but gently evolving structure, and its hook is memorable without being too complex. This combination lends itself perfectly to session work.

A short, repetitive hook presents an opportunity for instrument play that is accessible--regardless of how much experience the client has. Instruments like the xylophone or piano are ideal for these short melodies, as they are easy to adapt with labels or color-coding. Learning and successfully playing a popular melody offers clients a sense of accomplishment and promotes self-esteem. The hook is notated below in its original key (D Major), but can be transposed as needed.

Once the hook is learned, the opportunities are endless. Working on sustained attention and impulse control? Challenge your client to listen to the song, only playing when the hook appears. Are your goals more emotional or relational? Use the instrument play as a segue into lyric analysis. This short instrumental task can lead into so much more, while keeping the client grounded in something familiar and achievable.

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Whether you’re a music therapist, counselor, or just someone who loves music, consider asking someone about their yearly music recap—it’s often more meaningful than it seems.