You know the song, but not the singer. Across 271 Billboard No. 1s since 2004, Americans type "who sings [song]" ~68,876 times a month. "Golden" (Huntrix: Ejae, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami), the KPop Demon Hunters hit sung by the film's voice cast, is the anonymity champion. "Ordinary" (Alex Warren) and "Despacito" follow. Our anonymity index compares "who sings" searches with "[song] [artist]" searches. It is highest for "Watermelon Sugar", "Try That in a Small Town" and "I Believe", songs that are far bigger than their performers' names.
Top 20 No. 1s by "who sings [song]" (US, monthly)
| # | Song | Artist | First No. 1 | "Who sings"/mo | Song+artist/mo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Golden | Huntrix: Ejae, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami | 2025 | 7,408 | 14 |
| 2 | Ordinary | Alex Warren | 2025 | 3,258 | 41,992 |
| 3 | Despacito | Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber | 2017 | 2,283 | 9,367 |
| 4 | Happy | Pharrell Williams | 2014 | 2,058 | 47,225 |
| 5 | WAP | Cardi B featuring Megan Thee Stallion | 2020 | 1,845 | 5,158 |
| 6 | Stay | The Kid Laroi and Justin Bieber | 2021 | 1,833 | 1 |
| 7 | All I Want for Christmas Is You | Mariah Carey | 2019 | 1,755 | 16,601 |
| 8 | Call Me Maybe | Carly Rae Jepsen | 2012 | 1,450 | 13,358 |
| 9 | Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree | Brenda Lee | 2023 | 1,374 | 12,850 |
| 10 | Hey There Delilah | Plain White T's | 2007 | 1,200 | 90,500 |
| 11 | Uptown Funk | Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars | 2015 | 917 | 32,475 |
| 12 | Umbrella | Rihanna featuring Jay-Z | 2007 | 908 | 18,783 |
| 13 | Die with a Smile | Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars | 2025 | 868 | 8,025 |
| 14 | Choosin' Texas | Ella Langley | 2026 | 854 | 12,417 |
| 15 | Perfect | Ed Sheeran and Beyoncé | 2017 | 816 | 12,225 |
| 16 | Somebody That I Used to Know | Gotye featuring Kimbra | 2012 | 806 | 78,625 |
| 17 | Wrecking Ball | Miley Cyrus | 2013 | 788 | 19,667 |
| 18 | All About That Bass | Meghan Trainor | 2014 | 778 | 5,145 |
| 19 | Lose Control | Teddy Swims | 2024 | 778 | 20,433 |
| 20 | All of Me | John Legend | 2014 | 749 | 40,633 |
Anonymity index: "who sings" as % of song+artist searches (≥100 who-sings/mo)
| # | Song | Artist | Index |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Watermelon Sugar | Harry Styles | 71% |
| 2 | Try That in a Small Town | Jason Aldean | 70% |
| 3 | I Believe | Fantasia | 68% |
| 4 | Carnival | ¥$: Ye and Ty Dolla Sign featuring Rich the Kid and Playboi Carti | 47% |
| 5 | Señorita | Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello | 44% |
| 6 | WAP | Cardi B featuring Megan Thee Stallion | 36% |
| 7 | Cheerleader | Omi | 30% |
| 8 | Despacito | Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber | 24% |
| 9 | I Had Some Help | Post Malone featuring Morgan Wallen | 23% |
| 10 | Rain on Me | Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande | 20% |
| 11 | Old Town Road | Lil Nas X | 19% |
| 12 | All About That Bass | Meghan Trainor | 15% |
| 13 | Peaches | Justin Bieber featuring Daniel Caesar and Giveon | 13% |
| 14 | Rockstar | Post Malone featuring 21 Savage | 12% |
| 15 | Call Me Maybe | Carly Rae Jepsen | 11% |
What it means
Lyrics are the part of a song fans quote, argue over and get wrong. If you have a hook of your own, an AI song generator can turn it into a full track with vocals in a few minutes. For a soundtrack to your own day, an AI music generator can score it to whatever mood you need.
Method
- US Google search volume (English), monthly, Oct 2022–Sep 2026. 'Avg/mo' = mean of the latest 12 months (Oct 2025–Sep 2026); '3-yr change' = latest 12 months vs Oct 2022–Sep 2023.
- Universe: the 295 distinct Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 songs, Jan 2004–2026 (Billboard list), cleaned title.
- Ambiguous titles (common words or titles that collide with products/brands, e.g. "Umbrella cover", "Happy karaoke") were excluded per query type.
- Every title is kept for this query because "who sings [title]" is unambiguously about a song.
Cite and download
Free to use and cite with a link back to this page.
aisong.lol Research. (2026). Hits nobody can name the singer of. aisong.lol. https://aisong.lol/research/hits-nobody-can-name-the-singer-of
Use this data. Every table in this study as one spreadsheet-ready file.
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