What Will Be the Song of the Summer?

By Amanda Petrusich

A new story from Jhumpa Lahiri, inspired by Mavis Gallant’s writing. But, first, a summer playlist to kick off the season. And, then, Eric Lach on how Andrew Cuomo brings the chaos. Plus:
• The new influencers-in-chief
• Lorde examines the myths that make up her identity
• Mussolini’s pet propagandist and, later, a literary cult hero
Amanda Petrusich
A staff writer covering music.
“Song of the summer” is a complex characterization—it’s not simply the most popular track of the season (that’s likely to be Alex Warren’s “Ordinary,” a sweet but schmaltzy ballad about eternal love), it’s the tune that, as my friend and colleague Kelefa Sanneh once put it, you’re going to hear over and over against your will, until it permeates your subconscious and becomes inextricably linked to the hottest months of the year. My advice? Just give in. Here are three strong early contenders:
1. “Diet Pepsi,” by Addison Rae
The TikTok superstar’s début album, “Addison,” is positioned to be this summer’s “Brat,” which is to say, it might be a slow burn on the charts, but it’s likely to occupy an unusual amount of space in the cultural imagination. “Diet Pepsi,” the album’s first single, sounds a lot like a Lana Del Rey song (the reverb, the breathy vocals, the hot-yet-tragic vibe), but surely there’s room in our hearts for two brooding and debauched American ingénues?
2. “What I Want,” by Morgan Wallen, featuring Tate McRae
People who dislike Morgan Wallen—and there are many reasons to dislike Morgan Wallen—tend to soft-pedal his vast and unwavering commercial dominance. Unfortunately, I enjoy Wallen’s music—I’m sorry; I tried to stop—and “What I Want” is an example of something Wallen does incredibly well: a slightly mean but vaguely yearning country song about love gone absolutely haywire.
3. “Anxiety,” by Doechii
Though Doechii originally released this on YouTube in 2019, she recorded it again in 2025, perhaps sensing that, as the doomsday clock inches closer to zero, it might be helpful to synchronize our existential spirals. “Anxiety” heavily samples Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know,” a tense and melancholic song about loss, but Doechii’s voice is so bright and alive, she somehow makes peace feel possible.
Meanwhile, here’s a little summer playlist—songs that feel sweaty and wild and sad and ecstatic and hopeful, much like summer itself. Find a hammock, my friends. Play it loud.
Waylon Jennings, “Black Rose”
Lana Del Rey, “Summertime Sadness”
Lola Young, “Messy”
Bruce Springsteen, “Dancing in the Dark”
The Replacements, “Bastards of Young”
Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band, “New Threats from the Soul”
Prince, “Let’s Go Crazy”
Madonna, “Ray of Light”
Mavi featuring Earl Sweatshirt, “Landgrab”
Wednesday, “Elderberry Wine”
Beck, “Dear Life”
Haim, “Relationships”
Beyoncé featuring Jay-Z, “Crazy in Love”
Father John Misty, “Real Love Baby”
Listen to the playlist »

A wooden ruler with the etched faces of Henry VIII’s six wives running down the middle; ticket stubs from Hampton Court and the Chamber of Horrors, where we walked ahead of our mothers, hand in hand; a few wrappers of Dairy Milk. I still see clearly the brochure from Madame Tussaud’s, a green nameplate on the cover with white lettering. We shuddered at the likeness of one particularly sinister man standing in an olive-colored three-piece suit with old brown pharmaceutical bottles behind him. We’d seen him in the chamber dedicated to those who poisoned and stabbed and slashed. Later, flipping through the brochure, sitting side by side, we braced ourselves for his effigy; how we dreaded turning to that page. Keep reading, or listen to the story »

Listen to the story read by the author on the Writer’s Voice podcast.
Read Jhumpa Lahiri on the Mavis Gallant story that inspired “Jubilee.”
For more: New Yorker subscribers exclusively have unlimited access to our archive of Jhumpa Lahiri stories.

Curzio Malaparte’s Shock Tactics
Donald Trump, Zohran Mamdani, and Posting as Politics
Lorde Strips Down to Start Over

Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor, was trounced in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary last week but appears to be staying on the general-election ballot come November, possibly running as an independent. We asked Eric Lach, a staff writer covering the race, to explain how a loser could stay in the contest, and how badly it might muck up the general-election results.
Q: Should a candidate be allowed to have a second chance like this?
Lach: It doesn’t break the rules, but it does sort of make a mockery of them. Still, it’s kind of amazing to me that this hasn’t been attempted more often in the past. You can just qualify for the general-election ballot and run for mayor without going through the whole rigmarole of a party primary system. Why haven’t more people tried to do this?
How bad is it? Depends on how much chaos you like in your political process. Cuomo staying in the race could make for the most unpredictable, harebrained mayoral election that New York has had since 1977. You’re going to have an unpopular incumbent mayor running under the cloud of scandal, an unpopular former governor running under the cloud of scandal, an upstart Democratic nominee who has shocked the city with his meteoric rise, and a gadfly Republican candidate who attracted nearly twenty-eight per cent of the vote four years ago.

Read: “Jurassic World Rebirth” premières today. Revisit Malcolm Gladwell’s piece about the paleontologist who consulted on the 1996 sequel.
Watch: No movie better encapsulates that school’s-out feeling than “Dazed and Confused.”
Listen: “When Summer Comes Again”—a 1929 fiddle track recorded by two brothers in El Paso, Texas—works as a perpetual anthem for this time of year.

Today’s Crossword Puzzle: Astronomer Carl who was one of Bill Nye’s college professors—five letters.
Laugh Lines: Test your knowledge of classic New Yorker cartoons.

P.S. The poem “Adult Swim,” by Corey Van Landingham, begins with nostalgic imagery: “Let them eat corn dogs. Let them / peel from its sack a freezer-burnt popsicle, / lime, green as an alien gem.” 💚
Hannah Jocelyn and Erin Neil contributed to today’s edition.

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