TikTok’s Top Global Song of the Year Is a 63-Year-Old Hit Single From Connie Francis

Over on TikTok, 2025 was the year of talking to all the bluebirds, the bill and coo birds. The video app has named Connie Francis‘ saccharine 1962 hit “Pretty Little Baby” the Top Global Song of 2025. According to a year-end report, the record was used more than 28 million times in posts that racked up more than 68 billion views, including uploads from Nara Smith, Kylie Jenner, and Ariana Greenblatt.

“Pretty Little Baby” experienced its first notable surge in May, when it topped the TikTok Music Charts with more than 1.3 million posts. “I am thrilled and overwhelmed at the success of ‘Pretty Little Baby,’” Francis said in a press release at the time. “I recorded that song 63 years ago and to know that an entire new generation now knows who I am, and my music is thrilling to me. Thank you so much everybody, thank you TikTok.” Francis died in July at the age of 87.

Today, two official audios on the app boast 2.4 million and 1.3 million videos, while multiple other minute-long clips of the song have racked up anywhere from 14,000 videos to one million. The scattered nature of how music is shared on TikTok makes it hard to know exactly how the count reached 28 million.

Representatives for TikTok did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.

Trailing “Pretty Little Baby” on the 2025 Top Global Songs list is Jess Glynne’s 2013 hit “Hold My Hand.” The record was featured in the viral “Nothing Beats a Jet2 Holiday” audio that has been used in more than 3.6 million videos. Other notable entries include Black Eyed Peas’ “Rock That Body,” J Balvin’s “Azul,” and Fantomel and Kate Linn’s “Dame Un Grrr.”

TikTok took a liking to more recent releases, too. Katseye have been named TikTok’s Global Artist of the Year, determined “based on a combination of video views on creations using their music and video views of the artist’s own posts on TikTok,” according to a press release from the company. “You turned our songs, our moments, and our chaos into something truly global, and we are so grateful for this community,” the girl group said in a statement.

Taylor Swift, Sombr, and Tate McRae also had big years on the app. Swift was the Global Most-Saved Artist in 2025, while Sombr’s “Back to Friends” was the Global Most-Saved Track and McRae’s So Close to What was the Global Most-Saved Album. Meanwhile, Doechii inspired the Music Trend of the Year with “Anxiety.”

From Rolling Stone US.