The World Airplay Radio Monitor has released its 2026 Dance Insights report, which compares the first half of 2026 to the first half of 2025 across artist performance, label share, collaborations, gender, genre and geography.
For the report, WARM ranked the Global Top 100 dance tracks over the first six months of 2026 using airplay data from 218 dedicated dance radio stations in 39 countries. The panel of stations includes BBC Radio 1 and NTS Radio in the United Kingdom, SiriusXM’s BPM and Diplo’s Revolution and Ibiza Global Radio in Spain.
ANOTR’s “Talk to You,” featuring 54 Ultra, was the most played track of the half of 2026 with 15,087 plays. The song, which spent 17 weeks at No. 1 on the weekly WARM Global Dance Airplay chart, edges out Sonny Fodera, D.O.D and Poppy Baskcomb’s “Think About Us” (No. 2; 12,908 plays) and HUGEL and SOLTO’s “Jamaican (Bam Bam)” (No. 3; 11,791).
Artists from 26 countries across six continents are represented in the top 100, though the U.K. and U.S. are the anchors, as U.K. artists account for 25.6% of artist appearances and U.S. artists account for 20.7%. Still, the rest of the world makes up the majority, with 53.7% of appearances. France (9.4%), Germany and the Netherlands (6.9% each) head up that group, while acts from countries including South Korea, Brazil, Nigeria and Zimbabwe also earn spots.
On the genre side, dance pop leads with 40 tracks, or 38.8% of the chart. House (17 songs) and tech house (12) follow, and together the top three genres make up two-thirds of the list. In all, the top 100 spans 17 genres, with Afro house (10 titles) close behind the leaders.
Here are our five key takeaways from the report.
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ANOTR and 54 Ultra’s “Talk to You” Is the Top Song
“Talk to You” is the most played track in WARM’s Global Top 100 for the first half of 2026, with 15,087 plays across 218 dedicated dance radio stations worldwide. That puts it about 2,200 plays ahead of the No. 2, “Think About Us” (12,908), and nearly 3,300 ahead of No. 3 “Jamaican (Bam Bam)” (11,791).
It’s also the only title that ANOTR and 54 Ultra each has in the top 100, so it accounts for all of their plays in the report. The song alone is enough to help them place in the top 10 artists by total plays.
“Talk to You” also lifted the release’s label, No Art, which jumped 41 spots to No. 8 among labels by total plays.
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David Guetta Is Still Dance Radio’s Biggest Artist
Guetta holds the No. 1 spot among artists by total plays, matching his No. 1 rank from the first half of 2025. His 41,292 plays in January-June are up 66.4% half-year over year and about 17,500 spins ahead of No. 2 Calvin Harris.
Guetta maintains his No. 1 rank, and builds on last year, thanks to eight tracks in the top 100, the most of any artist. Leading his haul is “Save Me Tonight” (with Jennifer Lopez) at No. 10, followed by “Where Is My Husband! – Remix” (with RAYE and Hypaton; No. 24), “Upside Down” (with Jaden Bojsen; No. 34), “Gone Gone Gone” (with Teddy Swims and Tones And I; No. 37), “Awake Tonight” (with Afrojack and Sia; No. 55), “Crazy” (with Matt Sassari, Jack Back and Amira Eldine; No. 57), “Beautiful People” (with Sia; No. 64), and “I’m Good (Blue)” (with Bebe Rexha; No. 85).
Another genre cornerstone, Calvin Harris, follows Guetta at No. 2. Harris made one of the biggest leaps, from No. 58 in the first half of 2025 to No. 2, with 23,755 total plays (up 391.5%). Those spins are spread across three tracks in the top 100: “Release the Pressure” (with Kasabian; No. 5), “Blessings” (with Clementine Douglas; No. 25) and “Satisfy” (with Jazzy; No. 33). “Pressure” also helps lift British rock band Kasabian into the top 20, at No. 18.
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Poppy Baskcomb Leads a New Wave of Artists in the Top 20
Twelve of the top 20 artists are new to that tier compared to the first half of 2025. Baskcomb posted the largest percentage gain among them, surging 540.1% to 16,695 plays at No. 8. Her total comes from “Think About Us” (with Sonny Fodera and D.O.D; No. 2) and “Confession” (with D.O.D; No. 59). “Think About Us” also sparked D.O.D to No. 4 (up 249.9%) and Sonny Fodera to No. 5 (up 164.4%).
Other newcomers to the top 20 include genre vet Bebe Rexha, who reaches No. 6 with 17,579 plays. Her total comes from two versions of “New Religion” (solo at No. 4 and with Faithless at No. 80), plus “I’m Good (Blue),” with Guetta (No. 85).
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Major Labels Surpassed Indies in Label Share
Major labels claimed a much bigger slice of the chart than in the first two quarters of 2025. Universal, Sony and Warner account for 57% of the titles in the top 100, up from 43% in the first half of 2025, while independents fell from 56% to 46%.
By total plays, Sony Music Entertainment is the No. 1 label with 62,149, up 11 spots from a year earlier. That’s just over 26,000 spins more than the No. 2, Spinnin’ Records, which held the top spot in the first half of 2025.
The titles that most contributed to Sony’s success are “Release the Pressure” (No. 5; 11,572 spins), The Bausa’s “Magnetic” (No. 16; 7,965) and Kygo, Khalid and Gryffin’s “Save My Love” (No. 18; 7,634).
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More Than Half of the Songs in the Top 100 Are by Duos
Songs billed to two artists make up 55% of the top 100, up 6 percentage points from the first half of 2025. Solo tracks dipped from 26% to 24%, and tracked billed to four artists dropped from 6% to 2%. Songs credited to three artists held steady at 17%.
Seven of the top 10 songs are billed to two artists, including No. 1 “Talk to You” (ANOTR featuring 54 Ultra), No. 3 “Jamaican (Bam Bam)” (HUGEL and SOLTO) and No. 5 “Release the Pressure” (Calvin Harris and Kasabian).
