Every summer it seems we have a pop song that becomes the song of the summer. Last year it was undisputedly Carly Rae Jepsen’s Call Me Maybe. There are a couple of things that make a song a good contender for pop song of the summer. It has to be upbeat and something you would want to listen to while driving around with your windows down. The song also has to have staying power. This means that it both has to be good enough for people to want to listen to it over and over again but not something that grabs you at first only for you to get sick of hearing it.

It’s still very early in the season, but there are a couple of songs on my radar that I think might just be contenders for the title of Pop Song of Summer 2013.

1. Can’t Hold Us by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

I’m a little bit late to jump on the Macklemore & Ryan Lewis bandwagon. I just couldn’t make myself get fully behind Thrift Shop. The song has a fantastic beat, but I could never get over the dumb lyrics. In addition, there is something about the first 20 seconds or so of that song before the horns kick in that really irks me. Thus, if I caught it from the beginning I would immediately change the channel. Same Love is a wonderful song that adore both for it’s music, lyrics, and message but sadly I suspect for just that reason it will never be a pop radio hit. Can’t Hold Us however is an almost perfect candidate. The song has a great beat. It’s catchy, and it makes you want to get up and dance. Most importantly it has a chorus you can easily sing along with, which is key for this song as most people aren’t going to be singing along with the rap verses.

2. I Love It by Icona Pop

Icona Pop has put out a great pop song in I Love It. Again we’re talking about a song with a great beat that makes you kind of want to jump up and down and dance around. It also has a slight edge over Can’t Hold Us in that the whole song is something everyone can sing along with and it’s also the perfect song to not only sing along but shout the lyrics out. I can totally picture a car full of teenage girls driving around with the windows down shouting out this song. I do fear that this song doesn’t have staying power though as there’s something about it that might make people tire of it well before the summer is over.

3. Next to Me by Emeli Sandé

While Next to Me, may not be my personal choice for Pop Song of Summer 2013 the world may have other ideas. I do think it’s a great song, it’s just not bouncy enough for it to be my personal summer anthem. Amazingly no one put me in charge of deciding though, and this song cannot be ignored. Scottish singer Emeli Sandé seemingly burst on the U.S. scene with Next to Me a few months ago. I listen to a lot of non-commercial radio and it is rare that a song breaks out on non-commercial radio and commercial pop radio simultaneously as this song did. A lot of times there is never any crossover, but if there is I’ve usually heard the song on non-commercial radio for months before it appears on commercial radio. This song I started hearing in both places at almost the exact same time, which means that it has huge appeal. Also, although the U.S. is just starting to familiarize themselves with Emeli Sandé, she is already a huge star in the U.K. Just this week Our Version of Events, the album this song is from, bested The Beatles long held record for most consecutive weeks (63 weeks at this point) in the Top 10 on the U.K. charts for a debut album. All of this combined makes me think Next to Me isn’t going anywhere any time soon and may just wind up being our Pop Song of Summer 2013.