My Year in Music – January 2026

Well hello there! One month into the New Year and it was one hell of a rollercoaster ride, all 50 weeks of January. If you are new here, this is My Year in Music; a monthly post where I (Emma) pick songs to add to our playlist. One song for every day of the year. No repeats just plenty of my commentary and random ass thoughts all in one place. Sometimes it even comes with free life advice that no one asked for (yay!). This month has a unique theme: New Year, New Music. So this month, a majority of the songs I have chosen have never appeared in My Year in Music before (and to any of you who actually go check if these songs have appeared in MYIM before: why?). I did my best to find you ‘new’ stuff to listen to. I would also just like to say that picking new unique songs was far easier to do back in 2021 and 2022 when there were only two playlists to worry about.

As for life advice for today, I think I’ll just let you enjoy the playlist for this month and get used to the idea that for every day of this year there will be a song chosen and for every month there will be a new playlist and by the end of the year we will have one hell of a playlist. And just FYI, if you happen to follow us on Spotify, you might see the playlists pop up before the post is published. So, you ready? Let’s F*cking Go!!!

Jan 1: Cruel Summer – Taylor Swift (Oh hi! Welcome to the OMG My Year in Music Playlist!)
Jan 2: Maknae on Top (I.N. Feat. Bang Chan & Changbin) – Stray Kids (New Year vibes to start so we might as well start on top)
Jan 3: Calm Down – Rema & Selena Gomez (All the plan making starts now!)
Jan 4: Play Hard (feat. Akon & Ne-Yo) – David Guetta
Jan 5: ilomilo – Billie Eilish (Told you not to worry)
Jan 6: Ruby – Kaiser Chiefs (See the work week started okay…)
Jan 7: Cold As Ice – Foreigner (Then you went and did that, so now you get this. Enjoy ^,^)
Jan 8: Brown Eyed Girl – Van Morrison (Yes, hello! That’s me)
Jan 9: Baby Cakes – 3 of a Kind (Someone handed me baby gates while I was in work… This is the result of that interaction. No, don’t ask.  I insist.)
Jan 10: If We Being Real – Yeat (Define Aura)
Jan 11: Life for Rent – Dido
Jan 12: The Seed – Aurora (since I heard Aurora perform this song in a forest with a men’s choir, I’ve been obsessed)
Jan 13: Belong Together – Mark Ambor (This song will forever remind me of our trip to Korea. Cold iced tea and warm weather while being our best touristy selves, taking photos of SKZoos outside a very specific entertainment and record label conglomerate building. Don’t mind us)
Jan 14: Yes Sir, I Can Boogie – Bacara (Because it’s goofy and it’s fun which is a vibe right now)
Jan 15: Alors On Danse – 2WEI & Hour to Home (Old song, new take. Maybe a way to tackle the new year?)
Jan 16: IDOL – BTS (How strange it is to be asked if I’m ARMY by my boss. Good luck ARMY, may the ticketing gods be kind)
Jan 17: Beautiful Day – Trinix, Rushawn & Jermaine Edwards (Thank you)
Jan 18: Waiting for the End – Linkin Park
Jan 19: Snap Yo Fingers (feat. E-40 & Sean Paul of Youngbloodz) – Lil John (You can do it all by yourself. Go on…I believe in you)
Jan 20:Livin’ Thing – ELO (Electric Light Orchestra) (Because a month of new songs doesn’t mean a month of new songs :P)
Jan 21: Wake Up America – Miley Cyrus (Imma just leave this here for some people…Not all…just some)
Jan 22: Tell Her About It – Billy Joel
Jan 23: Isn’t She Lovely – Stevie Wonder (I don’t know who ‘she’ is but a lot of people are talking about her…That’s rude)
Jan 24: Funeral – Dermot Kennedy (New Year, New Music should have at least one new song, right? And it definitely needed to be Irish)
Jan 25: Express Yourself -N.W.A. (Don’t bottle it up. Say it out loud. Express yourself because your feelings are valid too)
Jan 26: History Maker – Dean Fujioka (Born to make history but what counts as history?)
Jan 27: Maria – Justin Bieber
Jan 28: Cold (Deeper Version) – Alfie Castley (You don’t need to sell me your soul…just promise me complete devotion. That’s all. I’m kidding! Or am I?)
Jan 29: Holiday – Green Day (Sieg Heil to the President Gasman. Minnesota keep kicking ass. Resist)
Jan 30: Operation Blade (7″ Radio Edit) – Public Domain (When my brother could identify this song from a ten second clip of an oddly specific part of the song, who needs Shazam?)
Jan 31: SPAGHETTI (feat. j-hope) – LE SSERAFIM (Eat it up!)

Well there you go. 31 days, 31 songs and one month of 2026 in the books. Don’t forget to come back for February! Okayiloveyougoodbye!