Here are our staff's 100 favorite songs of 2019 -- songs that either were released or peaked on the The dance challenge has been an integral part of pop music’s last decade and a half, but music needed a new bona fide line dance, and in the waning moments of the 2010s, Blanco Brown delivered. “Cash S--t” fires on all cylinders: as a coming-out party for both Megan and her macho man co-star DaBaby, as a sonic boom of a beat from LilJuMadeDaBeat, as a presentation of the two MC’s top-notch ad-libs. Once the single landed, it didn’t take long for the JoBros to stumble out of bars and onto the Hot 100 for their first-ever No. It was hardly a reinvention from what made Future an undisputed A-lister over the second half of the 2010s, but in this case, no reinvention was necessary. Cabello picks up where she left off with her breakthrough solo smash "Havana" on Romance lead single "Liar," realizing she's lying to her likely lover (and to herself) about her true feelings, all set to the strains of a punchy Latin horn section. But the song’s two verses are where the emotional weight of this song packs the biggest punch, for their universality more than their specificity. But it’s a struggle to find a more direct pop lyric about the subject than “I feel so unstable/ F--king hate these people” from Charli XCX and Christine and the Queens' "Gone." But that pitch-perfect rewind at the top of the song sets the confident tone, and really burns itself into your brain. She won the Swedish TV talent show "Talang" in 2008 at age 10, and won a Kid's Choice Award for Favorite Swedish Star in 2016, when she was only 18 years old. Is she an outsider making mainstream inroads, or an underground talent tweaking their sound to fit in on Top 40? I love AC/DC. At the end of it all, she doesn't declare victory, but does find a kind of triumph in survival -- ""Don't ask if I'm happy, you know that I'm not/ But at best, I can say I'm not sad" -- and you can't help but share her gratitude that she's stuck around this long. Here, Zara Larsson is a rising pop star from Sweden. The sugar-sweet pop jam sounded like a long-lost cut off of the 2012 Life can be a quagmire of broken-down cars, bad bosses, heartbreaking playoff losses, and plain old heartbreak. The closing track to her 2018 LP Halsey has threaded messages of female empowerment in her music since her debut, but “Nightmare” found the singer teetering on the edge of sanity as she grew more frustrated with society’s injustices. -- A year after teaming up with Kyle on a bouncy song about a love interest playing games (Indie-pop darling Clairo has a penchant for tender, hyper-specific lyrics, and British producer Mura Masa is known for his futuristic, grungy beats. Luke Combs knows this all to well, and lucky for us, the affable bar stool bard distilled it all down to a country-rock rager about the one thing that never let him down. -- The Highwomen’s first single “Redesigning Women” celebrates the selfless female spirit of "Full-time living on a half-time schedule” while “always tryna make everybody feel special.” Tackling the competing inner dialogues of self-care and self-doubt, the track is sung in tandem by the supergroup’s Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby, Maren Morris, and Amanda Shires, with a cheerful mood and resilient lyrics reminiscent of Dolly Parton’s Like almost everything on Polo G’s debut full-length, The deliciously sticky chorus on Ava Max’s breakout hit took a bit longer to tempt the sweet tooth of stateside listeners -- the August 2018 release notched a No. -- When life gives you lemons, turn them into a No. 40 Best Songs to Sing in an Audition and Win Everyone’s Heart. --Shelton returned to country airwaves in a massive way with the attention-grabbing, Southern rock-inflected “God’s Country.” From the song’s opening riff, Shelton immediately captivates. His added dose of passion helped the track peak at No. -- Mabel’s family tree is rooted in the industry (she was born to Swedish singer Neneh Cherry and British producer Cameron McVey), and it was only a matter of time before the dance-pop singer-songwriter made a name for herself. Burna clearly means what he says -- he didn’t hit anyone, but Oh no, there she goes, making another catchy, Cuban-inspired bop. -- After rebranding an entire season, Megan Thee Stallion delivered what everyone was clamoring for: an undeniable anthem for what we’ve all come to know as Hot Girl Summer.