22 songs for 22 years

Probably belting out a bit of S Club on my 7th birthday

Today is my last day of being 21, and I don’t know about you, but I’m not feeling ready to be 22! Sorry Taylor, I can’t relate.

Joking aside though, I wanted to put together a little post to celebrate this momentous occasion before I start crying about how adulty the age 22 sounds and how un-adulty I feel. Ever since I was little music has been a huge part of my life, as you probably know from reading my blog, so I decided to make a list of a song from each year of my life. This was a lot of fun to write, and brought up so many throwback songs that made me really nostalgic! I’ve not necessarily picked my favourite song from that year, but I’ve tried to choose a song that I feel most represents that year of my life or brings back the most memories for me. Hope you enjoy!

1994: Circle of Life – Elton John

The year I was born was obviously the most legendary not for the mere fact that I came into the world, but also because The Lion King was released. There was no other song I could pick when I was scrolling through songs released in 1994; Circle of Life is just such an epic song that literally nobody can dislike. It’s so iconic and powerful and makes you feel all the feelings at once. Magical.

1995: Earth Song – Michael Jackson

I’m not going to lie, this song just reminds me of those videos I used to watch in Geography lessons about greenhouse gases and the environment and all the animals who are affected by global warming, and that’s exactly why I had to choose it. It’s also such an iconic song and I love that it’s probably the only popular song that deals with this kind of theme; an important one that is still as relevant as it was 20 years ago.

1996: Wannabe – Spice Girls

Ah, The Spice Girls. The sound of my childhood. Even though I still don’t understand what ‘zig a zig ahh’ means, this song is still one of those that makes me so nostalgic and takes me right back to being at a primary school disco covered in too much glitter. The good old days.

1997: Barbie Girl – Aqua

I just had to pick this song. It screams childhood to me; kids today don’t know what they’re missing out on. Another school disco classic, I used to love doing the different Barbie and Ken voices when singing along. I was literally obsessed with Barbies when I was little, so this song epitomised my love for them.

1998: One For Sorrow – Steps

If you read my post ‘What’s in my CD rack?’, you’ll know how much I loved Steps. I had their Gold Greatest Hits CD and this song was one of my absolute favourites. Just singing it in my head right now is taking me back to when I used to sing into my plastic microphone pretending I was performing it at my own concert, my bed being the stage. I used to think I was so cool doing dramatic actions to it as well. How adorable.

1999: That Don’t Impress Me Much – Shania Twain

Not sure what year this was but
you can see my bangin first stereo behind me

Shania Twain, what a legend. I had her CD too and I adored it, I used to know every word to every single song. This song just out-sasses them all though. Choose a song to define the word sassy and this is it. I used to think I was so badass singing along to this, but the best memory I have associated with this song is when me, my sister and two of my cousins made up a dance routine to it in my nan’s garden one day and then performed it to our mums and nan at the end of the day. We thought we were so cool, wow.

2000: Reach – S Club 7

S Club 7 were my heroes. This is yet another primary school disco banger. As soon as I hear the intro this song I am literally right back in that sweaty school hall dancing way too enthusiastically, hyped up on too many haribos. Seriously though, if you can listen to this song without a huge smile on your face, you’re a weirdo. It’s one of the happiest songs in the world and I love it. No shame.

2001: Whole Again – Atomic Kitten

Atomic Kitten my babes, I still remember the 2001 annual I had of them. This song also reminds me of primary school and just childhood in general, another one I used to sing into my microphone and pretend I understood the lyrics deeply enough to be able to sing it with passion and meaning. Six year old me was so deep.

2002: Underneath Your Clothes – Shakira

Seven year old me thought she was deep too, because this was one of my favourite songs ever. I also went through a random obsession with Shakira at one point, don’t even ask. But I distinctly remember the little wooden desk I had in my bedroom that I doodled all over, and I literally wrote out the entire lyrics to this song on it. I don’t even know why, but I had a proper obsession with this song. But hey, at least I didn’t engrave Crazy Frog into my desk.

2003: Year 3000 – Busted

It was SO hard to pick just one song from this year. I don’t know what it was about 2003, but it seemed to be a legendary year for music. I mean, Where Is The Love by the Black Eyed Peas, Sound of the Underground by Girls Aloud, Superstar by Jamelia and even the Fast Food Song were released in this iconic year. But in the end I had to pick Busted because out of all these songs, Year 3000 is the one that instantly transports me back to 2003.

2004: Pieces of Me – Ashlee Simpson

Another song that I used to sing dramatically into my plastic microphone. I just remember I had this album called Pop Princesses and this song was on it, I loved it so much. Even though I loved all the awesome girl power songs on that CD, this one was definitely my most played.

2005: Suddenly I See – KT Tunstall

This song still makes me so happy. It reminds me of the first time I ever went to Mallorca on holiday, where we since went back to almost every year and it’s like my second home. I just remember sitting next to the pool listening to this song on my dad’s massive ipod classic, thinking wow I love this place and I never want to leave. So it brings back a lot of happy memories and reminds me of the first time I felt at home away from home, and I’ve been blessed to have been back to Mallorca so many times.

2006: Chasing Cars – Snow Patrol

This song makes me smile in that slightly sad, nostalgic way when you’re reminded of a time that was good, but it also makes you sad that you’ll never have that moment again. 2006 was the year I started high school, and as an extremely shy, quiet girl that was a huge step for me. I guess this song just brings back all those memories of a transition period in my life that turned out to be nowhere near as bad and daunting as it seemed, and so it means a lot to me.

2007: How To Save A Life – The Fray

I know, this song is so bleak, but it was my actual favourite song when it came out. I remember the instrumental version of it was the first ringtone on my little sony ericsson silver flip phone that I got when I started high school. Back in the days when we used to spend our breaktimes using Bluetooth to send each other songs on our phones.

2008: Rule The World – Take That

Looking very proud of my stereo upgrade

I remember going to see Stardust in the cinema when it came out and I loved it and this song so much. Last year at uni I actually read the book of Stardust for one of my modules and rediscovered my love for it, so much so that I bet on a horse called Rule The World for the Grand National. Amazingly, that horse ended up winning the race and I won £100, so you could say this song is a lucky one for me. Weird, huh?

2009: Tik Tok – Kesha

Wake up in the morning feeling like P Diddy. Still don’t know what P Diddy feels like, but hey. This song again brings back so many high school memories, me and my friends were obsessed with it. To be honest, when we go on nights out we still put it on as we’re getting ready and we know every single word. It’s such a party song and it makes me happy.

2010: Please Don’t Let Me Go – Olly Murs

Olly’s first ever single. This song reminds me of my friends because as I’ve discussed in previous posts we were absolutely obsessed with Olly. I remember hearing this song for the first time and thinking it was really good and the rest is history. I’ve now seen Olly live about six times, met him and am going to see him again next year. Obsessed, me? Nah.

2011: Someone Like You – Adele

This song makes me so so emotional. 2011 was the year I did my GCSEs and finished high school, and this song being one of the biggest songs of the year seemed to resonate with that so well. I think I’ve talked about this before, but at our prom in year 11 my friend sang this song at the end of the night and it will forever give me goosebumps and maybe let out a little tear or two. It just has such a strong message and means a lot to me.

2012: What Makes You Beautiful – One Direction

How could I not choose this song?! Everyone knows how much I love One Direction, even to this day, and this song is where it all began. No matter how cringey it is, this is the song that started it all for them and it takes me back to the good old days when none of us knew what was ahead for these boys and when you googled ‘one direction’ all that would come up were pictures of one way signs. I’m at risk of being ultimately cheesy right now, but being a fan since the first days the band was put together, their insane success is still a bit mind-blowing. So this song makes me pretty emotional because we all had no idea that it would all become so massive so quickly after that.

2013: Chocolate – The 1975

Again, this is the first song I ever heard by The 1975 and now I’m a huge fan of them. This song reminds me of revising for my A Level exams, weird I know, but I used to revise while listening to the radio in my bedroom and this song was always on. It also reminds me of the first year of uni because I started at the end of 2013 and used to listen to their first album a lot at the time.

2014: Hey Brother – Avicii

By no means is this the best song I could have picked from 2014, but I feel like it just epitomises the year so well that I had to choose it. This song gives me intense flashbacks to freshers nights out. Like, really intense flashbacks. It was just everywhere during my first year, in every club, on every night out, and that’s why I chose it to represent this year because it was basically the soundtrack to my freshers experience.

2015: Fight Song – Rachel Platten

As with 2014, there were so many other amazing songs released last year that I almost couldn’t decide. But I decided on Fight Song because it has such a strong message and I find it so empowering, when I listen to it I feel so uplifted and I genuinely believe I can do anything. And that’s exactly what I’ve done in my past year of being 21. I’ve done things I never, ever imagined I’d do – I graduated university with a 2:1 and walked across a stage in front of almost 1000 people without letting anxiety get the better of me. I’ve become so confident, and just happier in myself. So this song felt like the right one to choose, because I’ve fought against anyone who’s ever told me I couldn’t do something, and proved to them and myself that I can do whatever I put my mind to.

So, there it is. I didn’t include 2016 because it’s not over yet and I also realised that if I did include it that would be 23 years, not 22. I don’t know how that works out, I’m not good at maths. But anyway, I hope you enjoyed my list of songs for each year of my life as much as I loved looking back at all these songs that have defined my childhood and provided me with so many amazing memories over the years. I might not feel 22, but that doesn’t matter. Age is just a number and I’m learning and growing every day. Music has been there for me throughout every year, month and day of my life, and I’m so grateful for it.

What songs do you feel define your childhood or have special memories for you? Let me know in the comments, any feedback is much appreciated! Once again thank you for reading, it means a lot and I shall see you all on the other side of 22! x