Our Top Ten Songs to Hear Live

The heatwave has given a new lease of life to the usually mud-splattered UK festival season, and with a range of exciting tours planned for Autumn, we've compiled a bucket-list of songs that are best experienced in either a sweltering, summer park, a crammed, sweaty theatre or a massive, Friday-night stadium. David & Maxim

10. Hey Baby - DJ Otzi

Bringing the cheese in with this classic kids’ birthday party anthem – I’m pulling from personal experience when adding this to my list for crowd songs. The catchy melody and the fact that everyone knows the lyrics make it ideal for huge crowds to sing along too. When in a stadium for a concert myself I remember music playing to warm up the crowd just before the first artist came on stage. When ‘Hey Baby’ was played thousands of people were singing in perfect unison and the iconic ‘Ooh, Aah’ echoed and resonated beautifully under the roof of the stands. It’s probably not the type of song you’d expect to find on this list but I challenge any of you to listen and not sing along – times that by 70,000 people and you have a special atmosphere. DD​

9. Grace Kelly - MIKA

I had the pleasure of seeing MIKA at Sadler’s Wells as part of his ‘Boy Who Knew Too Much’ tour, and this intimate setting gave him the perfect opportunity to showcase the full range of his dexterous vocals on ballads such as ‘Happy Ending’ and ‘Billy Brown’. However, despite it not being an arena-crowd, when he launched in the trademark ‘Grace Kelly’ opening, the whole theatre was rocking. It’s easy to forget about MIKA when we think about the great pop performers, but he had a rare stage presence that could ooze confidence and charisma one minute, and then draw this back into a tender, self-effacing humility the next. MM​

8. Nonstop - Drake

Using the opportunity to get in a brag here – I’m speaking from personal experience yet again with this one. This song is one of the best from Drake’s ‘Scorpion’ album – a huge compliment given the array of classics on there. Whilst it isn’t one with a catchy melody that will have everyone singing along the driving energy of the beat and the memorable rap will be enough to get the place pumping. When I was lucky enough to accompany Maxim to see Drake live at the O2 in London this song was one of the standout moments – really pumping the crowd up early in the set. Whilst I do enjoy the softer side that Drake has taken on recently sometimes you just can’t beat his darker stuff, and ‘Nonstop’ is one of the absolute best in this category. DD

7. Goosebumps - Travis Scott

It’s impossible to think of a Travis Scott performance without your mind immediately turning to the Astroworld Festival tragedy last year, which saw ten fans lose their lives in a crowd crush. He’s started easing his way back into live performances with his two recent UK shows at the O2, which have only amplified the anticipation surrounding his upcoming album, ‘Utopia’. Before he was selling out the O2, I was fortunate enough to see Travis at Birmingham off the back of his mercurial, hypnotic ‘Birds In the Trap’ album, which remains one of my all-time favourite projects. The atmosphere was sizzling and his on-stage energy completely matched the cavernous, live-Auto-Tuned howls that echoed out around the venue. He closed the set by performing his smash hit ‘Goosebumps’ multiple times, and yet somehow it still didn’t feel long enough. At one point, he even ended up climbing and dangling from one of the stage-side pillars - the whole set was pure, electrifying theatre. MM

6. The Chain - Fleetwood Mac

What an absolute banger this song is. Most people know it for the iconic bass and guitar section two thirds of the way through but actually sometimes I think this takes away from how good the rest of the song is. Fleetwood Mac are on my bucket list for people I’d love to see live (however I do think I may have missed my chance) and this song is a big part of the reason why. The melody is catchy and easily singable and the song builds and builds to the iconic climax. I can just imagine the atmosphere building as a huge crowd sing along and then goes absolutely crazy when the bass guitar riff starts. Being a fan favourite it is bound to get the crowd going and is a moment I would love to experience live. DD

5. Hotel California - Eagles

The fact that they stayed true to the recorded version and drew out the ethereal, ominous intro when performing this live only added to the suspense. With any live performance, at least half of the experience is contributed by the audience - even if it’s the best show in the world, if the audience isn't feeling it, each delivery is met with a dead bat and the atmosphere dissipates out of the room flat. With ‘Hotel California’, every single member of the crowd I could see was 100% captivated by the bewitching melodies and iconic lyrics. Usually, whenever there’s a musical interlude in a live show, it’s fun for the first few moments, but after a minute or two you’re just waiting for them to transition into another song that you recognise. However, when Joe Walsh launched into his extended guitar solo, which seemed to last at least ten minutes, he had every single member of the crowd in the palm of his hand. MM

4. Fix You - Coldplay

I’ve written in another of my articles about my desire to see Coldplay live. A great performance of their songs is the minimum to be expected from the band who usually turn their shows into quite the spectacle. I’m mainly basing this inclusion from a Glastonbury performance of the song in which the spectacle is allowed to take a break will Chris Martin sits at a piano to serenade the crowd with the opening of the song. It’s the perfect way to deliver the emotional classic. As much as this simplistic yet beautiful performance was powerful enough alone it then completely switches as the drums and guitar are introduced. As you’d expect the crowd are in full voice and loving every second. A performance I wish I’d been present for and one of the songs I’d still love to see live. The classic build, the memorable lyrics and the melody make it perfect for a sing along. Match that with the emotion in the music and the feeling within the crowd must be breath-taking. DD

3. Get Along - Kenny Chesney

For the thirteenth time, David forbade me from picking five Kenny Chesney songs for my half of this Top Ten, so I’ve settled on the solitary ‘Get Along’. Hearing thousands of people come together to sing the uplifting chorus - “Paint a wall, learn to dance, Call your mom, buy a boat, Drink a beer, sing a song, Make a friend, can't we all get along” - was such a heartwarming experience. It epitomised the unique sense of unity that you can only really feel at a concert, and perhaps from time to time at sports events, where everyone becomes your extended family for a couple of hours. The cri-de-coeur of this song captures the power that music has to completely transform and elevate a person’s mood. I’m not sure how keen I am to paint a wall anytime soon, but I am as we speak checking to see if Amazon sells Evinrudes… MM

2. Bittersweet Symphony - The Verve

This song is one of my favourites of all time and similarly to ‘Fix You’ I am basing this off of a Glastonbury performance. I actually used to have a video saved on my phone of the band performing it at the festival in 2008. It opened with Richard Ashcroft giving a rousing speech to the crowd: ‘It’s a struggle; life’s a struggle, and Monday morning may be a struggle for a lot of you in a job that you despise; working for a boss that you despise. A slave to money then we die. God bless you.’ You can tell when he delivers the line ‘A Slave to money then we die’, which is one of the iconic lines of the song, that some of the fans know what’s coming – signalled with cheers. For those who didn’t Ashcroft allows a moment of silence before the strings begin to play one of the most iconic openings in modern music greeted with pandemonium. Ashcroft then places his microphone onto his chest where his heart is before signalling his love for everyone in the crowd. As if not incredible a enough already the band proceed to drop an absolutely jaw dropping performance of the song, accompanied by the thousands in attendance. It’s a moment I really wish I could have lived because as amazing as it is to watch on YouTube I can’t even begin to imagine how it felt to be part of the crowd that night. Incredible. DD

1. Bloodstream - Ed Sheeran

It still amazes me how one man and a guitar can hold a hundred-thousand people in the palm of his hand for two hours straight, but Ed manages it time after time. With his trusty loop-pedal, he builds up songs in front of your very eyes from nothing more than a few hand claps, guitar-strums and hums. This only adds to the sense of anticipation, as the audience waits tantalisingly to guess which song it will transform into, before they hear that giveaway ‘Bad Habits’ beat or ‘Shape of You’ synth. For me, this loop-pedal is used to maximum effect on ‘Bloodstream’, with the atypically moody song meandering along, before he layers vocal upon vocal as it reaches its violent crescendo. By the end of the song, it sounds like an army of Eds are singing the increasingly haunting hook, and the atmosphere he creates in doing this is simply unrivalled. MM