THE SOUND OF LOVE
DATA REVEALS THE MOST LOVED-UP SONGS OF THE CENTURY
IF YOU are looking for the most romantic song possible this Valentine’s Day, then we might have the answer.
We’ve analysed the lyrics of every song to reach number one since the turn of the century to find out which ones mention “love” - or derivatives such as “loved” and “lover” - the most times.
And the data suggests a clear winner: This is Love, by will.i.am. The song, featuring Eva Simons, features “love” and similar words an incredible 55 times. That is seven more than the secondplaced track - Let Me Love You (Until You Learn To Love Yourself) by Ne-Yo, which features 48 “love” words. The Black Eyed Peas asked the question Where Is the Love? in their 2003 hit. Perhaps the answer is inside the song lyrics, because it contains 41 mentions of “love”.
Bad Romance by Lady Gaga perhaps not everyone’s idea of a Valentine’s Day song - has 39, and Mirrors by Justin Timberlake 35.
These Words by Natasha Bedingfield, Ed Sheeran’s recent huge hit Shape of You, Crazy in Love by Beyonce Knowles, The Power of Love by Gabrielle Aplin and Love Me Like You Do by Ellie Goulding complete the top 10.
Shape of You was number one last Valentine’s Day, part of an extraordinary 13-week run at the top of the charts from January to April 2017.
Only three songs - Everything I Do, I Do It For You by Bryan Adams, Love Is All Around by Wet Wet Wet and One Dance by Drake featuring Wizkid and Kyla - have had longer consecutive runs at the top of the charts in Britain since the 1950s.
In 2015, Love Me Like You Do by Ellie Goulding hit number one on Valentine’s Day.
Further back into music history, Tainted Love by Soft Cell features ‘love’ 19 times, I Want to Know What Love Is by Foreigner has it 18 times and All You Need Is Love by the Beatles 41 times.
Mentioning ‘love’ in a song isn’t compulsory to get to number one though. Sorry by Justin Bieber, Diamonds by Rihanna and Push the Button by Sugababes are some of the songs that don’t feature the word at all. Grace Kelly by Mika and The Fear by Lily Allen are two songs that were number one on past Valentine’s that don’t talk about love either.