The Top Workout Song in Boston Last Year Was Iggy Azalea’s ‘Fancy’

Iggy Azalea photo by Kobby Dagan / Shutterstock.com

Spotify just released its most-streamed workout songs across the United States and the world, as well as their expert predictions for fitness trends (paired with music) in 2015. The rankings are fascinating, especially if you’re prone to wondering what’s blasting in the ears of that person who’s always crushing it at the gym.

To compile the rankings, Spotify crunched streaming data from all playlists that include fitness-related words in the title, like “workout” or “running,” and filtered by location. The rankings are part of a wider promotion with Shaun T, creator of the Insanity workout, who teamed up with music and exercise expert Dr. Costas Karageorghis to build custom playlists for what Shaun T says are the top fitness trends of 2015: Tabata, cardio dance, Insanity, gymnastics strength training, and CrossFit.

But the most interesting revelations come from what people listen to when they work out. For that, Spotify gave us the following ranking for Boston in all of 2014:

1.   Fancy – Iggy Azalea
2.   Wasted – Tiësto
3.   Break Free – Ariana Grande
4.   Power – Kanye West
5.   Timber – Pitbull
6.   Blame – Calvin Harris
7.   All The Way – Timeflies
8.   Wild Wild Love – Pitbull
9.   Shower – Becky G
10.   Work B**ch – Britney Spears
11.   Summer – Calvin Harris
12.   Birthday – Katy Perry
13.   I Need Your Love – Calvin Harris
14.   Latch – Disclosure
15.   I Will Never Let You Down – Rita Ora
16.   All of Me – Tiësto’s Birthday Treatment Remix – Radio Edit – John Legend
17.   Sleepless – Radio Edit – CAZZETTE
18.   ‘Till I Collapse – Eminem
19.   Trumpets – Jason Derulo
20.   Dark Horse – Katy Perry
21.   Jealous (I Ain’t With It) – Chromeo
22.   Bang Bang – Jessie J, Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj
23.   Can’t Hold Us – Macklemore & Ryan Lewis feat. Ray Dalton
24.   Black Skinhead – Kanye West
25.   Toxic – Britney Spears

It’s a shocker that “Can’t Hold Us”—the anthem that boomed all along the marathon route last year—didn’t even manage to break the top 20. Perhaps more importantly: how does a decade-old Britney Spears song still crack the list?

The top 2014 workout tracks in the U.S., which were compiled using the same criteria, don’t look much like the city’s top songs. Still, we’re glad to see that Nantucket-bred Meghan Trainor scored a bit higher nationally…

1.   ‘Till I Collapse – Eminem
2.   All About That Bass – Meghan Trainor
3.   Red Nation – Game feat. Lil Wayne
4.   Bailando – English Version – Enrique Iglesias
5.   X Gon’ Give It To Ya – DMX
6.   We In This B**ch – DJ Drama feat. Young Jeezy, T.I., Ludacris, and Future
7.   Let’s Go – Calvin Harris feat. Ne-Yo
8.   Kids – MGMT
9.   So Sophisticated – Rick Ross feat. Meek Mill
10.   The Distance – Cake

…and she did even better on the global ranking, which is based on some 11 million playlists:

1.   All About That Bass – Meghan Trainor
2.   ‘Till I Collapse – Eminem
3.   Dark Horse – Katy Perry
4.   The Arrival – WZRD
5.   Let’s Go – Calvin Harris feat. Ne-Yo
6.   Bailando (English version) – Enrique Iglesias
7.   Red Nation – Game feat. Lil Wayne
8.   First Things First – Neon Trees
9.   Kids – MGMT
10.   X Gon’ Give It To Ya – DMX

If you’re a Spotify user, you can stream the Ultimate 2015 Workout Playlist. It’s optimized for the previously mentioned trendy workouts, but this being Boston and all, our lips are sealed if you tune in for your long runs these next few Saturdays instead.