Guess the song by emoji

Twenty songs, reduced to three emoji apiece β€” no lyrics, no album art, just the vibe. Same format as the movie pack: five gimmes to get you nodding along, then it gets harder. Titles and artists only, spanning six decades of stuff that got stuck in everyone's head at some point. Tap a riddle to flip it over; the answer comes with one line of trivia, because knowing the title without knowing why it's interesting felt like half a job.

Round one: three-second gimmes (1–5)

1. πŸ§Ÿβ€β™‚οΈπŸŒ•πŸ•Ί

Thriller β€” Michael Jackson β€” Fourteen minutes of choreographed zombies, and somehow still the best-selling album ever made.

2. πŸ’ƒπŸ‘‘πŸͺ©

Dancing Queen β€” ABBA β€” The most purely joyful three minutes and fifty seconds in pop history, and I won't be taking questions.

3. πŸ˜ŠπŸ‘β˜€οΈ

Happy β€” Pharrell Williams β€” One word, twenty-four hours of music video filmed in real time, and it still shows up at every wedding reception.

4. πŸ’˜πŸΈπŸ’ƒ

Shape of You β€” Ed Sheeran β€” The most-streamed song of its entire decade, written by a guy with an acoustic guitar who somehow made a club banger.

5. πŸŒƒπŸš—πŸ’‘

Blinding Lights β€” The Weeknd β€” An '80s synth pastiche that stuck around on the charts so long it broke the chart's own longevity record.

Round two: now it counts (6–14)

6. 🎭🎀⚑

Bohemian Rhapsody β€” Queen β€” Six minutes long, no chorus, and every label executive said it would never get radio play. It got all the radio play.

7. πŸŒΉπŸ‘§πŸŽΈ

Sweet Child O' Mine β€” Guns N' Roses β€” That opening riff started as Slash noodling around as a warm-up joke. The band made him keep it.

8. πŸ’”πŸ•ŠοΈπŸŽ€

I Will Always Love You β€” Whitney Houston β€” Dolly Parton wrote it as a quiet country goodbye; Whitney turned it into the loudest ballad of the decade.

9. πŸ•ΊπŸŽ©πŸš«

Uptown Funk β€” Bruno Mars β€” Mark Ronson produced it, Bruno Mars fronted it, and the credits still spark arguments about who actually made it a hit.

10. 🌊πŸ”₯πŸ’”

Rolling in the Deep β€” Adele β€” A breakup anthem so massive it outsold the relationship that inspired it, several times over.

11. βœοΈπŸ“–πŸƒ

Take On Me β€” a-ha β€” That pencil-sketch music video took months of hand-drawn rotoscoping, one frame at a time, before computers made that unnecessary.

12. πŸƒπŸ˜πŸ’‹

Poker Face β€” Lady Gaga β€” Reportedly written in about ten minutes, and it's been living rent-free in everyone's head since 2008.

13. πŸ“ΈπŸ’”πŸ€³

Hey Ya! β€” OutKast β€” A breakup song so bouncy that half the people dancing to it at prom never clocked what it was actually about.

14. πŸ™…β€β™€οΈπŸ’ƒπŸŽΆ

Shake It Off β€” Taylor Swift β€” Her full pop pivot, and the critics she was singing about mostly just helped keep it at number one longer.

Round three: full deep-cut mode (15–20)

15. πŸ¨πŸŒ΅πŸ•―οΈ

Hotel California β€” Eagles β€” Fans have spent decades decoding this as a metaphor for everything from a mental hospital to Satanism. The Eagles just say it's about excess.

16. πŸ§΄πŸ‘ƒπŸŽΈ

Smells Like Teen Spirit β€” Nirvana β€” Named after a deodorant brand spray-painted on a wall, and about as related to the actual lyrics as that sounds.

17. πŸŽ€πŸ’”πŸ—‘οΈ

Killing Me Softly With His Song β€” Roberta Flack β€” A hit in the '70s, then a hit all over again in the '90s for the Fugees. Two generations, same devastating chorus.

18. πŸ‘―β€β™€οΈπŸ’…πŸŽ€

Wannabe β€” Spice Girls β€” Reportedly recorded in one take, and still the fastest-selling debut single by a girl group the UK charts have ever seen.

19. πŸƒβ€β™‚οΈπŸš—πŸŒ†

Born to Run β€” Bruce Springsteen β€” He spent six months obsessing over the mix of this one track alone. The album nearly did not survive the perfectionism.

20. πŸ—£οΈβœ‹πŸ‘‘

Respect β€” Aretha Franklin β€” Otis Redding wrote and recorded it first. Aretha rearranged it, spelled it out letter by letter, and made it permanently hers.

Still want more

That's the pack β€” hopefully your inner music-trivia nerd made it through intact. If riddles aren't your speed, the full emoji quiz hub has streaks, a mystery emoji, and an arcade wing that never runs out. Or if movies are more your era than music, there's a whole other pack of 20 films rendered in emoji waiting for you too.