Are you a Belieber? Love Yourself revealed as the UK’s favourite study song

One of the UK’s leading research companies, Ivory Research, conducted a study looking at Spotify playlists synonymous with revision and studying, pulling together a variety of playlists and analysing what songs and artists are featured the most. 

Music is the soundtrack to our lives and anyone with an online music account will typically curate a playlist for specific needs, times and places, whether that’s for a party, a road trip or working out. But what are the go-to songs to help with concentration and revision?  

The top artist to listen to whilst revising is Ed Sheeran with ‘The A Team’ and ‘Castle on the Hill’ featuring most frequently out of his 22 songs that were added to study playlists. 

Following Ed at number two is Shawn Mendes, another solo male artist who had 19 of his songs featured in revision playlists. Shawn’s most popular songs to study to are; Mercy, The Weight and Life of the Party. 

The full top 10 list of artists to study to are: 

1. Ed Sheeran 

2. Shawn Mendes 

3. Post Malone 

4. The Greatest Showman Cast 

5. Taylor Swift 

6. Adele 

7. Sam Smith 

8. Justin Bieber 

9. James Arther 

10. One Direction 

Looking more closely at the most popular songs to revise to, Justin Bieber takes the lead with his 2016 hit ‘Love Yourself’ which, interestingly, was written by our number one artist, Ed Sheeran. Once again, Shawn Mendes lands himself in second place with another single from 2016, Mercy. James Bay also landed in the top list of songs to revise to, with ‘Let It Go’. James is one of the few artists who landed in the top spot for songs but not overall artists. 

The top 20 songs to revise to are: 

1. Justin Bieber – Love Yourself 

2. Shawn Mendes – Mercy 

3. James Bay – Let It Go 

4. Sam Smith – Stay With Me 

5. Plain White T’s – Hey There Delilah 

6. Birdy – Skinny Love 

7. Ed Sheeran – The A Team 

8. Ed Sheeran – Castle On The Hill 

9. Greatest Showman Cast – Greatest Show 

10. A Great Big World – Say Something 

11. Calum Scott – You Are The Reason 

12. James Arther – Say You Won’t Let Go 

13. James Arther – Naked 

14. Jess Glynn – Take Me Home 

15. John Legend – All Of Me 

16. Leona Lewis – Bleeding Love 

17. Little Mix – Secret Love Song 

18. Passenger – Let Her Go 

19. Lewis Capaldi – Someone You Loved 

20. Adele – When We Were Young 

Maria Ovdii, Co-Founder of Ivory Research, says: “Music is known to help our concentration so it’s not surprising that many of us make playlists for revision and studying. However, it is interesting that a lot of the song choices are in fact love songs, breakup songs or ballads, rather than motivational songs. Hopefully, people can create their own study playlist with ease thanks to our research!”