A summer hit is a song which gains huge popularity during the summer and then almost completely disappears when the summer is over. Some things that many summer hits have in common is that they are dance music with lyrics in some non-English language (e.g. Spanish).

This popularity usually comes from people hearing the song whilst clubbing in the Balearic Islands, where Spanish is the native language, and requesting them once they return home, usually to the UK. Once the song has received club and radio play there, it passes into other European countries.

Not all summer hits are from the European market however, as shown by the track Summer Jam by the Underdog Project.

A track can also be a summer hit solely in one country. In Ireland, the summer of 2000 had the track Maniac 2000 by Mark McCabe played almost constantly. This led to the track being requested in clubs in Spain by Irish tourists. This might have started the cycle by which it would become a hit across all of Europe, but licensing problems meant that the song was only available commercially in Ireland, and hence the returning clubbers could not purchase it or get it played on the radio.

Examples of summer hits include:

• Bailando by Paradisio in 1997
• Dragostea din tei by O-Zone in 2004
• The Ketchup Song by Las Ketchup in 2002
• Lambada by Kaoma in 1989
• Macarena by Los del Río in 1996