Artist · chart history
Owl City
Solo artist Owatonna United States
Owl City is an artist from Owatonna. Owl City has 24 chart appearances on 19 radio countdowns from 17 stations on RockLists, spanning 2009–2024. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “FireFlies”, which appears on 18 lists and was voted number one once. In total the artist has topped 1 countdown. The station that charted Owl City most often is 88.3 The Sting (Cleveland, OH), with 4 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 2009.
Owl City is really just Adam Young, a multi-instrumentalist who started the project in 2007 while tinkering with songs in his parents' basement in Owatonna, Minnesota. It's synth pop spun out of sugar and starlight: fizzy keyboards, twinkling programmed beats and a sweet, breathy voice that sounds like it's staying up past bedtime. Young built a following on Myspace, put out the Of June EP and the album Maybe I'm Dreaming on his own, and signed with Universal Republic in 2008.
Ocean Eyes, his major-label debut in 2009, turned the bedroom dream into a pop takeover. "Fireflies", all glowing arpeggios and wide-eyed whimsy, went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and was eventually certified Diamond, while the album went double platinum in the United States.
He kept at it with All Things Bright and Beautiful, The Midsummer Station and Mobile Orchestra, his last for Republic, before going independent for Cinematic and Coco Moon. Along the way he recorded songs for animated films including Wreck-It Ralph and The Croods, and teamed with Carly Rae Jepsen on "Good Time".
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Owl City on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | FireFlies | 18 | #1 | 1 | 2009 | |
| 2 | Hello Seattle | 2 | #37 | – | 2009 | |
| 3 | Vanilla Twilight | 2 | #40 | – | 2010 | |
| 4 | On the Wing | 1 | #71 | – | 2010 | |
| 5 | The Saltwater Room | 1 | #87 | – | 2010 |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
Year-end chart timeline
Combined year-end countdown points per year. Taller bars mean more songs placing higher across more stations.
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