Song · Owl City
“FireFlies” by Owl City
From the album Ocean Eyes (2009)
“FireFlies” by Owl City appears on 18 radio countdowns from 17 stations between 2009 and 2024. It was first released in 2009 on the album Ocean Eyes. Its best result is #1 on the 88.3 The Sting WBWC Top 88 Songs of 2009. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #50 alternative song of 2009 and #453 of the '00s.
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"Fireflies" was the first single from Owl City's Ocean Eyes, released digitally on July 14, 2009, and it came out of a sleepless night: Adam Young, the frontman behind the name, wrote it about watching fireflies in his hometown of Owatonna, Minnesota, while insomnia kept him up. He produced it with Matt Thiessen, who also sings on it.
The whole thing floats on a bleepy synth line, all glow-in-the-dark whimsy about summer nights, bugs and not being able to sleep, and it was synth-pop sweet enough to conquer the world. It went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for two separate weeks and topped the charts in the UK, Australia, Ireland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, and it stayed Owl City's only US top 10 hit until "Good Time" with Carly Rae Jepsen three years later.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 760 | WXPN | WXPN 885 Greatest Songs of the New Millennium (2013) | 885 |
| 2024 | 1011 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 1055 Songs of the 21st Century | 1055 |
Also listed as: Fireflies.
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