Python by GOT7 Was My Top K-Pop Track of 2025

It’s that time of the year again where global corporations pump millions of dollars into algorithms and AI prompts so that we have a roundup of the media that we have consumed over the past 12 months! Yay!

Regardless of my snarky tone in my initial sentence though, I do look forward to this time of the year to see what my consumption habits were like over the year, especially to see if there was some sort of trend in terms of what I was listening to. This year, Spotify went down the route of tying your listening habits to your perceived age (if you were someone who went for modernity or nostalgia) as well as what kind of “tribe” you would fit into. It was certainly better received than the Wrapped they presented last year which seemed robotic and entirely AI driven in comparison. I guess they listened to the gnashing of teeth from users last year to make the wrapped a bit more palatable for 2025.

I am someone who is an avid music listener- I particularly do so on my commute to work which takes me across the city and back again on a daily basis so I need something to distract me from the boredom of travel. I wouldn’t call myself a ‘stan’ of anything though and you wouldn’t see me listening to 100,000s of minutes of the same artist despite how much I love them. My taste in music is varied depending on the mood or if something in particular catches my ear. In spite of this, my top artist this year was ATEEZ- no major surprise as they have been for the third year running now (and their releases this year have been fantastic).

But despite how much I listened to them overall, they didn’t have my most listened to song of 2025.

That accolade went to GOT7.

‘Python’ was the lead single from Winter Heptagon, GOT7’s second overall release and first full album release since their departure from JYP Entertainment in 2021. Their first, ‘NaNaNa’, also featured highly in my Spotify Wrapped ranking in 2021 (it was 5th) as it was a song that I felt captured the classic sound of GOT7 in their heyday. On the flipside, Python didn’t do that. It instead showed off a mature sound of the group and its members (all of whom now are in their late 20s and early 30s) sounding more on trend but still keeping the feeling that once you listen to it, you knew it was a GOT7 song.

What was another surprise was that Python was almost all in English. It was only Jinyoung’s bridge (Bridges? In a song? In 2025??) that had Korean in it but all the other members, despite their varying abilities in the language (from eldest member Mark being fluent due to it being his native language to leader JayB recently admitting that, even after all these years, trying to converse in English is still quite difficult for him).

There is actually a great clip that made its way around various social medias where a group of Black male K-Pop reactors were doing the “either - or” challenge on a live stream and when Python came on, they hilariously became incredibly hype over the song. At one point, BamBam, the member who actually was a primary co-writer of the song, shared the video on his Instagram stories as he was proud of the reaction the song was bringing out among K-Pop fans. And I don’t blame him; Python really was that song this year.

In fact, the whole Winter Heptagon album was a wonderful and much needed comeback from the group (my favourite album track was ‘Out The Door’, a song that was fully in English with mid-2000s contemporary rock vibes). It actually gave me a bit of melancholy listening to it as it just emphasised how great they were as a group in the early days and how much of a lost opportunity they had at their peak. They were part of the almost untouchable boy group trio that included EXO and BTS plus one could argue that at one point, at least internationally, they were the biggest of the three as they had three members with English fluency that had the outreach to a then growing western audience of K-Pop. 

But this popularity was never capitalised upon for them. They had three “world tours”, the first of which happened in Asia and North America in 2016. But they only extended to Europe and South America in 2018 at a time where their popularity was beginning to wane whilst combating with rumoured creative conflicts between the group and the producers/management. Three years later, after one more world tour, they departed JYP Entertainment after seven years as a group in the company but managed to retain their group name, image, and music rights; something that was pretty much unheard of (and still is, somewhat) for music artists, especially in the realm of K-Pop. They certainly gained the respect of fans and non-fans alike for their determination to stay together despite everything in the system built to try and take them apart.

Python was pretty much a reminder to fans that they are are around even if they may not be as active as a group right now: BamBam is in the middle of his ‘Homecoming’ promotions in Thailand, Mark just released a 2nd solo album this time under Transparent Arts, JayB just wrapped up his solo encore concert in Seoul, Jackson just announced his MAGICMAN 2 concerts for North America in 2026, Jinyoung is preparing to release a Christmas single (and is doing well with his acting career) and both Youngjae and Yugyeom are currently serving in the Korean military. We may not be getting another GOT7 single until the last two members come back, which will be in a couple of years but at least that will give fans something to look forward to.

Also if you haven’t yet, do check out Python. It is a banger of a track!