The AB&T Wedding Music Report 2026
What backing track purchases tell us about the songs performers are taking to weddings and events
Wedding music is constantly evolving. New artists emerge, forgotten favourites return and songs that might once have seemed an unlikely choice for a wedding are transformed into intimate acoustic arrangements.
But what are performers actually adding to their sets?
For The AB&T Wedding Music Report 2026, we analysed 12 months of backing track purchases at Acoustic Backs And Tracks to uncover the songs, artists and musical trends making their way into live wedding and event performances.
With customers stretching from the UK to Australia, the data offers an interesting snapshot of the repertoire being chosen by working singers and performers.
Rather than focusing on what couples say they might choose, our data looks at something slightly different: the music performers are actually purchasing and preparing to perform.
Here’s what we discovered.
The Top 10: The Tracks Performers Are Choosing
Contemporary pop sits alongside soul, country, disco and nostalgic favourites in our ten most-purchased backing tracks of the past 12 months.
1. Man I Need – Olivia Dean (Guitar Version)
2. Dreams – Chelsey Johnson (Piano Version)
3. So Easy (To Fall In Love) – Olivia Dean
4. You To Me Are Everything – Chelsey Johnson (Piano Version)
5. Still The One – Shania Twain
6. Unwritten – Natasha Bedingfield
7. The Vow – RuthAnne
8. Love At First Sight – Blame Jones (Piano Version)
9. Where Is My Husband? – RAYE
10. Signed, Sealed, Delivered – Stevie Wonder
Perhaps the most striking thing about the list isn't one particular song, but the range of eras and styles represented.
A current artist such as Olivia Dean can sit alongside Shania Twain, Natasha Bedingfield and Stevie Wonder, suggesting that modern wedding and event repertoires are becoming less about a particular era and more about finding songs that simply work with an audience.
Artist of the Year: Olivia Dean
If there is one artist who stands above the rest in our 2026 data, it's Olivia Dean.
Her music appears four times within our Top 50, with the acoustic guitar arrangement of Man I Need taking the number-one position and So Easy (To Fall In Love) reaching number three.
A piano arrangement of Man I Need also reached the Top 20, while Dive made the Top 50.
That's particularly interesting for performers.
Rather than one viral song creating a temporary spike, multiple Olivia Dean tracks are finding their way into acoustic repertoires. Her blend of contemporary pop, soul and strong melodies appears particularly well suited to stripped-back performance.
For wedding and events singers looking at which contemporary artists audiences are connecting with, Olivia Dean is difficult to ignore.
The Nostalgia Effect
One of the clearest themes running through the data is that new music isn't replacing the classics.
Quite the opposite.
Alongside contemporary artists including Olivia Dean, RAYE and Alex Warren, our most popular tracks include music associated with:
Stevie Wonder
Shania Twain
Fleetwood Mac
ABBA
Chaka Khan
Candi Staton
Etta James
Natalie Cole
Tina Turner
Earth, Wind & Fire
But perhaps even more interesting is the strength of 90s and 00s nostalgia.
Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield reached number six overall, while songs including Kiss Me, Truly Madly Deeply, Finally, Freed From Desire and Murder On The Dancefloor all featured strongly.
It points towards a wedding repertoire where nostalgia is increasingly sitting alongside traditional classics and current chart music.
For today's wedding audiences, these aren't necessarily “old songs”. They're songs people grew up with.
And that emotional familiarity can be incredibly powerful on a dancefloor, during a drinks reception or when an unexpected song is reimagined for an acoustic set.
The Fastest Risers
The overall rankings tell us what's popular. But looking at which tracks gained momentum during the second half of the period gives us another view of where repertoires may be heading.
Among the tracks showing particularly strong momentum were:
Dreams – Chelsey Johnson
So Easy (To Fall In Love) – Olivia Dean
Unwritten – Natasha Bedingfield
Still The One – Shania Twain
You've Got The Love – Florence + The Machine
Finally – CeCe Peniston
Ordinary – Alex Warren
Freed From Desire – Gala
Put Your Records On – Corinne Bailey Rae
Love Story – Taylor Swift
Once again, there's no single generation dominating.
Instead, contemporary releases are competing with songs from previous decades that are finding a new life in modern acoustic sets.
For performers, that's an important reminder that keeping a repertoire current doesn't necessarily mean only adding new releases.
Sometimes the smartest addition is an older song audiences have suddenly fallen in love with all over again.
The Rise of the Alternative Wedding
One of our favourite trends is the growing space for songs that don't immediately scream “wedding music”.
Our catalogue increasingly includes stripped-back arrangements of rock, indie, alternative and pop-punk favourites, and the purchasing data shows genuine appetite for them.
Songs performing strongly within our rock and alternative catalogue include:
Everywhere – Fleetwood Mac
Yellow – Coldplay
Mr Brightside – The Killers
Use Somebody – Kings Of Leon
Don't Look Back In Anger – Oasis
Wonderwall – Oasis
Nothing Else Matters – Metallica
Everlong – Foo Fighters
We're also seeing alternative music move directly into the ceremony itself.
A piano aisle-walk arrangement of Still Into You has become our strongest-selling explicitly labelled aisle-walk or first-dance product, while arrangements such as Iris vs Yellow demonstrate just how far couples and performers are prepared to move beyond traditional ceremony repertoire.
The song doesn't have to sound like a wedding song in its original form.
Sometimes it's the arrangement that makes it one.
Slow down a rock song, strip away the drums and distorted guitars and rebuild it around piano or acoustic guitar, and something completely different can emerge.
For couples who grew up listening to rock, indie, emo or pop-punk, that creates an opportunity to choose music that actually means something to them without losing the intimacy of the moment.
We expect this trend to continue.
Piano vs Acoustic Guitar: Which Comes Out on Top?
These are the two sounds at the heart of the AB&T catalogue, and the result was remarkably close.
Looking specifically at products clearly identified as piano or guitar arrangements, piano narrowly came out ahead.
Among the most popular piano arrangements were:
Dreams – Chelsey Johnson
You To Me Are Everything – Chelsey Johnson
Love At First Sight – Blame Jones
Man I Need – Olivia Dean
Truly, Madly, Deeply – Savage Garden / Sidney
Meanwhile, leading guitar arrangements included:
Man I Need – Olivia Dean
Kiss Me – Sixpence None The Richer
Young Hearts Run Free – Candi Staton
Valerie – Amy Winehouse
Can't Help Falling In Love – Elvis Presley / Kina Grannis
There isn't really a loser here.
The closeness of the two suggests performers continue to find a place for both: piano for intimacy and emotion, acoustic guitar for warmth, rhythm and a relaxed live feel.
Country Continues to Cross Over
Country music's growing influence on mainstream pop has been difficult to miss, and we're seeing signs of that crossover within performer repertoires too.
The standout is Shania Twain.
Still The One reached number five across the entire catalogue, while Man! I Feel Like A Woman! and From This Moment On also performed strongly within our country selection.
Other country favourites being purchased by performers include music from:
Dolly Parton
Lonestar
Chris Stapleton
Luke Combs
Lady A
Darius Rucker
What we're seeing isn't evidence that country has suddenly taken over wedding music.
Instead, it suggests that country is becoming another natural part of the modern crossover repertoire, particularly where strong melodies and storytelling translate easily into stripped-back acoustic performance.
And with the boundaries between pop, folk and country becoming increasingly blurred, we expect performers to keep exploring that space.
Five Things the Data Tells Us About Wedding Music in 2026
Looking across all of the rankings, a few bigger themes emerge.
1. Nostalgia isn't going anywhere
90s and 00s songs are becoming an increasingly natural part of wedding and event repertoires as the generations who grew up with them choose the music for their own celebrations.
2. A great song can cross generations
Stevie Wonder, Fleetwood Mac and Shania Twain can sit comfortably alongside Olivia Dean, RAYE and Alex Warren.
3. Alternative music belongs at weddings
Rock, indie and pop-punk songs don't have to stay in the evening set. Reimagined arrangements are allowing them to appear during ceremonies, first dances and more intimate parts of the day.
4. The arrangement matters
One of the strongest themes in our data is the popularity of familiar songs presented differently. Piano and acoustic arrangements can give performers a way of introducing extremely recognisable music without simply recreating the original recording.
5. Today's wedding repertoire has fewer rules
Perhaps that's the biggest takeaway of all.
A modern wedding set can move from Etta James to Olivia Dean, Oasis to Stevie Wonder, Shania Twain to Natasha Bedingfield.
And audiences appear perfectly happy with that.
What Comes Next? Our Predictions for 2027
If the trends we're seeing continue, we think wedding and event music is going to become even more eclectic.
Expect more alternative aisle walks. As couples increasingly choose music connected to their own lives rather than traditional wedding playlists, rock, indie, emo and pop-punk songs will continue being transformed into intimate ceremony arrangements.
Expect 90s and 00s nostalgia to grow further. These songs now carry the same emotional familiarity that 70s and 80s classics brought to previous generations of wedding audiences.
Expect country to keep crossing into pop repertoires. Particularly the more melodic, acoustic side of the genre.
Expect new songs to enter wedding sets faster. Performers no longer need to wait years for a song to become an established wedding standard. If audiences connect with it, it can enter the repertoire almost immediately.
And perhaps most importantly:
expect fewer rules about what a wedding song is supposed to sound like.
About The AB&T Wedding Music Report
The AB&T Wedding Music Report 2026 is based on analysis of backing track purchases through Acoustic Backs And Tracks during the 12-month period from 1 August 2025 to 31 July 2026.
Rankings reflect purchases of backing tracks from the AB&T catalogue and should therefore be interpreted as an insight into repertoire purchasing behaviour among AB&T customers, rather than a survey of all wedding performers or couples.
Where we discuss wider trends, these are observations based on patterns within our own purchasing data and our experience creating backing tracks for working performers.
No individual customer information has been used in this report.
Acoustic Backs And Tracks creates professionally produced acoustic guitar and piano backing tracks for singers and musicians performing at weddings, events and live shows.
