Of all the social-media-era trends out there, Spotify’s Wrapped feature may be the most intimate. It’s an elegant concept: crunch the data from 365 days of listening, then review the albums, artists and songs that made your year.
Revisiting the data, though, inevitably means revisiting why you listened to the music you did, and maybe you’d rather that not become your 2024 takeaway. Embarrassing breakup anthems? “Baby Shark”? It’s all in there, whether you like it or not.
So, when we asked a number of Chicagoans — and honorary Chicagoans — what they listened to last year, we gave them some options. They could fork over their Spotify Wrapped, no questions asked. Or, they could call in or write us about their 2024 in music, in all its evocative detail. They did — and how.
Paul Juda, member of the U.S. Men’s Gymnastics team
Top Artist: Drake
Top Song: “I Had Some Help,” Post Malone (feat. Morgan Wallen)
Some Olympic sweeps weren’t just expected, they were hotly anticipated: gymnast Simone Biles, swimmer Katie Ledecky. But the breakout darlings of the 2024 Paris Games were the U.S. men’s gymnastics team. As a member of that bronze-winning team, Juda, 23, was the pride of former coaches in Deerfield, where he grew up, and his parents, both Polish immigrants.
He says Drake, above any other artist, helped him lock in on the mat. “It’s gotta be at least five years straight that he’s my top listened-to artist,” he wrote the Tribune in an email.
Also up there is British producer/DJ Fred again… as one of his favorite artists to put on in the gym. “It’s 90 degrees outside, no air conditioning in our facility, the boys are all sweaty, tired and pushing hard to accomplish their dreams of becoming an Olympian, (and) of course ‘leavemealone,’ ‘ten,’ or ‘Delilah’ by Fred again.. is blasting through the speakers. We’re all jumping around, dancing and having a great time,” he reminisces.
Juda’s most listened-to song overall, however, was a byproduct of his recent obsession with Morgan Wallen — an obsession he credits to his girlfriend, fellow University of Michigan gymnast Reyna Guggino. Before meeting her, he “definitely couldn’t be caught listening to country music.” Now, Juda says, “I have vivid memories of this past summer, driving with Reyna in the passenger seat, window down, cruising 5 mph under the speed limit and singing that song at the top of our lungs… Almost like Drake, (Wallen) is able to match my mood to whatever I need, whether it’s something like ‘Bandaid on a Bullet Hole’ for when I’m down, or ‘Broadway Girls’ when I need some energy.”
Klaus Mäkelä, music director designate of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Top Songs:
- Schubert’s Sonata No. 21 in B-flat Major, I. Molto moderato, played by Mitsuko Uchida
- Grieg’s Violin Sonata No. 3, II. Allegretto espressivo alla Romanza, played by Fritz Kreisler and Sergei Rachmaninoff
- Bach’s Mass in B minor, “Et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum,” performed by John Eliot Gardiner, the English Baroque Soloists and Monteverdi Choir
- Monteverdi’s “Vespro della Beata Vergine,” “Invitatorium,” performed by Raphaël Pichon and Pygmalion
- Lully’s “Le bourgeois gentilhomme,” “Canaries,” Jordi Savall and Le Concert des Nations
In the spring, Mäkelä, 28, was named the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s youngest-ever music director, a post he assumes in 2027. That also makes him the orchestra’s first chief baton to come of age in the streaming era. The young maestro himself prefers Apple Music, with its Apple Music Classical platform, to Spotify, clocking 18,137 minutes on the platform.
Of his listening habits this year, Mäkelä writes:
“I listen to music all the time and I could not survive one day without it. It’s my paradise. Most of the time I’m in search of beauty — a bit in the sense of Raphael and Botticelli in painting — but also depth of expression that is gripping.
Recently I have been obsessed with Schubert played by Mitsuko Uchida, and Grieg (played) by Fritz Kreisler and Sergei Rachmaninoff. This is music-making that goes straight to my heart: it’s intuitive, thoughtful and deeply touching. When I feel I want to celebrate, I listen to Monteverdi, Bach and French masters like Lully and Berlioz.” In 2024, Mäkelä, indeed, had much to celebrate.
Norman Fenton, head chef of Cariño
Top Artists:
- Peso Pluma
- Marca MP
- Chino Pacas
- Natanael Cano
- Bad Bunny
Top Songs:
- “La Diabla,” Xavi
- “Ya Acabó,” Marca MP
- “Y LLORO,” Junior H
- “Amor Fugaz,” Los Del Limit
- “Amor Viejo,” Kevin Kaarl
When Michelin nods came out at the end of 2024, Cariño, a Mexican fine-dining restaurant in Uptown, became the latest Chicago restaurant to secure a star. Fenton, an alum of The Aviary and Schwa, grabbed the committee’s attention with huitlacoche-stuffed ravioli, an Italian-truffle quesadilla and even late-night taco omakase (!).
He can proudly claim another accolade as the most voracious listener on our list, of those who submitted total listening totals — and it’s not even close. Fenton listened to an astonishing 81,561 minutes of music on Spotify in 2024, most by contemporary Mexican artists. (Fenton held an executive chef position in Tulum and still splits his time between Chicago and Mexico.) Fenton’s favorites are torch-bearers of the regional Mexican music revival, from the corridos tumbados of Peso Pluma and Junior H to the nostalgic banda-, mariachi- and ranchera-inspired sound of Marca MP.
Rod Blagojevich, former governor of Illinois
When he’s not an invited guest on Fox News or advocating for prison reform, the former Illinois governor has been spotted more than once this year howling Elvis Presley covers at various venues and music festivals. Backing him is The Drawers, a band run by his former lawyer, Leonard Goodman, and keyboardist Bob Mamet, younger brother of playwright David Mamet.
The gig is an outgrowth of G-Rod And The Jailhouse Rockers, a band Blagojevich started at the Englewood Federal Correctional Institution, the Colorado prison where he was imprisoned from 2012 to 2020. He says he listened to music avidly in prison, usually on a Walkman borrowed from a fellow inmate whose library included Marco Antonio Solís, Rocío Dúrcal and Vicente Fernández, “who’s like a Mexican version of Frank Sinatra.”
I called Blagojevich to ask him more about his abiding affection for crooners. (When I asked to record our call for transcription purposes, his shrug was all but audible. “Not the first time I’ve been taped on a phone call.”) At the time we spoke, he was spinning Elvis’ 1957 Christmas album — ’twas the season — and the Royal Philharmonic’s studio album of “The Nutcracker.” He’s also warming up to Taylor Swift, having listened to her discography on drives with his daughter Annie.
But for Blagojevich, the King reigns supreme. As a boy, he used to entertain friends with Elvis impersonations on the schoolyard. “These Elvis movies would come on ‘The Late Show,’ and he was always on the beach somewhere, or beating up bad guys. He was in places that took me away from Armitage and Grand Avenue,” Blagojevich says.
Nikola Vučević, Chicago Bulls center
Top Song: “Pittbull,” Booba
OK, I’ll be the first to admit I don’t know the first thing about sports, nor do I have the cache to get email requests answered by our local teams’ press offices. But Tribune Bulls reporter Julia Poe does. She provided an assist for Vooch and Zach LaVine , and takes it away below:
“A Montenegro native who listens mainly to French and Serbian music, Vučević is known for having the most eclectic taste on the Bulls roster — which also means his younger American teammates refuse to give him the aux cord in the locker room. He uses Spotify for his pregame routine while preferring Apple Music and YouTube in his day-to-day life.
He hasn’t checked his Spotify Wrapped yet this season, but he can guarantee which song was most played in his pregame routine: ‘Pittbull’ by French rapper Booba. It’s a 2006 release, but Vučević says there’s no reason to stray away from a classic.”
Zach LaVine, Chicago Bulls shooting guard
Top Albums:
- “GNX,” Kendrick Lamar
- “WE DON’T TRUST YOU,” Future and Metro Boomin
- “Larger Than Life,” Brent Faiyaz
Bulls reporter Julia Poe again:
“Zach LaVine stuck to his roots as a fan of West Coast rap, so it’s natural that Kendrick Lamar’s ‘GNX’ was his favorite album of the year. He shouted out ‘hey now’ as his top track on the album.
‘GNX’ was a crowd favorite throughout the Bulls locker room. Lonzo Ball favored the record for its brevity — 12 songs, 44 minutes — which allows him to listen through from start to finish on a daily basis. And it’s almost impossible to go a day without hearing the catchy hook of ‘tv off’ blaring from one of the many portable speakers that accompanies the team from the hotel to the bus to the locker room.”
Alexi Giannoulias, Illinois Secretary of State
It was a big year for Giannoulias’ office, from streamlining DMV services to soliciting new designs for the state flag. 2024 was also a big year for his personal listening, he told the Tribune via email. At the gym, rap “keeps (him) motivated to get extra reps in,” namely Nas, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z and Eminem. After hearing them live earlier this year, Giannoulias says Naughty By Nature has also “creeped back into my playlist.”
But when he’s in the car — his other main venue for listening — “the girls rule and control the music.” That means heaps of Chappell Roan and Taylor Swift, plus the soundtracks of “Wicked” and “& Juliet.”
“While I don’t have an account, my staff says Spotify would tell me that I’m in a ‘Pink Pilates Princess Vogue Pop’ era,” Giannoulias writes.
Isaiah Collier, saxophonist, composer and 2024 Chicagoan of the Year in Jazz
Top Artists:
- Gal Costa
- Caetano Veloso
- Cartola
- Novos Baianos
- Rita Lee
Top Songs:
- “Força Estranha,” Gal Costa
- “Black Classical Music (ft. Venna & Charlie Stacey)” Yussef Dayes
- “Sampa,” Caetano Veloso
- “Folhetim,” Gal Costa
- “Always and Forever,” Heatwave
What music excites someone who put out some great music himself this year? For Collier — who released “The World Is On Fire” and “The Almighty” in 2024 — it was all Brazilian music, all the time. The South Side native’s Spotify Wrapped reflects a deep engagement with tropicália pioneers Gal Costa and Caetano Veloso, samba icon Cartola, and rockers Novos Baianos and Rita Lee. Also making Collier’s cut was the title track of last year’s “Black Classical Music,” the much-acclaimed solo debut of English drummer Yussef Dayes.
Erick Williams, chef and restaurateur
Top Artists:
- The Roots
- Donny Hathaway
- Wu-Tang Clan
- Aretha Franklin
- Nas
Top Songs:
- “You Got Me (feat. Erykah Badu and Eve),” The Roots
- “Singing This Song For You,” Donny Hathaway
- “C.R.E.A.M. (Cash Rules Everything Around Me),” Wu-Tang Clan
- “I Say A Little Prayer,” Aretha Franklin
- “Ether,” Nas
After the runaway success of Virtue, his upscale soul food restaurant, Williams expanded his Hyde Park culinary empire a few weeks ago with Cantina Rosa, a cocktail bar. Cantina Rosa joins a slew of other Williams-run restaurants: Daisy’s Po-Boy and Tavern, Top This Mac & Cheese and Mustard Seed Kitchen.
Somehow, through it all, Williams found time to listen to 27,489 minutes of music on Spotify in 2024. Clearly, enough of those were spent listening to Nas’ “Ether” to land it in his top 5 — and if there’s anything 2024 proved, it’s that a Jay-Z diss track is evergreen.
Mike Reed, drummer, owner of Constellation and Hungry Brain, chair of the Chicago Jazz Festival
Reed has been involved with the Pitchfork Music Festival before it was Pitchfork. He co-founded it as the Intonation Festival in 2005 and remained a hands-on curator of Chicago talent at the Union Park mainstay.
In November, Pitchfork announced that its eponymous summer festival would be no more. The publication provided no explanation at the time, but the week Reed connected with the Tribune, another round of layoffs had just scorched Pitchfork parent company Condé Nast, including its events and festival team.
When he was helping curate the festival, Reed says he had to stop using his personal Spotify to research potential acts. “All of a sudden, my Spotify starts looking like I’m a 17-year-old girl or something,” he jokes. This year, Reed’s actual top artists and songs look pretty accurate, he says: Sly & the Family Stone, New Orleans R&B like Lil’ Bob & the Lollipops, and always, always the Beatles.
“I’m a huge Beatles freak. It’s like the Bible. I don’t know my life without it,” he says. The two to break his top five both come off “Abbey Road”: “Mean Mr. Mustard” and “Polythene Pam.”
Ben Shabad, therapist and winner of the Chicago Jeremy Allen White lookalike contest
When the going gets tough, the tough get giggly. Just ask New York, London and San Francisco, which hosted lighthearted celebrity lookalike contests in the middle of a particularly dire autumn news cycle. On Nov. 16, Chicago got in on the fun with a Jeremy Allen White competition held in Humboldt Park. (The author of this article may or may not have competed, only to make off with half a cigarette and a wounded ego.)
As anyone who was there can attest, Ben Shabad won the thing fair and square. The Glenview resident, 37, is a dead ringer for “The Bear” star. But while Carmy could use a shrink, Shabad is a shrink, with a practice in Chicago.
Music is its own form of therapy for Shabad, who says his favorites can “change (his) mood in an instant.” Those favorites skew heavily toward rock of the ’90s and 2000s: Dave Matthews Band, Pearl Jam, Dead & Company, The Smashing Pumpkins, Jack Johnson and Guster.
“Hearing them brings me back mentally to somewhere in my past… It’s like time traveling,” Shabad wrote to the Tribune.
Hannah Edgar is a freelance writer.
