kiss off

A few months before the calendar flipped over, the London-based girl band made a huge splash with their debut single, Cardboard Box, a sassy kiss-off to a cheating ex that drew on the girl group sounds of En Vogue, SWV and Destiny's Child.

“Good Luck, Babe!,” a kiss-off to an ex with a queer twist, has been streamed over 106 million times on Spotify since its early April release; for context, that’s far more than any song on Beyoncé’s splashy “Cowboy Carter,” which arrived a week earlier, with the exception of its lead single, “Texas Hold ’Em.”

In both record and song of the year, Swift and Eilish also face challenges from Rodrigo’s epic-scale kiss-off “Vampire,” and from Cyrus’s “Flowers,” a mellow, disco-infused vamp that was a giant radio and streaming hit and — like “What Was I Made For?” — has a retro vibe that can be catnip to Grammy voters.

Ariana Grande returns with a thumping, crimson-lipped kiss-off on “Yes, And?,” a feather-light confection safely — but still enjoyably — in her comfort zone.

Tedder took it all to heart on singles like the reverse-flirty kiss-off “Exes,” and “Greedy,” a lithe and brash single where McRae taunts a leering dude that “I’m runnin’ this room around and I’m still half your age / You’re lookin’ at me like I’m some sweet escape / It’s obvious that you want me, but I would want myself.”