They’re forty or even fifty years old, and they make Gen Z dance. Because there’s no summer without remixes of old songs that come back from the past in a dance version. That’s how you find them at the top of the charts for the most listened to and viewed tracks online. In the age of social media, the boost comes straight from the internet: songs once forgotten are back to trending among young people. In 2025, Mediterranea by Giuni Russo is the summer hit on TikTok.

A new round of dance music basslines, reworked with synthwave that blends electronic and pop elements. The artist’s voice takes on a more contemporary tone: the success is granted. Much of the credit for its renewed popularity goes to the kids using the track as the soundtrack for their videos on TikTok—a recipe for success.

The remix of Mediterranea by Giuni Russo goes viral on TikTok

Forty years and not a day older. Mediterranea, remixed by DJ Dumar (Mattia Del Moro), was written by Italian singer Giuseppina Romeo, known as Giuni Russo, and Maria Antonietta Sisini in 1984. It was the lead single from the album of the same name. It was the summer of legendary Italian hits: Fotoromanza by Gianna Nannini, People from Ibiza by Sandy Marton, Self Control by Raf, and Va bene, va bene così by Vasco Rossi, to name a few. Adding another hit would have been a tall order.

Mediterranea, although evocative in its original version, wasn’t fully understood at the time. In 2025, a dance restyling was all it took to change its fate. The new version makes people dance and dream. “I imagined a meeting between Giuni Russo and Giorgio Moroder”, said Dumar, who created the remix.

The track is far from Giuni Russo’s most famous hits: Un’estate al Mare or Alghero. Its sound and voice were innovative for the early eighties. Mediterranea, instead, is a portrait of the artist, proudly from Palermo. She explained how the song represents her: words intertwining memories, emotions, and the scents of Sicily.

Lyrics of Mediterranea

And the dawn will wake me
Mediterranea and alone
While I comb my hair
The first sun is mine

And the fishing lamps go to sleep
The sun will warm me
Afternoon at the beach
Mediterranean passion
While I come looking for you

Cover me tonight, the dew
Makes me shiver
Take me dancing or somewhere else
But take me away from here
Along the streets you know

Towards the night
Don’t abandon me to my silence
And take me away from here
Along the streets you know, ah, ah, ah

And the fishing lamps return to the sea
Good morning, how are you?
Come, the beach is empty

We’ll wait here
For the sun to set
Mediterranean passion
And the murmur of the people

Cover me tonight, the dew
Makes me shiver
Take me dancing or somewhere else
But take me away from here
Along the streets you know

Towards the night
Don’t abandon me to my silence
And take me away from here
Along the streets you know, mmh, mmh

Five songs from the past that went viral on TikTok

They’ve come back in style and are taking the spotlight. This is the TikTok effect. Mediterranea by Giuni Russo is the summer hit of 2025, but the precedents are illustrious. In 2024, the summer hit was Amore No by Adriano Celentano. Last summer, the app had a hand in it. The remix of this track by the “molleggiato” enjoyed a second youth, 45 years later.

A 1979 track with a funky dance sound that won over the younger generation. It became the most downloaded online and was shared by users as the soundtrack for thousands of videos. A love story gone wrong that feels current again. The cry Amore No is that of someone who doesn’t want to lose the person they love, caught in the act: “while I saw you leave with him from my house.”

Not just Celentano: look back, and in a flash appears Raffaella Carrà with her Pedro. Unlike Celentano’s and Russo’s songs, “Raffa”‘s success was already a hit at the time. Written by Gianni Boncompagni and Franco Bacardi, the track came out in 1980, the golden years for Italian music in discos. In 2023, producers Jaxomy and Agatino Romero released a remixed version that went viral on TikTok, also thanks to a quirky video of a raccoon. The new version of Pedro surpassed the original, climbed to the top of Spotify’s charts, and hit number one on the Viral 50. Raffaella was the first Italian artist to achieve this double feat.

TikTok is a turning point for the Italian and international music markets. Hits from the past resurface unexpectedly; the algorithm encourages young people to play with trending sounds. Among the five Italian tracks worth mentioning, there’s also a classical piece: Experience by Ludovico Einaudi, the soundtrack to the most evocative moments shared on social media.

And then there are phenomena born entirely on social media. Like Ciccio Merolla with Malatia. A Neapolitan song released in 2022 that exploded in popularity thanks to TikTok.

An international comeback

Also curious was the case of Fleetwood Mac, a band from the seventies that enjoyed a new wave of success with their Dreams. This was thanks to a video shared on social media. Forty years later, the hit was back at the top of the Spotify and Apple Music charts.

So much so that in 2021, Rolling Stone magazine placed Dreams in the top 10 of the 500 greatest songs of all time.