Joyful Take.

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Follow 'Dancing on My Own' from a Golden Buzzer to the Phillies

A Robyn heartbreak song, a Calum Scott cover and a Tiesto remix reached Philadelphia through an empty Fenway Park. Here is the whole road, including the year the team tried to retire it.

3 min read September 26, 2026 edition
A sunny still life of a small vintage record player on a low wooden bench, a baseball resting against it and paper confetti scattered across the bench.
A lonely-hearts song found the loudest room in Philadelphia. Illustration: Joyful Take.

Robyn's 2010 song is about standing alone in the corner of a club, watching someone you love kiss somebody else. Twelve years later, a room full of soaked baseball players in Philadelphia was bellowing it at full volume. I cannot think of a stranger road for a heartbreak song, so here it is in order.

One song, three versions

Robyn released "Dancing on My Own" in 2010 on Body Talk, Pt. 1. Calum Scott, a singer from Hull in Yorkshire, sang a slowed cover on Britain's Got Talent in 2015 and earned Simon Cowell's Golden Buzzer. His studio version came out on April 15, 2016, peaked at No. 2 in the UK and became Britain's best-selling single of that summer.

The version the Phillies play is neither of those exactly. The Philadelphia Inquirer identified it as Tiesto's dance remix of Scott's cover, which is why a ballad about loneliness arrives in Citizens Bank Park with a beat you can jump to.

It came through an empty Fenway Park

The best detail is the origin. According to the Inquirer, Red Sox backup catcher Kevin Plawecki started the song's sports career in 2020, using it as walk-up music in a Fenway Park with no fans in it during the pandemic. A lonely song for a lonely ballpark. By 2021 the whole Boston clubhouse had adopted it and played it after the Red Sox beat Tampa Bay in the Division Series. Scott even threw out a ceremonial first pitch at Fenway during that year's American League Championship Series. A song that started in an empty ballpark ended the season with its singer on the mound.

Kyle Schwarber was on that 2021 Boston team, then signed with the Phillies. Garrett Stubbs, the backup catcher who ran the postgame playlist, credited Schwarber in the Inquirer's telling: "He put it on and everyone loved it." The Phillies played it after wins all through the 2022 stretch run. Stubbs told 6abc that October there was no deeper backstory, calling it "an absolute banger" the players loved singing.

The city found out in October 2022. After the Phillies won their Wild Card Series in St. Louis, Bryce Harper and J.T. Realmuto led the clubhouse sing-along, and the Inquirer spent a whole story explaining the song to confused readers. That team reached the World Series. Scott, watching from afar, posted "I AM DOWN!!" on October 24, 2022, offering to perform it for the Phillies. No record turned up that the performance happened that fall.

The second-place song

In February 2023, the players tried to retire it. "It's a second-place song," Schwarber said. The 2022 team had lost the World Series, after all.

Because we were sucking.

Garrett Stubbs, explaining why the song came back in June 2023 (source)

MLB.com's Todd Zolecki reported that the Phillies woke up on June 3, 2023, at 25-32, tied for last in the NL East. After a win in Washington that day, hitting coach Kevin Long marched into the clubhouse with a request, and the song went back on. "It's back," Stubbs said. "It's got a lot of wins in it." By October 18, MLB.com counted 70 wins against 41 losses, postseason included, since its return, and Scott announced his cover had passed one billion Spotify streams, thanking the Phillies by name.

When the Phillies clinched a 2023 wild card on a Johan Rojas walk-off, they blasted it again. Harper summed up the club's policy in one sentence: "You play for the Phillies, that song's going to be here."

Where the song stands now

Traditions drift. In September 2024, Crossing Broad reported that Stubbs said the song would not return as the postseason celebration track, with a custom mashup by a trio of Phillies-loving EDM producers taking over. That October, the day after the Mets ended the Phillies' season, Scott played the Fillmore in Philadelphia anyway and told NBC10 how much he loves the city. One headline wondered whether it was a funeral hymn. I would call it a thank-you note.

I could not find a 2026 source confirming what plays in the clubhouse after wins this season, so treat the current playlist as unknown. My opinion, which the record supports: the song does not need the clubhouse anymore. It belongs to the city now, which is a very good outcome for a song about dancing alone.

Sources

Every factual claim above traces to one of these. Links open in a new tab.

  1. What's that song the Phillies sang in the locker room Saturday night?The Philadelphia Inquirer (Dan DeLuca), 2022-10-10.
  2. How did 'Dancing On My Own' become the Phillies playoff anthem? It starts with a backup Red Sox catcher.The Philadelphia Inquirer, 2022-10-19.
  3. Calum ScottWikipedia, accessed 2026-09-26.
  4. Why Phils brought back 'Dancing On My Own'MLB.com (Todd Zolecki), 2023-06-14.
  5. Phillies dancing on their own after walk-off clinchMLB.com (Todd Zolecki), 2023-09-27.
  6. 'Dancing On My Own' singer has a billion reasons to thank PhilsMLB.com (Brent Maguire), 2023-10-18.
  7. Calum Scott offers to perform "Dancing On My Own" for Philadelphia Phillies after clinching NL Wild CardCBS News Philadelphia, 2023-09-27.
  8. Garrett Stubbs Says Dancing On My Own Won't Return as the Phillies Song in PostseasonCrossing Broad (Kyle Pagan), 2024-09-15.
  9. Funeral hymn? Calum Scott plays 'Dancing On My Own' in Philly day after Phillies loseNBC10 Philadelphia, 2024-10-10.
  10. Philadelphia Phillies rocking out to clubhouse anthem 'Dancing on My Own' on way to NLDS vs. Atlanta Braves6abc Philadelphia, 2022-10-11.