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How did ‘Dancing On My Own’ become the Phillies playoff anthem? It starts with a backup Red Sox catcher.

Why are the Phillies using a remix of “Dancing On My Own” as their victory song?

Bryce Harper sprays champagne after the Phillies beat the Atlanta Braves in the NLDS.
Bryce Harper sprays champagne after the Phillies beat the Atlanta Braves in the NLDS.Read moreYong Kim / Staff Photographer
    by Matt Mullin
    Updated 
    Published 

It’s official. The Phillies have a playoff anthem. And by this point, you probably know it well. If not, just give it a couple of days of “Dancing On My Own” being blasted throughout Rittenhouse Square.

What you might not know is how it wound up being the team’s official victory song, the one they’ve been seen blasting in the clubhouse after wins, including their NLDS-clinching win over the Braves last week.

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The song is the Tiesto remix of Calum Scott’s stripped down version of “Dancing On My Own” — at the risk of editorializing, the original is much better — and many Americans may be more familiar with the Robyn version of the song. But Philadelphians are increasingly becoming more familiar with the dance remix thanks to … the Boston Red Sox?

» READ MORE: Phillies’ playoff anthem ‘Dancing On My Own’ is the perfect hoagie mouth song

That’s right, it was actually the Red Sox, and specifically backup catcher Kevin Plawecki, who finished 2022 with the Texas Rangers, who made this song into an acceptable victory anthem. Here’s more from music writer Dan DeLuca on the song’s resurgence during the pandemic and its recent crossover into sports, starting in the Boston clubhouse.

In June 2020, Robyn went viral with a video shot in quarantine of her singing — and dancing — on her own, holding a selfie-stick. Maybe the song’s anxiety about disconnection — or about a sports team feeling disrespected — resonated during the early days of the pandemic. Its combination of emotional, heartsick lyrics and euphoric energy helped turn it into — as Vice puts it — an “undeniable queer banger.”
This isn’t, however, the first time the song found fans among athletes. “Dancing on My Own” crossed over into Major League Baseball in 2020, when Boston Red Sox catcher Kevin Plawecki started using it as his walkup music in games played in an empty Fenway Park.
By last year, Plawecki converted the rest of the team to the charms of the song, and when the Sox beat the Tampa Bay Rays in the 2021 American League division series, the team played it in the locker room.
Robyn herself posted a video of the celebration, captioned “Bonkers.” Scott threw out a ceremonial first pitch at Fenway before a Sox game in the American League Championship Series against the Houston Astros.
Dan DeLuca

The Red Sox lost that series, but one of the members of that team clearly took a liking to the song: none other than current Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber. While he isn’t solely responsibly for the postgame playlist that’s curated by backup catcher and team DJ Garrett Stubbs, Schwarber is the man responsible for bringing the party anthem to the Phillies locker room celebrations. Here’s more from Alex Coffey:

It’s 4 hours and 26 minutes of pure chaos, because it isn’t just Stubbs who is adding to it. Gibson is a “big Dua Lipa fan” so he’s put some of her songs on the list. Nick Castellanos and Brandon Marsh account for most of the rap songs, according to Stubbs. Kyle Schwarber brought “Dancing On My Own — Tiesto Remix” by Calum Scott from the 2021 Red Sox, and now it is played after every win.
”It’s a great song to sing to,” Stubbs said. “I think Schwarber recommended it in the very beginning. He put it on and everyone loved it.”
Alex Coffey

The full playlist contains plenty of NSFW lyrics and song titles, but the start of the playlist is for all ears.

”We can’t wait to get in there and hear our five or six songs,” Hall told The Inquirer during the Braves series. “‘Dancing On My Own,’ ‘Cold Heart,’ when you hear those songs, you just enjoy the win more. ‘Dancing On My Own’ means something to me now. When I hear that song outside of the field, the first thing I think of is clinching. It’s crazy that this is just getting noticed because it does get the boys rolling.”

» READ MORE: Wawa announces Schwarberfest — a Hoagiefest spinoff — and Phillies’ slugger immediately starts hitting

At first, they played around with the order of the songs, according to Coffey, but Stubbs has since settled on a routine.

As the team starts to filter in, Stubbs will play “Love Tonight — Edit” by Shouse. Then, when everyone is in the clubhouse, he’ll play “Dancing On My Own,” and then they let the playlist run wild.
”Everyone wants to hear those songs after we play,” Stubbs said. “It’s like a reward, getting to party after the games. And the Phils know how to party. We have a really good time.”
Alex Coffey

We have really good time ...

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