Dating in 2026

Lyrics:
**[Intro]**
Back in di day,
love had a beginning.

Now mi scrolling through chapter six
and still don't know what book mi in.

**[Verse 1]**
Used to see somebody standing by the café door
Meet again Friday, then you meet once more
Coffee went cold 'cause you talked all night
Walked her home slow underneath streetlights

Saturday dancing, next week a show
Sunday afternoon with nowhere to go
You learned little things without checking a screen
How she took her coffee, what her silence could mean

Then after some weeks came the terrifying phrase
Heart beating double while you searched for a way
No status discussion, no twelve-page plan
Just: “Will you go with me?” — and there it began

Maybe yes, maybe no, maybe hurt for a while
But at least everybody understood the file
There was a door, there was a key, there was somewhere to go
Nowadays mi three months in and still don't know.

**[Chorus]**
Dating in 2026,
swipe to the left, then fall in the mix
Talking, but dating, but nothing defined
Close in the evening, independent by nine

Dating in 2026,
half of it feelings, half politics
Everybody knows what everybody did
Nobody knows what anybody is.

**[Verse 2]**
Now first comes a profile, six pictures deep
One from the gym and one from the beach
One with a dog that might not even be hers
Three little prompts and twelve recycled words

Then comes the match and the messaging phase
Morning till midnight for seventeen days
Memes become voice notes, voice notes become calls
You know her childhood trauma before meeting at all

Then finally Friday you're both face to face
But somehow the meeting ain't quite called a date
You drink, you laugh, then you meet her whole crew
Half of them know more about her matches than you

Next weekend another bar, another crowded room
She's doing her thing and you're doing yours too
You arrive together, disappear with the crowd
Find each other later when the music gets loud

Then maybe you're kissing, maybe staying the night
Maybe breakfast together when the morning gets bright
And somehow all that can repeatedly exist
While both of you technically still remain single-ish.

**[Chorus]**

Dating in 2026,
swipe to the left, then fall in the mix
Talking, but dating, but nothing defined
Close in the evening, independent by nine

Dating in 2026,
half of it feelings, half politics
Everybody knows what everybody did
Nobody knows what anybody is.

**[Verse 3]**

Then mi discovered there's levels to this
Apparently romance got terms and conditions and shit
There's talking, there's seeing, there's casual dating
There's “not looking” while actively participating

There's staying the weekend but keeping it light
There's meeting her friends every Saturday night
There's sex without labels, affection without claims
There's knowing her body but not knowing the game

There's three months together without being a pair
Your charger at hers and her shampoo at yours there
You've got favorite takeout, a series you share
But exclusivity somehow is floating somewhere

And this is the part where mi brain lose track:
You're moving ahead while refusing the map
You're building a thing that you're scared to define
While both keeping options conveniently online

Nobody cheating because nobody said
That whatever you're doing is exclusive yet
So feelings get real while the rules stay thin
And everybody somehow knows the rules but him.

**[Bridge]**

Maybe love never changed,
maybe only the road
Maybe people still want someone there when they're old

But somewhere between
the swipe and the screen
we made getting close mean
everything except what it means.

**[Final Verse]**

Mi don't miss some perfect romantic old days
People got hurt then in a hundred different ways
But something was simple in knowing the aim:
You liked somebody, eventually you gave it a name

Now we got more freedom, more people, more choice
More ways to connect, more ways to avoid
More doors left open in case something appears
More almost-relationships lasting half of a year

And maybe the young ones understand it just fine
Maybe mi operating on obsolete design
But when two people kiss, sleep, laugh and exist
For months at a time while insisting they're not it…

Mi nod like mi get it.
Mi smile like mi do.

Then go home wondering
what the hell happened to:

“Will you go with me?”

**[Final Chorus]**

Dating in 2026,
swipe to the left, then fall in the mix
Closer than friends but afraid to define
Together all weekend, still single online

Dating in 2026,
maybe it's freedom, maybe it's tricks
Everybody knows what everybody did —
nobody knows what anybody is.