"The Wave" is a song performed by Swedish indie pop band Miike Snow. It was released as the second single from the band's second studio album Happy to You (2012) on 14 May 2012, through Columbia Records. The song was written and produced by the band. Musically, "The Wave" is an electropop song with marching band influences and autoharp, military drum and piano instrumentation. It features Swedish musician Gustav Ejstes on autoharp and the Swedish Army drum corps on military drums.

The song received generally positive reviews from music critics, who commended its catchiness and musical direction. However, some critics were divided regarding lead singer Andrew Wyatt's falsetto vocals. The single failed to match the commercial performance of Happy to You's lead single "Paddling Out"; it only charted on the Flemish Ultratip chart at number 43. Andreas Nilsson directed the single's accompanying music video, the second part in a continuous story that began in the "Paddling Out" video.

"The Wave" was written and produced by Miike Snow's three members: Christian Karlsson, Pontus Winnberg and Andrew Wyatt. The song was recorded alongside the rest of their second studio album Happy to You (2012) during the second half of 2011. The band had more "creative freedom" while making the album, compared to their 2009 self-titled debut album. They felt they could "plan the process more", which included inviting the Swedish Army drum corps to play military drums on several tracks, such as "The Wave". Karlsson told Billboard that his favorite part of the song occurs during the second verse, in which all band members are hitting the drums simultaneously. "We hit anything we could hit at the same time ... and it sounded kind of cool", he said. Nils Törnqvist is credited for playing the drums, while David Lindberg, Jonathan Lundberg and Claes Malmberg played the military drums. Swedish musician Gustav Ejstes of band Dungen played the autoharp, and the band provided additional instruments, arrangement and programming. Niklas Flyckt mixed the track at Robotberget, Miike Snow's own studio in , Sweden.

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