New York – The Associated Press has selected the 10 best songs of the year, presented in no particular order.
Read on and then listen to all the tracks on our Spotify playlist.
Selecting just one song from Bad Bunny’s seminal 2025 album “Debbie Tirar Mass Photos” would be a fool’s errand. Most people would probably choose one of the ubiquitous, fast-paced hits: “DtMF,” “Bel Inolvidable,” “Nuevoile.” And they would be absolutely right. But at its core, the album is both Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio’s love letter to Puerto Rico and a fierce defense of it. Nowhere is this more evident than at “Lo que le Paso a Hawaii”, a rally for Puerto Rico’s cultural autonomy in the era of neocolonization. It begins with a mournful Bad Bunny wailing on the scratch of a güiro – a folkloric instrument made from a hollow gourd. It seems as if inherited history and modernity are all in one, a kind of political, timeless tune from an artist accustomed to being the voice of the moment.
Making a triumphant return, Lady Gaga’s latest album “Mayhem” is a medley of her previous works. But where a return to roots might sound like soft self-parody for many veteran artists, Gaga slammed her Alexander McQueen heels on the gas pedal. Of the group, “Abracadabra” is a case study: maximalist electro-pop like an alternate universe “Bad Romance” with a Gesaffelstein sound. It’s familiar and evocative, Gaga’s robotic rhythm over the house piano and creates an addictive rhythm. Her throaty call for magic – “Abra-ka-dabra” – is a one-woman masterclass in dance pop. It’s a little chaotic and very addictive.
If 2024 was the year Chappelle Roan went wild, 2025 was the year she broke the rules. Her first new single of the season, “The Giver”, was a Sapphic Shania Twain song full of sensual satisfaction. In one phrase: It was country music courtesy of the Midwest Princess. “The Subway”, a standard from their live show but previously unreleased, is something else entirely. It’s slow-paced dream-pop, with Roan showcasing her chameleonic qualities by channeling both The Cranberries’ Dolores O’Riordan and Alanis Morissette’s yodel into her vocal performance – details that embellish a beautiful song that is, without hesitation, wholeheartedly Roan.
The best country song of the year comes courtesy of an indie rock band. North Carolina’s Wednesday know a thing or two about thought-provoking songwriting – their latest album, “Bleeds”, is a burst of instrumentals that are often imitated and never recreated. But where his tracks blend different styles, “Elderberry Wine” is as close to classic country as they come. Leaving aside his familiar distortions, this is a beautiful, fermented meditation on relationships gone sour, full of poetic wisdom. “Say I want your baby / ‘Cause I get scorched and you get gray,” sings Wednesday’s leader, singer and songwriter Carly Hartzman in her deep blues. “I find solace in the fact that angels don’t care.”
Frank Ocean fans, run – don’t walk – to press play on “Special”, the best single from Dexter in the Newsagent, the musical pseudonym of English soul singer Charmaine Aioku. The song, like much of Ayoku’s discography, is airy and ephemeral – catchy and euphoric, like an old R&B cut but undeniably contemporary in its slow, romantic production. Maybe you’ve heard it on TikTok, maybe this is your first introduction to it. Whatever the case may be, let it stand.
Pittsburgh band Feeble Little Horse first made waves in underground circles due to their undeniable noise-pop rock filtered through ambitious production choices and absurdist lyricism. “This Is Real”, the band’s first single since 2023’s legendary “Girl With Fish” album, pushes the envelope further, dealing in computerized, hyperpop-esque electronics. It is one of their heaviest tracks to date, presented first under singer Lydia Slocum’s sweet melodies – and then, her shrill screams. This feels like the future.
The early ’00s, for those who had the unfortunate lucidity to remember, was a period when young people walked around with graphic T-shirts emblazoned with the phrase “Country Rap = Fuck.” Oh, how wrong they were proved. Over the years, contemporary country has taken advantage of hip-hop’s characteristics: trap hi-hats, elastic phrasing – and Southern rappers, too, have adopted the once-traditional style. It focuses on BigXthaPlug and Bailey Zimmerman’s genre-bending smash, “All the Way”. It’s the best of both worlds: Bigxthaplug’s easy intricacies and Zimmerman’s warm, raspy vocals.
It’s not about washing clothes. Okay, so it’s kind of like that – but not quite. Kehlani specializes in sultry, mature R&B — but “Folded” marks a new peak for the singer, becoming her first top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. And for good reason: “Folded” is felt deeply in the heart. It opens with strumming strings, then: Kehlani’s vocals, analog pop and a slow moving beat. “So, can you come get your clothes? / I’ve got them folded / Come meet me when the door’s still open,” she implores her former love. “I know it’s cold outside, but it’s not freezing.” Nor is it a hit.
The future may be looking backwards. Nostalgia is the driver of the current cultural zeitgeist; It’s that impulse that gave the world Douchey’s “Worry” — originally recorded in 2019, remade in 2025, and incorporated into the 2013 Grammys Record of the Year pick, Gotye and Kimbra’s “Somebody That I Used to Know.” The sample is inseparable from the spontaneity of the original, but Doichi’s lyrics are entirely his own: the repetition of the production emphasizes the neurosis of his lyricism; Its irregularity supports its eccentric flow.
It’s a hit for a reason. Atlanta rapper Playboi Carti made fans wait five years for the release of his third studio album, “Music,” and the world of hip-hop has changed a lot in the last half decade. The same is true for Carti. On “Evil Jordan,” say adios to “Baby Voice” Carti and welcome someone new. On the track, he’s never sounded more gruff, laying a kind of tired, throaty flow over an ominous beat. It sounds worrisome, or like some kind of Gothic unraveling – and it works.
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