Life felt fast this year. Maybe that's why the very best Spanish-language musicians I heard insisted on slowing things down. From an outside perspective, music from Latin America erupted in 2025. The year was bookended by two record-breaking, ambitious albums. And in the middle was Bad Bunny's 31-show Puerto Rican residency, which reimagined the live music experience and demonstrated to the world the Latin American audience's cultural capital.
Yet, I sensed a desire, a push even, for a softness, a stillness, time to breathe. Somewhere amid the three hours of perreo and salsa, every night I attended Bad Bunny's residency included a pause — to allow for a moment of reflection on love, home, community, family, even life itself. "BAILE INoLVIDABLE," one of our best songs of the year and a favorite of mine from DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS, included something similar. I nodded to the ingenuity of a 6-minute "pop" song that dared to allow for actual improvisation, perfectly imperfect production, moments of breath.
Rosalía's equally surprising and stunning LUX quite literally started with one. She told me she wanted the first human moment on the record to be one that took us back to the beginning, to our original shared experience.
Every record I chose this year asks us to — whether in words, instrumentation, production, theme or maybe just energy — clear out some space in our hearts, minds, respective universes and level set with time. I've written and spoken extensively this year about the ways Latin America is looking within itself for answers and connection. There's something awe-inspiring in witnessing how an embrace of the elemental can flourish into a love for the cultural community around you. As much time as I spend talking about music, those connections are built in silence between the sounds that feel like home. The best music to me this year — what made me laugh, cry, dance, smile — is what brought me back to Earth.
"Asi que entra con en sol, entra con la brisa," Arath Herce suggests, "entra cuando lo desees, no hay prisa." As the best art reminds us, life may feel fast, but every turn around the sun remains the same.
Anamaria Sayre's Top 10 Albums of 2025
- Rosalía, LUX
- Bad Bunny, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS
- Queralt Lahoz, 9:30 PM
- Arath Herce, Musas en Mi
- rusowsky, DAISY
- Guitarricadelafuente, Spanish Leather
- Amaia, Si Abro Los Ojos No Es Real
- Milo j, La Vida Era Más Corta
- Pink Pablo, ALL I DREAM
- Belafonte Sensacional, LLAMAS LLAMAS LLAMAS
Read about more of NPR Music's favorite albums of 2025 and our list of the 125 best songs of 2025.
Graphic illustration by David Mascha for NPR.
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