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Music

Best of 2025

The Independent culture team’s favourite songs of 2025

From the big-city yearning of Chappell Roan’s breakup ballad to Sam Fender and Olivia Dean’s wonderful collaboration ‘Rein Me In’, The Independent’s culture team pick their favourite songs of the past 12 months

<p>Kirsty MacColl and Shane MacGowan in a promotional image for ‘Fairytale of New York’</p>

Producer Steve Lillywhite: ‘Fairytale of New York is like a fine wine’

<p>Nick Cave’s creative output has been the subject of admiration for decades</p>

Review

Nick Cave’s Veiled World is a captivating look at his artistic genius

<p>Pro-Palestine protesters march outside the arena in Basel, Switzerland, at Eurovision 2025</p>

Comment

As Israel is set to compete, Eurovision’s future hangs in the balance

Interviews

<p>Music and moral agency are inseparable for Aurora</p>

Interview

Aurora: ‘We’re more scared of activists than the world dying or war’

<p>Celeste: ‘You don’t really have much of a choice not to give all of yourself to your music and to your performance’</p>

Interview

Celeste: ‘It can be exhausting, fighting for yourself to be heard’

<p>Luke Hemmings, Michael Clifford, Calum Hood and Ashton Irwin: a boyband all grown up </p>

Interview

5SOS: ‘The boyband label was emasculating. How could we grow up?’

<p>Jon Bon Jovi: ‘I’m only half-joking when I say, lemme just get my feet wet’</p>

Interview

Jon Bon Jovi: ‘There have been days where I thought I was done’

Roisin O’Connor’s Good Vibrations podcast

Ella Eyre is a guest on Roisin O'Connor's Good Vibrations podcast

Ella Eyre: ‘I’ve had to unlearn what I was shown early in my career’

Bon Jovi

Jon Bon Jovi: ‘There have been days where I thought I was done’

Zara Larsson is the latest guest on Roisin O'Connor's Good Vibrations podcast

Zara Larsson ‘didn’t expect’ reaction to support slot for Tate McRae

Roisin O'Connor's Good Vibrations with Bret McKenzie

Bret McKenzie reveals Ian McKellen got up to mischief on The Hobbit

Latest features

New Sensations

<p>Stephen Wilson Jr: ‘I spent four years making this record about my deceased father, and I went through hell doing it, so it’s really profound for me to see the effect it’s had on people’</p>

Interview

Country music newcomer Stephen Wilson Jr on grief, loss and redemption

<p>‘Everybody has a very similar social media personality and when I joined social media for the first time it was very obvious to me,’ remarks Sofia Isella</p>

Interview

Singer-songwriter Sofia Isella: ‘I got called demonic the other day’

<p>Star power: ‘Justin Bieber called me the other day to tell me that he is so grateful to know me, like saying, ‘I’m so proud of you’</p>

Interview

Jensen McRae: ‘Justin Bieber is like a big brother to me’

<p>Samia: ‘What I’m reaching for is self-certainty’</p>

Interview

Singer-songwriter Samia: ‘It’s easier to be an idea than a person’

Music Box

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Samantha Crain is mesmerising in Music Box performance of ‘Gumshoe’

Watch Sam Ryder’s brilliant pared-back performance of single ‘OH OK’

<p>Annie DiRusso performs during a Music Box session</p>

Watch rising star Annie DiRusso’s electrifying pared-back session

Reviews

<p>Celeste</p>

Celeste offers raw declarations of selfhood on Woman of Faces

<p>Orchestral grandeur: Rosalia reaches new heights with her ambitious fourth album</p>

Rosalía’s Lux is a masterpiece ruminating on sainthood and longing

Live music

<p>Lorde has always zig-zagged between self-reflective, seen-it-all gloom and a primal, perma-adolescent urge to freak out and dance</p>

Lorde’s O2 gig had energy, cringe and teens pining for Melodrama cuts

<p>Thom Yorke performs during the first night of Radiohead’s 2025 tour in Madrid, Spain, Tuesday 4 November</p>

In Madrid, Radiohead deliver a transcendent return to live shows

<p>Ethel Cain performing at London’s Eventim Apollo</p>

Ethel Cain at London’s Apollo was an evening of doom-laden anti-pop

<p>Lady Gaga performs during her Mayhem Ball tour at the O2 Arena in London</p>

Lady Gaga’s Mayhem Ball is the concert of the year

<p>Liam and Noel Gallagher hug during a Wembley Stadium show for the Oasis reunion tour</p>

Oasis summon a euphoric and almost sad last hurrah at Wembley Stadium

<p>Get Your Brits Out: Kneecap are a cause as much as they are a wild night out</p>

Kneecap triple down on Starmer and Palestine at pounding Wembley show

Retrospectives

<p>Bruce Springsteen photographed for the release of his album 'Nebraska' in 1982</p>

Tragic history behind dark Springsteen album that inspired new biopic

<p>Bob Dylan followed reports on the case of Hattie Carroll, who died after being attacked by farm owner William Zantzinger</p>

The story behind Bob Dylan’s ‘The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll’

<p>Back-to-back: Bruce Springsteen insisted that his longtime bandmate and friend, Clarence Clemons, be included in the shot</p>

Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run cover could’ve looked very different

<p>Mirror image: Grapefruit were another Fab Four on the Sixties scene</p>

The strange story behind one of John Lennon’s favourite bands

News