All through 2025, De Los has championed the rise of the Latino artists from their respective musical silos and into the broader world pop stratosphere. The 2026 Tremendous Bowl halftime present headliner Dangerous Bunny and Inland Empire corrido kings Fuerza Regida scaled new business and cultural heights this yr, as rising acts like Silvana Estrada, Ela Minus and Netón Vega took thrilling new detours of their sounds.
De Los not too long ago did a group huddle to find out our private finest releases of 2025 — that is no backyard selection Latin style listing, however a spotlight reel of our favourite works by artists from Latin America and the diaspora.
10. Cazzu, “Latinaje”Reeling from a romantic disappointment of mythological proportions and the lackluster reception of her earlier album, Argentine entice queen Cazzu fired again with a maximalist travelogue that attracts from salsa and cumbia, Argentine folks and electro-pop. Cazzu hails from the province of Jujuy, miles away from the musical snobbery that plagues a lot of Buenos Aires, and her real funding in a pan-Latino idiom is contagious. A luxurious corrido tumbado a couple of purple costume that went viral (“Dolce”) and an Andean-flavored ode to her daughter (“Inti”) are the emotional cornerstones of an album that refuses to harbor resentment and as an alternative chooses to embrace plurality. Her absence from the principle classes on this yr’s Latin Grammys was nothing wanting legal. —Ernesto Lechner
9. Netón Vega, “Mi Vida Mi Muerte”As certainly one of música mexicana’s most in-demand songwriters, Netón Vega has crafted hits for each large crossover artist, from Xavi to Peso Pluma. Naturally, it’s about time that he delivered a full-length venture of his personal. Vega’s debut album, “Mi Vida Mi Muerte,” takes inventory of the present sound of corridos tumbados and pushes it to its limits alongside the very collaborators that he helped high the charts. Vega’s chameleonic qualities as a songwriter permit him to bend the principles of what counts as “Mexican” music, and over 21 songs, he establishes that his imaginative and prescient consists of Californian G-funk, blissed-out increase bap and even Caribbean reggaeton. Vega sounds equally as comfy on the radio smash “Loco” as he does wailing over a bajo sexto, proving that the way forward for corridos, with him on the helm, might be extra expansive than ever earlier than. —Reanna Cruz
8. Juana Aguirre, “Anónimo”If the music enterprise factor doesn’t fairly pan out for Juana Aguirre, Argentina’s newly anointed resident genius may discover success as a movie director — such is the palpable cinematic gravity of “Anónimo,” a stark masterpiece of digital temper conjuring. Aguirre builds her tracks slowly, armed with an unerring intuition for magnificence and a ruthless, try-and-discard methodology. The outcomes are childlike at occasions — elements of “La Noche” and “Lo_Divino” sound like nursery rhymes — whereas the nakedness of “Volvieron” brims with a solemn, ageless form of grace. Her sonic spectrum is panoramic, from esoteric folktronica murmurs and camouflaged industrial noise to the cosmic stillness of “Un Nombre Propio” and the ritualistic piano of “Las Ramas.” Till “Anónimo,” the Argentine avant-garde had by no means sounded so intoxicatingly sensuous. —E.L.
7. Adrian Quesada, “Boleros Psicodélicos II”On the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, multi-instrumentalist and producer Adrian Quesada enlisted a number of the most enthralling vocalists in Latin music to document “Boleros Psicodélicos,” a love letter to Latin American psychedelic ballads from the ’60s and ’70s. The album, which featured unique compositions alongside kaleidoscopic covers of the style, was hailed as an on the spot basic after its 2022 launch. Three years later, Quesada improved upon the successful system by really being in the identical room as his collaborators — the primary album was made in isolation. “There’s a little bit more life, energy to some of the songs,” Quesada instructed De Los of “Boleros Psicodélicos II.” That vibrancy is definitely felt in tracks like “Bravo” — Puerto Rican singer iLe’s voice is laced with loads of venom to do justice to Luis Demetrio’s spiteful lyrics (“Te odio tanto / Que yo misma me espanto / De mi forma de odiar”) — and “Primos,” which has Quesada pair up with guitar vibemasters Hermanos Gutiérrez for the album’s solely instrumental observe. Right here’s hoping that we get one other installment of this sensible collection three years from now. —Fidel Martinez
6. Nick León, “A Tropical Entropy”Hailing from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., only a hop, skip and a leap north of Miami, the digital mixmaster Nick León broke by a busy pop music panorama this yr as a producer with a distinctly Floridian standpoint. In his newest album, “A Tropical Entropy” — the title harks again to a phrase from Joan Didion’s 1987 e book, “Miami” — León crafted his moody “beach noir” sound by blanketing his dynamic assemblages of dembow, dancehall and different Afro-Caribbean rhythms with a foamy, oceanic atmosphere that flows and hisses all through the document. That includes the vocal skills of Ela Minus (“Ghost Orchid”), Erika De Casier (“Bikini”) and Esty (“Millennium Freak” with Mediopicky), it’s an audible feast for membership children whose afters entail collapsing on the sand and watching dolphins traverse the horizon at dawn. —Suzy Exposito
5. Not For Radio, “Melt”Launched in October, “Melt” is the frosty solo album by María Zardoya, lead singer of Grammy-nominated L.A. band the Marías, who wrote and recorded 10 of her most soul-baring songs but throughout a haunted winter sabbatical within the Catskills. Imbued with brooding components of chamber pop à la Seashore Home, Broadcast and the Carpenters, there may be a lot enchantment to be discovered within the particulars of Zardoya’s electrical drama; like how the nice and cozy fuzz of an organ meets frosty chimes on opening observe “Puddles,” or within the stressed, skittish pulse of “Swan.” Zardoya’s craving for a love misplaced crescendoes, and is most devastating, within the piano ballad “Back to You”; but it surely appears as if even her darkest, most melancholic moments are touched by the fae. —S.E.
4. Isabella Lovestory, “Vanity” With 2022’s “Amor Hardcore,” Isabella Lovestory established herself as a neoperreo princess — the Ivy Queen for the Instagram period. The Honduran pop star’s follow-up album “Vanity” takes a distinct method, buying and selling sleazy sexcapades for campy vulnerability. As in her identify, Lovestory is inherently a storyteller. Her lyrics are pulled from half-remembered goals, talking of herself in immersive, surreal contradiction. She’s a fragrance bottle made of froth, or a strawberry manufactured from metallic. It’s a deceptively saccharine world, one which she sees as, in her phrases, a “poisonous lollipop.” And when the manufacturing falls someplace between RedOne productions and Plan B deep cuts, that world turns into a post-cultural, hazy pop dystopia of each the previous and a far-off, distant future. —R.C.
3. Fuerza Regida “111XPantia”In summer season 2024, whereas selling the band’s earlier album, “Pero No Te Enamores,” Fuerza Regida frontman Jesús Ortiz Paz assured me that the San Bernardino quintet was not abandoning the sound that made it one of many largest acts within the música mexicana area. Merely put, JOP was scratching a inventive itch by flirting with Jersey membership, drill and home music. True to his phrase, the charchetas and tololoche are actually again and on full show in “111xPantia.” But the band’s ninth studio album is certainly not a rehash of their previous work; Fuerza Regida is as experimental as ever, whether or not by incorporating a banjo on “Peliculeando” (what’s subsequent, a collab with Mumford & Sons?) or sampling Nino Rota’s iconic theme tune on “GodFather” (given the give attention to extra, the lyrics are extra Tony Montana than Michael Corleone). This yr, JOP & Co. set a brand new benchmark for the ever-evolving style, all whereas turning into the most important band on this planet; Fuerza Regida was notably the one non-solo act to crack Spotify’s end-of-year high world artist listing. —F.M.
2. Silvana Estrada, “Vendrán Suaves Lluvias”Estrada’s second full-length album is a musical masterclass in sustaining serenity by loss. Along with her head held excessive, the Latin Grammy-winning Mexican singer-songwriter soldiered by an prolonged interval of grief to put in writing “Vendrán Suaves Lluvias,” together with a harrowing heartbreak and the surprising homicide of a pal. The bones of songs like “Como Un Pájaro” and “Un Rayo de Luz” are folks ballads, which she initially wrote utilizing her trusty cuatro; however with the mighty backing of an orchestra, Estrada’s compositions swell with a symphonic grandeur that bolster the songbird’s extra empowered and optimistic stance within the face of disappointment. “¿Cuál еra la idea de aventartе sin dejarte caer? Qué manera tan desoladora de querer,” she sings with an arid, jazzy inflection on “Dime” — a plea to a half-hearted lover who cowers on the drive of her integrity. —S.E.
1. Dangerous Bunny, “Debí Tirar Mas Fotós”“Debí Tirar Mas Fotós” has managed to dominate dialog all yr — from its No. 1 debut in January to this summer season’s blockbuster residency and subsequent world tour. A lot has been stated already about Dangerous Bunny’s magnum opus; the album is a generation-spanning, full-throated celebration of boricua resilience, and concurrently a pointed warning concerning the ongoing neocolonization of La Isla del Encanto. However maybe, within the spirit of its title, its finest perform is as a collection of timeless musical snapshots: There’s the sweeping voice of the jíbaro calling down from the mountains on “Lo Que Le Pasó A Hawaii.” Sweat from rum-soaked nights in Brickell and La Placita lingers on “Voy a LLevarte Pa PR” and “Eoo.” Palms fold collectively on “Weltita” as waves ebb and movement, and the heat of a grandparent’s remaining brow kiss lingers on “DTMF.” It’s a document that’s designed to be intimately understood by Latinos, with Dangerous Bunny’s private ethos of Puerto Rican independence managing to construct a bridge between the island and people displaced from it. And with Benito’s Tremendous Bowl victory lap proper across the nook, “Debí Tirar Mas Fotós” is poised to dominate not simply 2025, however the coming months as nicely, cementing him as — to paraphrase “Nuevayol” — el rey de pop, reggaetón y dembow.
Honorable mentions:
Reanna’s decide: Corridos Ketamina, “Corridos Ketamina”There’s one night time initially of each Los Angeles autumn when you may start to really feel the chilliness of loneliness within the air. Once I heard “V-Neno,” the opening observe on Corridos Ketamina’s self-titled debut EP, I used to be taken again to the primary time I felt it: strolling round at 3 AM alone and moody as hell. The 14-minute EP is like if Lil Peep and Lil Tracy went right down to Sinaloa for the weekend. Triple-tracked vocals drenched in reverb drift over sluggish guitar loops, all struggling to claw out of the Okay-hole. Sure, technically Corridos Ketamina are making narcocorridos (what you see is what you get: in an interview with the Fader, they put it merely, “Let’s make the first corrido about doing K”), however there’s one thing nonetheless heat and welcoming on the core of those seven songs. Perhaps it’s the acquainted mix of emo, rap, shoegaze and corridos — or it’s the truth that it is a document that might solely come out of Los Angeles, born out of late nights on empty freeways and in seedy residences. —R.C.
Ernesto’s decide: Amor Elefante, “Amigas”I dare you to not smile if you take heed to “Hipnótico,” the synth-pop fantasia that kicks off “Amigas,” a welcome return to motion for Buenos Aires quartet Amor Elefante. The band strikes within the fertile periphery the place sunshine pop meets dream rock, channeling the Police on the reggae vibe of “Universal Hit” and diving into Cocteau Twins ether on “La Vuelta.” If something, “Amigas” illustrates the band’s bloom as composers of potential singles: drummer Rocío Fernández goes funky on the folk-driven “La Vuelta,” whereas keyboardist Inés Copertino flexes her disco diva standing on the outro line to “Foto de una Coreografía.” In lead singer Rocío Bernardiner, Amor boasts certainly one of South America’s most radiant voices. —E.L.
Suzy’s decide: Ela Minus, “Día”Born in Bogotá, Colombia, and now based mostly in Brooklyn, digital artist-producer Gabriela Jimeno, or Ela Minus, first bonded with beats as a tween drummer in a hardcore band. That rugged punk rock depth would later unify the huge, synth-laden sprawl that’s her second album, “Día”: a chronicle of her displacement throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent ego loss of life. She lets her listeners in with the weak but galvanizing dance observe “I Want to Be Better,” which she has described as her “only love song” — however icily requires the world’s finish on the Latin Grammy-nominated membership reduce “QQQQ,” and rejects the parasocial worship of pop stars in “Idols,” chanting: “Chasing after phantoms / Bowing down to someone else’s idols.” Certainly — how embarrassing! —S.E.
Fidel’s decide: Cuco, “Ridin’”Hawthorne’s personal Cuco (actual identify Omar Banos) tapped into the soundtrack of Southern California’s lowrider tradition — soul and R&B — to make “Ridin’” among the best neo-Chicano soul albums lately. Tracks like “My 45” and “ICNBYH” (“I Could Never Break Your Heart”) are excellent accompaniments for gradual drives down Whittier Boulevard. “Para Ti,” the one Spanish tune on the LP, sounds prefer it may come out of certainly one of your abuelo’s bolero albums. —F.M.
