NPR Music - Alt.Latino: What Were Felix and Ana's 2025 Favorites?

Episode Date: December 10, 2025

This year was bookended by two major statements in Latin music. In January, Bad Bunny released DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS, and followed that up with a 31-show residency in Puerto Rico over the summer. Then, in November, the Spanish vocalist Rosalía released her genre-defying masterpiece LUX, which sent legions of music lovers scrambling to try to grasp the magnitude of an album performed in 13 different languages.But they were only the tip of the iceberg of yet another year of mind-bending creativity in Spanish language music. This week on Alt.Latino, Felix and Ana look back at some of the other artists and recordings that made 2025 another year of adventurous and rewarding listening. These six artists made only a fraction of music that caught our attention. But we only have so much time on these podcasts! Use this as a starting point to explore the year that was on your own. And check out more of NPR Music's coverage of the best music of 2025 here. Enjoy!Artists and albums featured in this episode:- Bad Bunny, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS- Rosalía, LUX- Queralt Lahoz, 9:30 PM- Roxana Amed, Todos los Fuegos- Arath Herce, Musas en Mi- Mon Laferte, Femme Fatal- rusowsky, DAISY- Lido Pimienta, La BellezaThis episode was produced by Noah Caldwell. The executive producer of NPR Music is Suraya Mohamed.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

A quick note before the show, this podcast contains explicit language. Felix, I have something to tell you. Dime. I'm quitting the band. I knew it. You knew it? Yeah. God, I was expecting more waterworks, to be honest.

There'll be other background singers. Oh, my God. Now I'm the one who's crying. For me, PR music is not Latino. I'm Felix Contreras. And I'm Anna Maria Sayer. Let the Chisme begin. The Cheesme is apparently Felix hates me.

I could just tell you weren't into it. The tease me this week is, we're looking back at the end of the year. The best music of 2025. This was a daunting year. Maybe I say this every year, Felix, but I do feel like this year in particular, there was so much culture shifting, record-breaking music from the Spanish-language world. So we kind of got to be at the forefront of a bit of that. It's again, I've been saying this forever, but the variety of expression is just mind-boggling.

It's almost unfair. Almost. Almost unfair. Okay, what we're going to do this week is we're going to go over some of our favorites because, you know, I have a thing about the best of because I don't know about that. It's so hard. I prefer to say some of our personal favorites. I like that. Okay.

Let's be non-committal about it. So we're going to, we eat fried in some of our favorites, but also we have to talk about the two records that book ended the year. That would be Debbie Tiramaphotos by Bad Bunny and Luke's by Rosalia. Okay, Felix, let's start with Bad Bunny. You know, we had, I think, at least two episodes about the Bad Bunny album. and it deserved it because it is such a major work. This is how I saw it.

It impacted me on an individual level, just following his career from his first record and then hearing the changes and then hearing what he came out with. And then it's almost like a reverse telescope. Then you zoom out a little bit and you see how it impacted the island, Puerto Rico. Significant impact, unprecedented historic.

Then zoom out a little bit more and then it's all of Latin America. He's reminding people. like don't forget where you came from and celebrate where you are. And then you zoom out even further and it's global. This whole thing just went so big. And people from all over the world had an appreciation for this in one way or another. That doesn't happen often.

Felix, the thing that I actually want to zoom in on is how front and center his of not just elevating himself, but really elevating Puerto Rico was. He never lost sight of that goal. I was writing about Baile No Evidable yesterday, and I was thinking even about his insistence on in a pop song, including improvisation in a way that you wouldn't hear in a pop record to pay homage to salsa. And I think this is a perfect moment, Felix, because of what's happening right now,

to talk about the fact that Rafael Ithier passed away this week. can you explain to people who he was? He was the founder of El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, a cultural institution, a salsa musical institution on the island. And in fact, the first sound we hear on that Bad Bunny record is from the Grand Combo of Puerto Rico. And it must have been such a joy for him

to be able to experience the popularity of that song on that record. Let's hear a little bit of the original. It feels so striking to me, Felix, how many new hundreds of millions of people heard El Grancombo, his work, his legacy for the first time this year? I mean, that's the impact, right? In many ways, is taking and sifting through and bringing to the surface some of the most important,

valuable, beautiful parts of Puerto Rico and taking that to the world. And that, to me, is like, that's his calling card. That's what he's done for people. people. And the other album, of course, is the Rosalia record. Again, it's another one of those records where, from the individual all the way out. And in this case, you know, from the individual to opera singers, classical musicians,

Spanish musicians, like so many different people have a way of looking at this record and pulling something out of it. And that's kind of a fun one because really I think that that's going to take on the fullness of its life in the new year. We haven't even seen yet what's going to happen. She's going to tour it. There's all kinds of things that I think will come

from a record like that. Okay, we're talking about the way. Definitely. Okay, we talked about the big ones. So we're going to talk about some of the other things that we heard this year that deserve recognition

and deserve to be talked about. So you can go ahead and start. Oh, this is my favorite kind of episode, Felix, because we just get to revisit all of the most fun things. I was having so much fun and re-listening the things for this episode. Okay. Spanish singer Gerald La Joss released her album earlier this year called 9.30 p.m. I could not get this track La Faye out of my head.

Felix, I brought this. up on the show a couple times already, but that professor that we spoke with in Spain, it's always stayed with me, the flamenco professor that she told us that flamenco was just the infusion of pain and intense emotion into Spanish pastoral music. And this to me is like the contemporary version of what that is. Like she brings that flamenco energy, but then she surrounds it in all these really intense but beautiful beats. I mean, she's just so innovative Felix to me in a way that I think a lot of people might compare her to what, funnily enough, an earlier Rosalia was doing, but this is just completely different. Like, it really is,

it's taking that concept of using flamenco, which is such a rich genre as a bass, but then it's expanding on it in entirely different ways than she ever did in different ways and equally amazing ways, but I really do believe, I mean, what Geralt brings is, like, this album has everything. It has Bacotta, and there's this incredible percussion. and strings, and she really does go everywhere within the realm of what this genre can be. You know, and at the end of the year, I think I can look back at a lot of the other Spanish artists that we've talked about over this past year and doing different things, sometimes using flamenco as a base, sometimes not, but just incorporating some of the cultures that are there.

And then, you know what, I was thinking about this the other day, and it made me think back to, I don't know, what was it, the 80s, the Gypsy Kings, you know, the new, when it was a Nuevo Flamenco. way. It was a popular way, but it was still very much flamenco. People really, they were so popular, they're still popular. They were innovators in that and making flamenco popular like that. But these musicians now are taking flamenco to a whole other level, man. That was La Faye by Get Out La Joss from her album 9.30 p.m. Okay, Felix, first one, what's it going to be?

Okay, as you know, Eileen did a jazz a lot this year. What? That doesn't sound like you. I think more than my past years. I even did a whole episode on jazz musicians from Latin America because to me, this was like a high watermark. It was something happened. And there were all these releases on my top 10 albums.

I had at least three or four musicians from Latin America who had released jazz albums. And the one I'm going to play right now is by Roxana Ahmed, the Argentine vocalist. She released an album called Tos Los Los Four. And it was, again, it was a reworking of all of this great Argentine rock from the 80s. And she did jazz arrangements of these songs with the great Argentine pianist, Leo Henevese. I brought in a track called Cinema Berite.

Let's hear a little bit and I'll tell you a little bit about it after. That soprano saxophone is played by a guy named Mark Small, and it reminds me of the stuff that Wayne Shorter used to do with Joni Mitchell. Cinema Verite was composed by Charlie Garcia when he was in a group, Seru Hiran. They released an album called Pepperina in 1981. Let's hear a little bit of the original. So you can see, like, it's very close, but there's more of a jazz sensibility to the new version. But listen to the original.

So the song is about alienation, superfinal. And cinema verite is a symbol of a search for a genuine reality. And it's like a disguised subject because it's a comment on society. Because in 1981, they were toward the end of this really brutal dictatorship in that era in Argentine history called a dirty war. State sponsored terror. It was when the word disappeared became a noun. Very, very intense time in Argentine history.

And this band and this writer. And a lot of the writers that were featured on his, record, we're all doing the same thing. They were trying to express themselves underneath this this really brutal dictatorship. And Roxanna Ahmed told me during an interview in the episode I did that she just had to get it out of her system. And she had to do it before she left this realm. And it was one of my favorite records of the whole year. It was called Tos Los Fuegos. I love the production of it. It's creative. It's a little avant-garde. It feels right for the moment. Hearing the original and hearing what she did, I mean, it does feel distinct in a way

that is, I do love her. She's wonderful, and it feels very much right with her and right with the time. And all the other musicians that are featured, Fito Paias, who we had on a tiny dust this year, Gustavo Cerati, all of these great Argentine writers are coming out of that era of Argentine music. It was just so poetic, it was so powerful. There was so much symbolism.

And I think that she did a great job pulling all that together. The album, again, is Tos Los Fuegos. The artist is Roxana Ahmed, heard to cut cinema, Betty, you're up. Again? Yes. Oh, great.

Okay. Arat Erce, I brought this album on not that long ago because it came out not that long ago, and I've really been personally listening to it a lot. The album is called Musas and Me, and I'm going to play you the opening track, which I haven't played you yet, Felix, so congratulations. My Mente is an orchestra. are so rotas, the madera grittada, there's

a senisa in the soil, partituras pizada, they're all a lot of all the way, I've tried

to hear, but I don't understand I know, I know, I'm a disaster, no,

you know, you're to get to get me a little a mancue my palco private

no is a manion, I've I've been the same the same

There's so many beautiful things about this album, Felix. I mean, it's this gorgeous voice that Erat has that just communicates so much. But it's really the lyricism to me. It's like this poesia of like even how he opens that song. My mind is an orchestra always out of tune. The ropes are broken. The wood cracked. There's ash on the ground.

Sheep music stepped on. They all play at the same time, whatever they want. I've tried to listen, but I don't understand anything. And he works through a lot of these themes and these ideas of his head and his brain and his mind and his love throughout the album. And it just is really quite special for where he's from. He's from Veracruz. There's not really anyone doing anything like that there that I've heard are really in all of Mexico. I mean, it sounds really distinct.

The closest I've heard, he has moments of vague and maverickism type of energy. but even so, I mean, there's something slightly more Nortenior Mexican sounding to Ed Maverick than I even hear from Arat Eres. I want to play you another cut from the album called Kedate. You got to without without

like the loisers in the car. De Pronto I saw the things as much mirabha that morning and terminate. I'm so I'm so glad you brought this one back in because I forgot that I really liked this one a lot. I didn't add it to my collection.

I think I told you. I told you to go listen to the whole thing and I don't think you did. I did not. I had a feeling. I know. I know when you're actually. not going to do it and I was like this has to come back so that he'll actually go listen to it. And since I brought this album on the show, I actually went and saw Lee Follebeck in concert

in L.A., who was the producer on this record, reignited my absolutely obsession and love for that man. And it's amazing to me. I mean, one, this album just sounds so like him. It's bonkers. It's like you could play them back to back and it's they're like these twin. souls, Leif from Canada, and Arath from Mexico, and yet they have this just beautiful chemistry of sound and soul and lyricism. And I don't even know how it is that the lyricism feels aligned as well because I don't think Leif had anything to do with that. And yet there's just something about about the way they make music that just feels really right for each other. It's really cool. Those are some songs from Arat Erce's album Musas and Me.

Okay, Felix, a wait break. Yes. We beat me to the punch. We do have to take a break. We'll be right back. And we're back. And I've got to let you know to check out NPR Music's full coverage of the best songs and albums from 2025. We'll have a bunch of episodes of all songs,

considered coming out this month. And we've got lists going up already this week and through the rest of the month. You can check it all out at npr.org's last best music 2025. Speaking of best music, let's get back into our list. Let's see, whose turn is it? It's Felix time. Oh, it's my time. See, that was my audition, Felix.

What do you think? Put me back in the band? No, not quite. Speaking of vocalists, I want to play a track from Mon La Fertz album, Fem Fatal. When you brought it in, you know, I was at a disadvantage because I hadn't had time to listen to the whole record,

and the track you brought in really left an impression so I went back home and I listened to it and it made me think of something else but first let's hear the track Veracruz so you get an idea of just just what's behind the concept of Femfatal. Okay, when you played it earlier in the year I heard it and I went and heard the rest of the record

And I thought, wait a bit, it just reminds me of something. And I just kind of thought about it for a minute. It reminded me of this album by a singer named Julie London. And the album's called Her Name Is Julie. Check out this song. I should get. I should go without sleepy. I should go.

You see what I'm saying? Yeah, a thousand percent. Oh. It's testament to. the skill and the vision of Mon Laferre because she has had several iterations. She kind of grabs on the different themes and concepts, and she's like a chameleon,

but at the center of all that is her amazing voice. And in this particular case, she named the album Fem Fattal. And, you know, it's something I've always thought I knew what it meant, and I looked it up. It's a French word, fatal woman, and it says, Fem Fenthal is a mysterious, alluring, and seductive woman

who uses her charm and sexuality. to manipulate men, often leading them to danger, ruin, or disaster. That does sound very monappropriate. I honestly think of Mona and I think of my grandma. I'm sort of keep thinking with all these women. I'm like, this is what she sounds like. Felix, I also think I quite literally said she's a chameleon

when I brought this album on, and this just goes to show you should listen to me when I tell you to go listen to an album. But I 100% agree. I mean, she is so capable of embodying. I mean, that's so much of what she is and who she is, right? I mean, you think about down to literally her being this Chilean artist who moved to Mexico and very much embody Mexico much in the style of Chavezza Vargas. And she continues to evolve and be different versions of what a woman can be, of what a Mexican woman can be.

She was actually, Felix, the most listened to female artist in Mexico this year. Really? Yeah, so talk about finding a new home and finding a beloved, you know, community and audience there. That's how well she has adapted and become part of that. And this, I think, is just another iteration of bringing something new to that public that she has kind of endeared herself to. That was Mon Laferre, and the tracks called Veracruz and the album is Femphatal. Okay, your turn. Okay, Felix.

Oh, my God, we've already arrived to my last album. Your last track. Oh, how could it be? Okay, well, this is a good one. I'm very excited about it. So Rissowski, you've heard me talk about him a couple times, a lot of times maybe this year. I think in my head I've talked about him more times than I have because I listen to him so much and think about him so much in conversation with a lot of the artists that I bring.

But anyways, released his debut album this year called Daisy, and this is the opening track that I have not yet played on the show called Kinky Figuero. It's shut up. I love it when you take a like now. That's love me when you take a laugh. That didn't go. That didn't go. That is all right.

That's not. Bitch. Shut out. And love me when you fake by you smell. Shut. Shut. Jump. That didn't go where I thought it was going.

Yes, that is all one song, Felix. Talking about people playing with classical in interesting ways. I mean, he earlier this year was doing that. And he is one of those artists that. that collaborates across genres, regardless of place and time. That was a track he did with Gene Dawson. I'm going to play you literally just going into the second track on the album called Johnny Glammer to get a feel for just how much he shapeships on the record.

It almost has the tempo of the Palmas, Felix, but nothing of the rest of it. It's really fascinating the way he is able to manipulate sound. He is a producer first. I've talked about this, and so that's kind of at the forefront, I think, of how he creates his art. But he's able to take it in all these really fascinating, unexpected directions. I got to bring him in this year, Felix. You saw him live for a tiny desk. So I have to close us out on a song that I think is.

a lot of people actually saw it on a couple of people's top song list. This track is called Sophia. I got to ask you, Anna, there was so much music and you brought in so many great tracks, and I know you have an expansive list of stuff to listen to for this end of the year. Like, how do you pull out the things that really stood out to you? What is your criteria? We've never talked about this. You know, you're tripping me up even trying to answer this, because it's so intuitive. Like, I think in our process, of picking 10 albums, there were eight that were like immediate yes for me. Like it was sitting there like flow, like just thinking of like literally having album names

in my head that I was like, oh, yep, this, oh, yep this, oh, oh, da-da-dollum, yeah. Like it's really is that thing of do I remember what was happening, where I was, what was going on, maybe even a memory attached to it, a feeling attached to it, that it's like it left such an impact on me. And that's not that often, actually. I listen to so much music and I'll think like, oh, that's maybe worth sharing or that has something interesting to it or there's something interesting to connect to it or say about it. But to have an album that feels like it really deeply resonates, I feel something about it, it feels distinct. That's actually, I mean, not that often. I can relate to part of that. Yeah, absolutely. And people will see that whenever they see our

our top 10 album lists online. We had to call 10 albums from a whole year for our part of the NPR top 10 album list. And then from those 10, we had to narrow it down to three each to bring them on the show here. It's an impossible task. It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it, and I'm glad it's us. Yeah, such a tough job. Okay, Felix, last but not least, what's your final pick? You know, I brought in the Lido Pimenta album, Love.

because she was not the only Spanish language artist that used strings and orchestrations this year. Her record kind of got lost in the Rosalea Hupla, and it's curious that they were sort of on the same musical track without even knowing, right? Early on this year, I remember being completely blown away by the way that she was using strings and her just genre-defined way of approaching music. I've been a fan of her music and her voice for so long. we all have. And, you know, the record was just such a big deal. It deserved to be mentioned at the same level as the Rosalia record, I think. I want to play a little bit. This is called Kiroke Me Bezes, and you can hear some of the orchestrations, the horns, the strings, the woodwinds, all that stuff. Check it out.

I hear strings. I hear clarinets. I hear oboes. You know, and I really need to say, that one is not better than the other when we're talking about Rosalia's album looks, right? If one is not better than the other, they're just different. It just really encapsulates just what this year was like in Latin music. The album's called La Beyesa, the artist Lido Pimienta, and the song we heard is, I'm gonna be says. Okay, Anna, any summation of the year from you? Like, what are your grand thoughts about the year in music? I think the thing that has come back to me again and again and again this year is like zooming out beyond the music and the culture and what we do here, there is a unification to me.

There is like a larger cultural unification of Latin America, of the diaspora of Latin American people across the world. And it's happening through music. And that's been really, really, really incredible to watch and witness and at times be a part of Felix. I think with what we do at Tindus, with what we do here. I mean, it really is this monument. thing of this moment feels like the type of thing that people will write about in the history books and they'll write about it through the lens of music and the impact I can have and the way it can shape not just itself, but the way it can shape literally the movement of people and the world and how we see things and do things. So that's more what I've been thinking about this year.

What about you? You know, I'm hopeful that people will see the two high-profile records. because the Bad Bunny record and Rosalia record, and realize that it's just the tip of the iceberg because there's so much creativity in Latin music, Spanish language music, whatever you want to call it. So much creativity. There's so many different ways to interpret stuff. So many different countries.

I mean, think about it. Just in this show alone, we've heard music from Spain, from Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Colombia. I never get tired of trying to find stuff that was just completely blow my mind and it makes me hear things that I've done. never heard before. And this year was a very, very good year for that. Our band should learn that song. Our band should learn that song. You have been listening to

Alt Latinos. Let's wrap this up. Nice segue. Our audio editor is Noah Caldwell. The executive producer of NPR music is Sarajeo Mohamed. The executive director of NPR music is Senali META. I'm Felix Contreras. And I'm Anna Maria Sayer. Thanks for listening.