Great Scots: 2025 in Scottish Music

From old hats releasing new tunes to brand new artists, fresh out of the box, releasing their debuts, 2025 has been another massive year for music in Scotland. A country overflowing with talent, Scottish music has genre-hopped more than ever this year and so our end of year Great Scots playlist features everything from tender singer-songwriter cuts to cello-led laments and experimental moments, via organ-drenched beauty, hyper-pop heavyweights, post-rock, punk, electronica, techno, hip-hop... well, the list goes on.

Featuring at least one song from every artists we featured in our weekly Spotlight On column as well as tracks from our writers’ Scottish Albums of the Year list, you’ll also find songs from albums and gigs we’ve reviewed, stuff we’ve missed and everything in-between that’s come out of Scotland to help provide an awesome soundtrack the year. Offering a snapshot of what’s been going on, it features releases from 2025 SAY Award winners Kai Reesu, Mercury Prize-nominated and BBC Introducing Artist of the Year Jacob Alon, Scottish Alternative Music Award winners Mercy Girl, Miwa Nagato-Apthorp, Martha May and the Mondays and waverley., and a whole bunch of artists that brought the heat to our stage at Kelburn Garden Party way back in July.

It’s a banger of a playlist, if we do say so ourselves, but its 125 songs only scratch the surface of what’s actually happening in Scotland. Enjoy it, share it, discover something new, and get in touch with us in the new year if you’re an artist releasing new music in 2026.

When we were pulling together our Albums of the Year content, we also polled our writers for their songs of the year, so you can find that playlist here too. Beautifully curated, it features 100 songs our writers have loved in 2025, from Lady Gaga and Deftones to Baxter Dury, Gelli Haha, CMAT, Long Fling, Geese, Turnstile, Danny Brown and more. Merry Christmas from us and here's to another music-filled year in 2026. xx