The Guide #222: From Celebrity Traitors to The Brutalist via Bad Bunny – our roundup of the culture that mattered in 2025

Not exhaustive, not definitive and unapologetically subjective: our annual tour of the best TV, music, films, podcasts, games and books of the last year

Kylie Minogue gets her – and Amazon’s – first Christmas No 1, with Xmas

Exclusive song for online retailer prevents a hat trick of Christmas No 1s for Wham!, as Kylie becomes first woman to secure UK No 1 singles in four different decades

The 50 best albums of 2025: No 1 – Rosalía: Lux

On her monumental, maximalist opus, the dazzlingly audacious Spanish singer balanced pop and classical, experimentation and accessibility

Grief inspired so much of the year’s best music – and that’s something AI won’t ever feel

As AI generated ever more pop slop, reflective songwriting by artists from Clipse to CMAT drew its power from its very humanity

‘I enjoy fame. It’s very exposing and raw – though you pay a price’: Addison Rae, the Guardian’s artist of the year

In just two years, Rae has gone from star TikTok dancer to being Grammy-nominated for best new artist. She reflects on her critically acclaimed debut and how she’s learning to reclaim and relinquish control

‘Time isn’t on my side’: Au Pairs vocalist Lesley Woods on reforming the 80s punk pioneers – without her bandmates

Her post-punk trailblazers were a key influence on riot grrrl. Now, after decades working as a lawyer, she is taking the name – though, contentiously, not the rest of the band – back on the road. ‘I haven’t given the best of me yet’, she says

Jane’s Addiction call it quits after a tumultuous 15 months: ‘The legacy will remain’

US alt-rock band announce they are finally parting ways, following fisticuffs, accusations and lawsuits

‘Music needs a human component to be of any value’: Guardian readers on the growing use of AI in music

AI promises to have far-reaching effects in music-making. While some welcome it as a compositional tool, many have deep concerns. Here are some of your responses

Omniscient Reader: The Prophecy review – life gets gamified in one-note Korean sci-fi

Big K-pop stars and a teen-skewed subtext aims this squarely at a particular audience but this fantasy never really levels up

‘It became a running joke how much my brothers and I hated it’: the sound of Christmas to me

Beyond Wham! and Elton, Guardian writers from across the generations select the songs that conjure the personal magic and memories of the season

The 50 best albums of 2025: No 4 – Addison Rae: Addison

The former TikTok star defied expectations by delivering dreamy, experimental synth-pop whose fizzy hedonism was a tonic for trying times

‘Fans stole my underwear – and even my car aerial’: how Roxette made It Must Have Been Love

‘We had 2,000 people outside our hotel room in Buenos Aires singing our songs all night. David Coulthard later told me that all the Formula One drivers were staying there and were annoyed because they couldn’t sleep’

The 50 best albums of 2025: No 5 – Lady Gaga: Mayhem

Returning in high style to the operatic electroclash that first made her name, the zest and zip of these songs still sounds truly innovative

What rhymes with la la la, la la la la la? Kevin Killian, the poet obsessed with Kylie Minogue

He wrote poems named after Kylie songs and named his collection of erotic fiction after her indie album. He even loved the B-sides. So what did the avant garde writer find so inspiring about the mini Melbourne marvel?

Raul Malo obituary

Singer and songwriter whose hits with his band the Mavericks included the gloriously cheerful Dance the Night Away