2025: Global Independence Playlist

Listening to new music today is, paradoxically, an act of resistance. Not because there's a lack of songs, but because there's an excess of shortcuts. Algorithms that decide for us, rankings that reflect like mirrors, lists that promise discovery and deliver only confirmation. Faced with this comfortable and predictable landscape, pausing to listen to what comes from outside the mainstream becomes an almost physical necessity.

During 2025, At Zonagirante we receive nearly 800 songs through Groover. Eight hundred stories, intentions, quests, and distinct accents. From that wealth, we chose 25. Not the "best" in an absolute sense, because music rarely works that way, but those that achieved something increasingly valuable: to surprise, to unsettle a little, to open an unexpected window.

This playlist embraces the global in the most literal sense. It features artists from Finland, Trinidad and Tobago, Australia, and Brazil, among other corners of the world that rarely appear together on the same list. There's no clear center or dominant narrative. Instead, a scattered conversation emerges between scenes, genres, and sensibilities that are unaware of each other but share a common drive: to make music because it's inevitable, because it still matters.

The program deliberately embraces variety. It features new forms of rock that eschew nostalgia, hip hop that shuns formulas, pop that doesn't try to please everyone, and electronic music that prioritizes atmosphere over easy hits. These artists aren't in the Top 40 in their countries, and in some cases, they're only just beginning to gain recognition in their local scene. That doesn't diminish their importance. On the contrary, it places them in that fragile and exciting moment where everything remains open.

Listening to this playlist means accepting a simple yet demanding invitation: to travel without preconceptions, with open ears and prejudice on hold. To allow yourself to be drawn in by unfamiliar voices, by ideas that arrive unpackaged and unvalidated, by songs that haven't yet become a product.

We believe that this exercise—being surprised by what you weren't looking for—remains one of the most honest ways to love music. This selection stems from that conviction and seeks to share it. The rest is up to your curiosity.