Skiddle's artist of the year 2025

The time is upon us once again. It's chilly, NYE is around the corner, and we’re slowly moving away from our short winter hibernation, where none of us has a clue what day it is. And no more chocolate and Baileys for breakfast. 

What that also means is, it’s time for us to choose our artist of the year. 

2025 has been a crazy one. So much good new music came out from Clipse, CMAT, Ninajirachi, Dave, Rosalia, Geese, Pinkpantheress, Barry Can’t Swim, and Tyler, the Creator. And that’s just some of the best albums of the year.

Oasis returned for Live ‘25, Fontaines D.C. played some seriously massive gigs, Gaga returned, Charli xcx continued her Brat reign, Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter dominated pop, Coldplay played a massive ten nights at Wembley Stadium (exposing a viral memed workplace affair in the process), Josh Baker was everywhere, Sam Fender won the Mercury Prize - a lot happened and a lot of artists could’ve rightfully taken our artist of the year honour. 

But only one can take the crown. 

This artist seriously blew up the dance scene, released an album, had a huge Ibiza residency, and collabed with massive names. Hailing from Ireland and recognised for his tattoos, fondness for cigarettes, and a black tank top… Yeah, you know who it is. 

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KETTAMA has undeniably had an absolute belter of a year. Our best artist of the year recipient smashed through all sorts. From live shows to studio time, the Galway-born producer and DJ has been everywhere, becoming synonymous with dance music in 2025. 

Perhaps the highlight of KETTAMA’s year was the release of his debut album Archangel on 3rd October via Steel City Dance Discs.

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The 15-track album, featuring 2024’s ‘Yosemite’ ft. Interplanetary Criminal, plus newer tracks ‘It Gets Better - Forever Mix’, ‘If You Want My Heart’ with DJ HEARTSTRING and KLP, and his collab with Fred again.. and Shady Nasty, ‘Air Maxes’, charted, hitting number one on the Official Dance Albums Chart. ‘Yosemite’ and ‘It Gets Better - Forever Mix’ have racked up over 22 million streams on Spotify. 

Elsewhere on the album, KETTAMA secured features with Prospa, Clouds, seantommy, and Sølv. As well as the album, he dropped ‘HARDSTYLE 2’, another collaboration with Fred again.. and Shady Nasty, and his remix of Calvin Harris and Clementine Douglas’ ‘Blessings’. 

Throughout the year, you could find KETTAMA touring, selling out venues overseas in countries like the US, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, and of course Europe, which includes huge shows like his Factory International event in Manchester with Teletech and his ENRG party at Blackstone in Liverpool. And let’s not forget a sold-out headline at London’s O2 Brixton, his album release party, a London Boiler Room, and a 16-week Monday night residency at Ibiza’s Amnesia with Ben Hemsley in the other room. And he cosied up with a certain Ibiza celeb while over there. 

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Far from done there, he hit up Glasto with Interplanetary Criminal on the Glade stage, plus sets at Junction 2, Terminal V (plus the Croatia edition), Ultra Miami, EDC Orlando, Awakenings, and some sold-out ADE events. All while doing his RAW CUTZ mini doc series on his YouTube channel, showcasing his life on the road. 

And we all know and love Australian DJ Partiboi69, right? Well, he and KETTAMA continued their musical partnership as KETBOI69, soundtracking parties together all over the place.  

Looking now at the stats - because stats don’t lie - views on KETTAMA’s artist page on Skiddle increased by a massive 941% in 2025 compared to 2024, and searches for him across the Skiddle site boomed by 668% in 2025 compared to 2024. He was your sixth most-searched-for artist this year. So, statistically, you lot couldn’t get enough of him. 

Following on from his 2024 tracks ‘Pretty Green Eyes (Sunset Ibiza Mix)’ and that ‘Yosemite’ banger with Interplantary Criminal, it’s clear now that these two tracks were a sign for what was to come in KETTAMA’s crazy eventful 2025. 

And that’s a wrap for King KETTAMA!

Continue wrapping your year up - check out our best albums of the year, best songs of the year, best album artwork, and the artists you searched for the most on Skiddle. 

Keep an eye out for more content we’ll be posting in January that’ll highlight hot new DJs, bands, and comedians to watch out for. 

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