2025’s most essential R&B songs. Songs we couldn’t stop playing in no particular order than for pure vibes
2025 was another stellar year for R&B music. From Kehlani’s Folded to Giveon’s BELOVED to Leon Thomas’ Grammy nomination sweep, R&B certainly saw a rise in mainstream popularity, one of the best year’s musically and commercially we’ve seen in a while. R&B artists from the UK specifically have also broken international barriers in a way we haven’t seen before. Interestingly, most of 2025’s breaking R&B artists are from the UK. Kwn, Odeal, Sasha Keable and Elmiene are just some of the names to watch. But there’s many others coming up behind them. More on this in our list of 2026 R&B artists to watch. Watch this space.
So as we always do, we’re recapping the year’s best R&B songs. So here you have it, the best R&B songs of 2025. You can always keep up to date with the best new music in R&B by following our On The Wave playlist.
