The 7 Wonders of BBK Bilbao Live 2025

With over 115,000 attendees soaking in the breathtaking Mount Kobeta, this year’s BBK Live felt refreshingly different with lush big bands and rich, complex, soulful sounds that moved us spiritually.

Here are our 7 wonders of this year’s edition:

Starting off strong, Michael Kiwanuka was definitely the best concert of the festival in our opinion, it was a religious experience. The Ugandan-British artist brought a 10-piece band and a very intimate and curated experience.

Despite having recently released his latest album, Michael dedicated the concert to his most known songs across his discography.

As soon as we heard the first bars of “Place I Belong”, we knew we were in for a great show. Michael is a soul-based composer, and he adds notes of funk, jazz, some folk and even psychedelia. He closed with the famous Cold Little Heart, well-known for the series Big Little Lies. The feeling I got during this concert can only be described as the same as when I went to a gospel moss in Queens a few years ago. It was a purely spiritual musical experience, and I had been eager to hear something like that again for a long time. Shoutout to the backup singers, Emily Holligan and Simone Daley Richards, who almost stole the show.

During the Latin Music Month, NPR Music Sessions released Ca7riel and Paco Amoroso’s Tiny Desk, and little did they know it was going to be such a success. “El Único” was a favourite among the BBK audience. Turns out Latin percussion, impeccable jazz-funk arrangements and two shameless punks were the Argentinian equivalent of sugar, spice and everything nice. But let me tell you, they are not nice at all. The duo believes pop music nowadays to be too polished, scared to offend and therefore lacking some spirit. That’s not the case for this duo. In a Latino music scene filled with hyper masculinity (and hyper sexism) Ca7riel and Paco Amoroso have gone against the grain in true rockstar fashion, using their music as a way to satirically poke fun at this notion. Performing songs such as “Tetas”, satirising themes of gender stereotypes, steroids, muscles, mewing-generated jawlines and Chads.

“What’s up fuckers?” Kneecap performed a hugely politically charged concert at the San Miguel stage. They started off with “3CAP”, reporting the genocide on screen and raising the Palestinian flag to the response of more cheers and flags from the crowd. Following in the defiant footsteps of the late Sinéad O’Connor, Kneecap have taken up the mantle as the militant voice of Irish protest music – much like Sinéad’s famous “Famine” song that challenged official history, but with more rap, electronic beats, rebellious energy, keeping the crowd bouncing throughout full set. Recently the police dropped the investigation into their incendiary Glastonbury performance, where they chanted against Prime Minister Keir Starmer and showed solidarity with Palestine. Just as in Spain, they delighted us with a heartfelt “Fuck Franco” (fascist dictator of Spain for 40 years). Kneecap made it clear their commitment is non-negotiable. As they closed, the band shouted “Gora Euskal Herria, Askatasuna!”, reaffirming a resistance network linking Belfast, Gaza, and the Basque Country.

I time-traveled during Jalen Ngonda’s concert. I always say I would’ve loved to live my youth during the 70s or 80s because of the music, and felt a bit jealous of those who did. Seeing him live was one of the closest moments I’ve come to that feeling.

Janel Ngonda’s falsetto, brighter and even higher than Marvin Gaye’s by an octave, immediately set the tone. It was smooth, warm, and rich in texture, shown in songs such as “If You Don’t Want My Love” or “Don’t You Remember”. It rained lightly during his show at the Repsol stage, but that didn’t stop him from smiling, crackling jokes, and getting the audience to sing along. If you get it, you get it, – and we were clearly a crowd who got it, with people coming to actually listen to the music.

Before shaking things up in the US and Europe, Ngonda studied at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, a school founded by Paul McCartney. You can hear that training in every beat of his performance, in his vocal finesse, the care for instrumentation and rhythm. At one point, he smiled and said “Let’s marinate the groove a little longer”, and it struck me how perfect that phrasing was. Groove is exactly that: the way music breathes between the beats, that irresistible pocket of rhythm that holds your body, just before your brain catches up and makes you move your head, neck, shoulders, hips and toes. Jalen Ngonda knows how to hold it just right.

After the abrupt ending of Amaia’s concert due to the storm and wandering around the festival site until it eased up a bit, we headed to see RAYE with high expectations. She opened with “Oscar Winning Tears”, grand, theatrical, full of heartbreak. “My music has a lot of drama”, she said, “but I’m actually quite chill, I like a calm life. I just need the drama in the music”. When the rain started pouring and her mascara ran, the crowd went wild. She didn’t just carry on, she made it part of the show. You could feel her hard work and gratitude in every note. A trained mezzo-soprano, she moves effortlessly between R&B, soul, and pop with a rich tone and impressive range. Her power comes not just from talent but discipline and determination. Raised in a family of singers in Tooting, RAYE spent years writing hits for others before reclaiming her story (because the label wouldn’t let her). Last year, she made BRIT Awards history, winning six trophies in one night with her debut album My 21^st Century Blues. Watching her command the stage, soaked and radiant, it was clear she belonged there. Closing with her collaboration with 070 Shake in “Escapism”, was the cherry on top to a mind blowing performance.

In a music industry obsessed with youth and freshness, Kylie Minogue triumphantly defies all logic. She’s still on top after 35 years – not by clinging to nostalgia, but by evolving with grace. She lets her fans age with her, while still gaining new ones: Gen Z’s now scream to “Padam Padam” with the same joy older generations felt hearing “Can’t Get You Out of My Head”. She’s the antidote to “the substance”, that horror metaphor for Hollywood’s obsession with youth and the fear of aging women losing their spotlight. Kylie never bought into that. She doesn’t cling to relevance, she simply is.

The show opened with “Lights Camera Action”. The staging was sleek and: a masterclass in pure pop craftmanship, with 7 outfits changes. No matter how good her eight backup dancers were, Kylie, at 57, outdanced them all with ease, smiling like it was her second nature. She embodied a glorious hybrid between Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Coolidge: the poise of one, the mischief of the other. At one point, bathed in a pink spotlight, I half expected her to whisper: “Do you know these gays? These gays are trying to murder me.”

If Nathy Peluso had to be described in one word, it would be unmistakable. She has built a persona and a sound that’s truly one-of-a-kind. You either love her or you hate her, but you’ve heard her, you’ve talked about her, and you’ve most definitely wiggled her hips to one of her songs.

Her stripped-back show, just her, three dancers and a band, was structured, tight and physical. What impressed me the most was the absence of pauses, the relentless rhythm, the control she had over her voice, the physical strength and presence she maintained throughout the show: elastic, powerful, resistant, and above all, creative with movement, especially with bangers like “Puro Veneno”.

The set was built around Grasa, a second album with theatrical flair and genre-blending ambition: salsa, hip hop, R&B, néo-soul and boleros, often within the same track. All delivered through a heightened stage persona that, just like Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust, lets her fully transform. For Menina, she brought out Brazilian artist Lua de Santana for a warm, tender moment on stage. Lua looked a bit shy and overwhelmed, like a young Padawan sharing the stage with a master Jedi, but the chemistry was sincere and the gesture generous.

If I were you I would already buy tickets for the next edition, a special one since it will be the festival’s 20th anniversary.

See our festival photo gallery below