Final Results: New Music Showdown Class of 2025

Gabry Ponte’s “Ghost” got crowned the New Music Showdown Class of 2025 Valedictorian, and had to beat Anabel twice in a row to do it.

Round one of the semi-finals, we saw two Drum & Bass songs go head-to-head with Anabel Englund & Mary Droppinz’s “Born To Fly” dominating over Netsky & Bebe Rexha’s “Light That Leads Me”. New Music Showdown darling Anabel and Seattle-bound Mary Poppinz got to represent the DnB genre in the finals.

Round two, the eventual Class of 2025 winner, “Ghost,” had a deciding win over Anabel’s collaboration with Punctual. The number two seed, “Falling Up,” fell down. I will note that many of the texts suggested they didn’t want a Anabel vs Anabel final. Maybe it played its part in the win in the semi-finals.

As we opened up voting for the final match, Mia Maya and I ran down the path to the finals for each track. “Born to Fly” had the most challenging path to victory, beating out some huge songs from 2025, including James Hype’s “Waterfall” and Disclosure & Anderson. Pak’s “No Cap”. Born To Fly also played graduation spoiler to ILLENIUM, Norma Jean Martine, and WYLDE’s ”Refuge”.

Both songs also had to beat a song from Armin van Buuren. Gabry Ponte did have a strong challenge from Anyma & Ellie Goulding’s “Hypnotized” and Lena Leon’s “On The Edge.” Ghost was crowned the valedictorian by a single vote over Anabel Englund & Mary Poppinz.

Big thanks to my morning show co-hosts for all their work with our daily music battles, including my current students, Boof Milz, Superstar Princess Awesome, Beck, and Bloom. And my now graduated former hosts, McNugget, Finn, Agent M, Wrath, and James Gavin. Thanks to the radio teacher, Planet Dance co-host “Mr. Matt,” and student Avi for producing the monster truck promos. Shoutout to Mia Maya for helping with the final, and to our Purple Programming Princess, Harmony Soliel, for help finding the music that gets battled every day.