What to Do on New Year’s Eve

Few harbingers are more promising than the Swedish singer and producer Robin. A sonic palate cleanser, she always seems to show up when we need her most. Her 1995 debut, Robyn Is Here, foreshadowed the future of alternative pop. In 2005, her self-titled album exuded freedom from major label concerns. 2010 brought the era of “Body Talk” and its euphoric statement of purpose; she was a star dancing in her own right. It was almost a decade before she resurfaced with her post-breakup opus “Honey” in 2018. The singer, who officially returned after a seven-year hiatus last month with new single “Dopamine,” is now enjoying her latest return to the Brooklyn Paramount for a New Year's Eve show called “Robyn & Friends.”

As the clock strikes midnight in 2025, DJs across the city will help visitors ring in the coming year. Two shows stand out in a sea of ​​turntables and selectors. Hosts of “Today” Aurora Halal and Avalon Emerson— the former the creator of the long-running Brooklyn party series Mutual Dreaming, and the latter a mixmaster and producer whose 2023 album & the Charm took her electronic music into hazy, funky pop space — continues at midnight and plays until six. There is also a Palestinian techno artist. Abdulhadi herselfa pioneer of her scene who found success in Beirut and has since turned mixing into a kind of activism. At the Bushwick warehouse at 99 Scott Avenue, Abdulhadi continues his important outreach program.

For those looking for them, there are alternatives to celebrating New Year's Eve on the dance floor. Since 2024, rapper and producer from the Bronx Cash Cobain defined the sound of the drill sample, a New York offshoot of the Chicago-born hip-hop subgenre. His debut album, Play Cash Cobain, was released last August, and his popularity has grown significantly this year with collaborations with Drake, Justin Bieber and Cardi B, and the sample drive has gone national. Cobain enjoys his newfound fame in Panda Harlem. On the opposite end of the spectrum is the iconic jam band. Fishan improvisational hydra who has built a four-decade career on free forms such as psychedelic rock and jazz fusion. Formed in 1983, the group released its sixteenth album last year, but the group's focus is more on the live experience, which presents the discography as a single, ever-evolving organism, and has attracted a cult following. Those interested in joining the jam can find the group hunkered down at Madison Square Garden from December 28 until the ball drops.—Sheldon Pierce