Rosalía

Born in 1992 in a small town just north of Barcelona, Rosalía Vila Tobella graduated from the ESMUC (Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya) and made her recording debut in 2017 with the album “Los ángeles”, a genuine act of devotion to flamenco. But her sophomore effort, “El mal querer” (2018, 120,000 copies sold in Spain alone), already kicks off a decisive stylistic and aesthetic restyling focused on cross-pollination, entrusting its manifesto to an instant classic of tremendous power, “Malamente”. Over the following months her profile is boosted by a string of highly successful singles, some of them made alongside major international stars, including J Balvin, Travis Scott and Billie Eilish.

In March 2022 comes “MOTOMAMI”, sixteen tracks through which the Spanish singer-songwriter reinterprets tradition in a modernist key, while also crafting - with the help of her team - some of the most dazzling avant-pop of recent times. Working alongside producer El Guincho, she pushes as far as possible from her debut album, devising an unprecedented blend of flamenco, r&b, electronic music, reggaeton, Latin sounds and trap; a daring mix of Latin culture, urban rhythms and electronic avant-garde. Doing away with the guitar as the catalysing instrument, distorting her voice in countless ways, constantly introducing stylistic crossovers, and building an even more sensual new image - all these elements break with the past and teleport the listener toward a future dimension still waiting to be deciphered. An album that stands as a miracle of modernity in the way it was written, assembled, arranged, produced and recorded.

“MOTOMAMI” shoots straight to number one on the sales charts in Spain and Portugal, is named by virtually every specialist outlet as one of the best albums released in 2022, takes home four Latin Grammy Awards and a Billboard Latin Music Award, and earns nominations at both the Grammys and the American Music Awards. “MOTOMAMI” wins over critics and audiences alike: on Metacritic's special chart it turns out to be the record with the highest average rating of the year, a sky-high 94/100 calculated across an authoritative selection of professional reviews; on Spotify it is the most-streamed album of 2022 among those made by a female artist.

Riding this wave of success, in September 2022 an expanded edition hits the market, titled “MOTOMAMI +” with alternative cover art and a reworked back half of the tracklist to make room for eight bonus tracks. Alongside the summer single “Despechá”, originally left off the album, the remix of “Candy” featuring a new verse from Puerto Rican singer Chencho Corleone, a live version of “La fama” performed at Barcelona's Palau Sant Jordi without the contribution of The Weeknd, and a brief vocal interlude, four previously unreleased tracks come into play (“Aislamiento”, “La Kilié”, “Lax” and “Chiri”) that add little to the overall picture, but round out the snapshot capturing Rosalía at the peak of her powers, buoyed by a world tour that is only cementing her fame.

(Claudio Lancia)

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