Rosalía - The Global Superstar

Rosalía Vila Tobella was born on September 25, 1992, in a small town, Sant Esteve Sesrovires (in Castilian, San Esteban Sasroviras), located about twenty kilometres from Barcelona, beyond the Tibidabo hill. Even as a child she impressed her family whenever she sang, nurturing the dream of one day turning a natural gift into a profession. The area where she grew up, the Baix Llobregat, one of the 14 comarcas into which Catalonia is divided, is marked by a strong concentration of immigrants from Andalusia, who had moved there from the region at Spain's southern tip in search of work and better living conditions. Because of this, the Baix Llobregat shares many similarities with Andalusian culture and ways of thinking, and, for instance, Rosalía's friends and the people around her listened to flamenco: those sounds, together with the traditions bound up with them, became an integral part of her life, as well as an inevitable, dominant influence throughout her musical training. The figure who struck her most was Camarón de la Isla, a towering figure of twentieth-century flamenco, a Romani singer born near Cádiz who died in Barcelona in 1992 at just 41, an event that caused widespread grief.

Rosalía's ambitions began to take shape around the age of sixteen when, to give her dreams some solid footing, she enrolled at the Taller de Músics, a Barcelona academy known for teaching music through a conceptual approach aimed at stimulating creative interpretation, and therefore attentive to the shifts dictated by contemporary trends. Five years later she would complete her studies at the ESMUC (Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya), a prestigious institute that accepts a very small number of students into its "Cante Jondo" programme, the purest and most dramatic interpretive form of flamenco. Rosalía secured one of those places, gaining the chance to deepen her knowledge of a repertoire that also includes the Romani songs which, from the fifteenth century onward, helped turn flamenco into a vibrant fusion of different styles, giving rise to the great musical variety that defines the so-called "Palos". Among the features of "Cante Jondo" is the obsessive repetition of a single note, a device that lends action and dynamism to the dialogue between voice and guitar, within a song form that is often sorrowful and improvised.

The first decisive encounters: Raül Refree and C. Tangana

While still studying, Rosalía performed in small venues and at events such as birthday parties and weddings, spending her earnings to pay the musicians who accompanied her. Word of this very young singer began to spread around the Barcelona scene, and in the meantime she came into contact with numerous artists from the city's colourful, dynamic underground circuit. At seventeen, however, she had to face an abrupt halt due to vocal cord surgery: it was the hardest moment of the early part of her career.

But the stubborn Rosalía did not give up, and after a period of rehabilitation, in 2012 she took on the role of singer in Kejaleo, a band of hyper-virtuosic musicians working in jazz-flamenco fusion. It was an opportunity that let her build up live experience (footage of a few performances can still be found online) and take part in the recording sessions for the album Alaire, released in May 2013, a work that showcases both the technical skill and the personal background of each member of the collective.

In 2015 Rosalía took part for the first time in the Primavera Sound Festival, Barcelona's most important music event: the opportunity came from Spanish singer Rocío Márquez, who invited her to play synths in her backing band. That same year Rosalía appeared, for the first time under her own name, on a charity compilation, Tres guitarras para el autismo, singing the delightful track "Un millón de veces".

Another year passed, and her first major collaboration took shape: rapper C. Tangana, with whom Rosalía would also become romantically involved, crafted the duet "Antes de morirme", which opened the door for her, for the first time, to a new audience less tied to Iberian folklore. The song would only achieve modest success in Spain two years later, when — following the explosion of the Rosalía phenomenon — it was featured in the first season of the Spanish Netflix series "Elite". Over time "Antes de morirme" would go on to earn four platinum certifications, and C. Tangana would play a significant role in writing Rosalía's second album, El mal querer, released shortly before their breakup, co-writing eight of its eleven tracks.

Driven by the search for greater professional opportunities, Rosalía left her home country to move to California, but not before the crucial meeting with producer Raül Refree, a guitarist and composer with numerous film scores to his name and notable collaborations with Lee Ranaldo. Refree happened to see Rosalía perform (reportedly after being personally invited by the singer) at one of the venues in Barcelona's Pueblo Español. The guitarist was struck by the young woman's qualities (he reportedly said that an artist as talented as her is born in Spain only once every 50 years), and shortly afterwards the two began a fruitful artistic partnership that would produce material for two albums.

But only one of the two would ever see the light of day: Los ángeles, Rosalía's debut album, released on February 10, 2017 by Universal (who beat everyone else to the punch by signing her), a collection of intimate, stripped-back reinterpretations of a selection of flamenco classics centred on the theme of death, in some cases mash-ups of the work of several authors from the past, recorded almost entirely with just guitar (played by Refree himself) and voice. A voice capable of fearlessly tackling bold, complex melodies, such as the one flawlessly handled on "De Plata", the most accomplished track on the record, matched only by the opener "Si tú supieras compañero", which surprises with its unexpectedly dissonant coda.

But every track is a display of sheer skill. The album, conceptually solid, flows like a solemn procession ("Nos quedamos solitos" is the perfect embodiment of this), giving voice to grief over loss ("Catalina"), outbursts of tragic intensity ("Dia 14 de Abril"), melancholy ("Te venero") mixed with endless sorrow ("La hija de Juan Simón"), with Rosalía's voice claiming every available space ("El redentor").

Everything here oozes suffering, an atmosphere light years away from the hyper-colourful Rosalía we would come to know in the years that followed. A touch monotone in its second half, Los ángeles closes with the only track sung in English, and for that reason it feels somewhat out of place: a cover of Will Oldham's "I See A Darkness". A further song, "Aunque es de noche", a cover of Enrique Morente not included on the album (perhaps a leftover from the aborted second project?), would be released as a single the following November.

Los ángeles showcases a crystalline talent, an intense, expressive voice, and a strong presence of both religious symbolism and elements drawn from Romani tradition. Rosalía takes on various flamenco styles, the so-called "Palos", interpreting them as though she were the star of a showcase for her own enormous range of abilities. She still moves in a fairly orthodox way, with great respect for the originals, presenting herself as a cantaora from another era grappling with the story of a rural Spain, still unaware that going against the grain of the trends dominant among the young people of her generation would become the springboard for spreading a new image of flamenco around the world, a nuevo flamenco with hipster leanings. Many young Spanish musicians would follow in her wake, sharing Rosalía's vision and making the most of the spotlight once again shining on Andalusian sounds. One name among many will suffice: that of young María José Llergo, who in 2020 would make her debut with "Sanación", well reviewed on these very pages.

Los ángeles received a nomination at the Latin Grammy Awards in the "Best New Artist" category and won the second edition of the Premio Ruido, awarded by the Spanish press to the best album of the year. Also named best Spanish album of 2017 by Rockdelux, Timeout and Abc, it would remain on the sales charts for nearly three years, although its highest positions (up to a respectable ninth place) would only be reached in November of the following year, after the release of Rosalía's second album. Around that time, the Iberian singer received an offer to represent Spain at Eurovision, which she turned down due to scheduling conflicts: the first opportunity to carve out greater visibility abroad thus slipped away. That chance would instead come with "Brillo", a single that Colombian reggaeton superstar J Balvin would share with Rosalía: released in May 2018 and included on the album "Vibras", the single would enter the Spanish Top 20 and be certified platinum thanks to 40,000 copies sold.

A new style

Rosalía still had her studies to finish, and as the subject of her thesis she chose to present her supervisor (José Miguel Vizcaya, known as El Chiqui, one of Europe's foremost flamenco experts) with a rather ambitious project, one that would become her second album, El mal querer, which also marked her move to Sony. To make it, she chose to co-produce with El Guincho, a respected sound manipulator in the field of electronic pop, whose unconventional vision has led him to work, among others, with Björk.

Being an extremely low-budget project, the songs were recorded in the producer's apartment in Barcelona, with minimal means — a computer, a microphone, a handful of effects — but plenty of ingenuity. The album was launched on Wednesday 31 October, Halloween night 2018, two days before its official release, with a free secret show performed by Rosalía in Madrid's Plaza Colón, drawing a crowd of over ten thousand people alerted purely by word of mouth.

El mal querer is a minimalist-sounding record that sets out to merge the flamenco tradition with the trendiest rhythms of the moment — pop, trap, hip-hop, electronic music — modernizing the genre's history for the consumption of new generations and turning its folk roots into radio-friendly product. It marks a genuine aesthetic shift in Rosalía's musical trajectory. The album's structure is highly distinctive: a concept record in which each song represents a chapter of a tragic love story inspired by a 13th-century medieval novella, "Roman de Flamenca", which remains strikingly relevant thanks to its blend of love, passion, jealousy, domestic violence and thirst for revenge, all spiralling into tragedy.

The album is preceded by the extraordinarily powerful instant classic "Malamente", a song that would forever change the course of Rosalía's story: over a sonic bed borrowed from trap, it grafts on an urban version of flamenco, reinforced by a memorable chorus in which several recurring phrases overlap to perfection. "Malamente" picked up four Latin Grammy nominations, winning two, for "Best Alternative Song" and "Best Urban Performance". Its captivating video went viral, establishing Rosalía as a social-media phenomenon too — an artist who uses Instagram and YouTube to promote both her image and her music.

Unlike on her debut, this time Rosalía relies on self-penned tracks, frequently treats her voice with effects, and brings electronics to the forefront, relegating the guitar to a marginal role — though it remains central on one of the key tracks, the masterful "Que no salga la luna", where the flamenco root still dominates.

One of the greatest merits of El mal querer is that it reignited worldwide interest in a genre considered in decline, outdated, and relegated almost exclusively to a tourist attraction. Grafting in a radio-friendly urban mood (especially on the second single, "Pienso en tu miràa") triggers a genuinely original cultural clash, one that didn't escape music critics, who were quick to heap praise on the young Catalan singer's work. Gone are the days of bare acoustic guitar and naked voice: the use of Auto-Tune foreshadows some of the results of her next record, the powerful "Reniego" features a string arrangement, the hit "Di mi nombre" (the third single released, and Rosalía's first number one) reveals faint Arabic influences, and the art-pop "Bagdad" is built around a sample lifted from Justin Timberlake's "Cry Me A River". Towards the end, on "Nana" and on the moving closing track "A ningùn hombre", the instrumentation tends to fade away, leaving as much room as possible for an extraordinary voice that soars expressively without ever faltering.

El mal querer became one of the most ambitious, sophisticated, celebrated and acclaimed Spanish albums ever made, to the point of being included by Rolling Stone magazine in its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. It would go on to win four Latin Grammy Awards (including "Album Of The Year") and earn Rosalía the first Grammy Award of her career, in the category "Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative Album". By the end of 2022 the album had sold around 120,000 copies in Spain alone.

The criticism: cultural appropriation and not belonging to the Latin world

El mal querer indelibly shaped Rosalía's artistic path, determined as she was to become the figurehead of a new musical style capable of blending the old and the new — a work that would rewrite the rules of the game in her homeland. Rosalía pushes flamenco beyond its own boundaries, astonishing the world with the fact that such a project was conceived within an academic setting. The subject of a university thesis that became a genuinely revolutionary phenomenon: a millennial reinterpretation of some of the cornerstones of Spanish folklore. Flamenco, bulls, Roma culture — an aesthetic revolution that also extends to her look, stage costumes and choreography, almost always the work of Charm La'Donna, one of the most sought-after creative directors of her generation.

Anyone wishing to dig deeper into the experimental nature of El mal querer can find on YouTube the thorough, highly competent analysis carried out by musician and YouTuber Jaime Altozano, whose video went viral. There is no sharper or more detailed deep dive on the web — a value acknowledged by Rosalía herself, who would go on to work with Altozano on the analysis of her next album and sit down with the YouTuber for a long, entertaining interview.

But her newfound success did not spare Rosalía from harsh criticism. In Spain, a genuine "controversy" arose over her decision to alter her native accent, Catalan, bringing her pronunciation closer to the Andalusian dialect, the historic language of flamenco. Listening to Rosalía's songs, it is in fact tricky for an Italian to fully grasp the lyrics, due to Andalusian grammatical rules, which include — for instance — the dropping of many "S" sounds, including those that form plurals, and the contraction of numerous words ("voy a" becomes "via", "pa'" stands for "para", "na'" for "nada", and so on). A further accusation levelled at her is that she exploited expressions from the Caló dialect (for example the word "illo" in the chorus of "Malamente"), a language spoken by the Romani people, today virtually extinct due to the persecution suffered over the past centuries. For this reason the Roma community has branded her a "paya": someone who appropriates a culture that isn't theirs with the intent of distorting it.

Rosalía has also been criticized for improperly using costumes, clothing and visual symbols typical of Roma culture, which some claim she mixes indiscriminately with elements of American street culture in order to make them more appealing to an international audience. Even some flamenco critics and experts argue that Rosalía's work is decontextualized: the Spanish artist, they say, isn't doing anything revolutionary, but merely exploiting for commercial ends a tradition that doesn't actually belong to her. Not to be left out, Catalan hardliners have also seized on her for political ends, over her failure to endorse the region's nationalist aspirations — a subject on which Rosalía has always avoided taking sides. According to her detractors, her choice to embrace and celebrate cultural elements that aren't her own, favouring them over local ones, is anything but commendable. These are, unsurprisingly, deeply felt issues in a region where the independence movement never lets up.

Rosalía has publicly defended herself, arguing that art must transcend any discourse tied to nationality or ethnic belonging, and insisting that she has always acted with full respect for cultural traditions. She states that she drew inspiration from flamenco, but regards it as one of her main influences, certainly not the only one. What remains is her ambition — fully realized — to pass on and promote flamenco among new generations, to revive a style that seemed close to death; and the fact that the album ended up on so many year-end charts, both in specialist Spanish magazines and in some mainstream ones, stands as proof of just how much the public and industry insiders at large appreciated the stylistic mix on offer.

But that's not all: in South America, it has not gone down well that Rosalía gets nominated by award juries (the Grammys, for instance) in "Latin" music categories. South American peoples understand "Latina" to mean someone native to Latin America, that is Central America, South America (Brazil included) and Mexico. These populations regard Rosalía as a "Hispanic" singer, Spanish-speaking, but since she is a European native she cannot, in their view, be called "Latina". The controversy intensified when Vogue México chose a photo of her for its cover, with the headline "La Rosalía + 20 artistas latinos que ponen a bailar el mundo". This dispute over what it means to be "Latino" has deep roots in historical memory, stemming from the never-forgiven colonial exploitation and the violence inflicted by Spanish conquerors on native peoples across South American soil.

Those who back Rosalía's position argue that her numerous collaborations with Latin American artists (of various nationalities) are certainly a means of breaking into new markets, but also a way of paying back her debt, giving visibility to musicians unknown in Europe, returning what she is said to have borrowed, and offsetting this stance with the awards she has received.

As for any potential embarrassment on the part of the Grammy organizers, the controversy is hardly likely to die down, especially following the announcement made in February 2023 by the CEO of the Latin Recording Academy: the 2023 Latin Grammy awards ceremony will, for the first time, be held in Spain, in Seville. This sets a clear direction for the future, one aimed at including Hispanic musicians who are not Latin American natives.

Transmutations

Despite the criticism, Rosalía establishes herself on the international stage as the biggest Spanish revelation of the 2010s, and her artistic transition toward a global, multicultural sound, begun with El mal querer, continues through the singles that follow: a mix, at times jarring, of refined urban touches and blunt popular-reggaeton shortcuts, singles often shared with top-tier musicians who help introduce her to an ever-wider audience. From Hispanic stars C. Tangana, J Balvin, Bad Bunny, Ozuna and Tokischa to leading names in the English-speaking world such as Billie Eilish, The Weeknd, Travis Scott and James Blake, right through to the more esoteric experimentalists Arca and Oneohtrix Point Never, everyone seems proud to collaborate with her.

In March 2019 the single "Con altura," a new collaboration with J Balvin and El Guincho, hits number one in Spain, Mexico, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Argentina and Venezuela, earning a Latin Grammy Award in the "Best Urban Song" category and two MTV Video Music Awards, for "Best Latin Video" and "Best Choreography." The following month, a duet with Peruvian singer A. Chal, "Me Traicionaste," is featured on a compilation of music inspired by the TV series "Game Of Thrones." Rosalía becomes a phenomenon across the Spanish-speaking world, a kind of new heroine of both worlds, with her profile also rising fast in the United States, home to a sizeable Latino community. The following May, the single "Aute Cuture" tops the charts in Spain.

In July 2019 Rosalía releases a stopgap EP, Fucking Money Man, made up of two songs, "Milionària" and "Dio$ no$ lliure del diner," the first of which she sings in Catalan for the first time. The EP once again features El Guincho as co-producer, but this time flamenco gives way to the rhythms of Catalan rumba, with lyrics that read as a critique of capitalism. A critique that clashes somewhat with the controversial image the new pop star projects, often sporting designer labels, appearing at the most exclusive fashion shows, posting hugely popular videos for Vogue, and owning villas and luxury cars.

Yet her persona also stands as a powerful signal of female empowerment, as well as an escape from the stereotypes typical of reggaeton and Caribbean music in general, which tend to portray women in superficial terms, celebrated solely for their sensuality — thereby subverting the misogyny that runs through the hip-hop, trap and reggaeton scenes. With an increasingly recognizable aesthetic and a strong message of feminism and self-awareness, Rosalía is also increasingly hailed as the new face of futurist Barcelona pop, a mouthpiece so influential that the release of the EP Fucking Money Man sparks renewed interest in the Catalan language, earning the singer thanks from the institutions that promote it.

The next single, released in August, "Yo x Ti, Yo x Mi," made with Puerto Rican singer Ozuna, continues — stylistically speaking — the process of "dumbing down" what Rosalía had achieved up to that point, yet it also becomes her fifth single to top the charts in Spain in less than a year. Quality picks back up with the following releases, "A Palé," out in November featuring one of Rosalía's favorite artists, James Blake (with whom she would later record the duet "Barefoot In The Park"), and "Juro Que," both more firmly rooted in Hispanic tradition.

Throughout 2019, alongside the promotional tour that takes her across Europe and America, she also finds time for a role in Pedro Almodóvar's film "Dolor y Gloria," and contributes to the soundtracks of the series "Arde Madrid" and "Paquita Salas."

In late March 2020, as the pandemic erupts worldwide, she releases the single "Dolerme," which echoes Madonna's acoustic songs from her "Music"/"American Life" era, followed by "TKN," her second collaboration with Travis Scott, with whom she had already teamed up on the remix of "Highest In The Room"; in July comes "KLK," with Arca, a track that will be included on the Venezuelan musician and producer's album "Kick I."

In September comes the remix of "Relación," a new collaboration with J Balvin; two months later she duets with Bad Bunny on "La Noche De Anoche," featured on the album "El Último Tour Del Mundo"; in December she appears on the remix of "Blinding Lights" alongside The Weeknd. 2021 opens with yet another star-studded duet, this time with Billie Eilish, on "Lo Vas A Olvidar," written for the TV series "Euphoria" and awarded "Best Latin Video" at the 2021 MTV Video Music Awards. In May it's Oneohtrix Point Never's turn, with whom she records "Nothing's Special"; in September comes "Linda," shared with young Dominican rapper Tokischa.

Meanwhile, Rosalía is writing the songs and exploring the sounds that will define her third album.

Motomami

At this point in her still-young career, Rosalía has no intention of repeating herself; she wants to keep evolving as an artist, constantly seeking the kind of turns that set her apart from whatever the public might expect of her. With her team, she searches for a sound that stands apart from everything she's created so far, merging the street sounds of the past with those of the present, marrying tradition and modernity through a handful of elements that preserve a minimalist feel.

Preceded by a couple of singles that win over the public, Motomami arrives on March 11, 2022, the record that seals Rosalía's complete transmutation, from heroine of the flamenco nuevo to global pop star. It's the result of a decisive stylistic restyling that pairs reverence for the sacred flamenco tradition with every possible contamination, shuffling the deck, condensing attachment to her roots with a drive to experiment, all in pursuit of a single real goal: pushing boundaries — musical and otherwise, as she also becomes an icon of the LGBTQ+ community — to infinity. Listening with an open mind, it's easy to recognize how, across sixteen tracks, Rosalía proves capable of continuing her virtuous path of reshaping the image of Spanish music around the world.

Motomami is a treatise on the right to transform, on emancipation, on evolving into different shapes, entrusted from the very first minutes to the irresistible "Saoko" (“Yo soy mia/ Yo me transformo/ Soy mariposa/ Yo me transformo”, a track that will go on to win the 2022 MTV Video Music Award for "Best Editing"), a mission statement that in a couple of minutes spins together turbo-reggaeton, a free-jazz piano and streaks of industrial. Rosalía rapid-fires an imposing array of styles: an urban soft song that stops just short of Ariana Grande ("Candy"), a bachata with super guest The Weeknd (the global hit "La Fama," about how success can become a terrible life companion), a powerful return to her flamenco roots ("Bulerías"), an irresistible street-reggaeton cut ("Chicken Teriyaki"), an enveloping technoid ballad — its second half akin to Arca's experiments — that reveals the protagonist's romantic urges ("Hentai," a name borrowed from an erotic manga genre), and a children's-style ditty in which Rosalía pokes fun at all her critics ("Bizcochito"). And then more reggaeton ("CUUUUuuuuuute," "La Combi Versace," a duet with Tokischa), electro avant-r&b (the title track), tradition reread through a modernist lens ("Delirio De Grandeza," a 1960s Cuban bolero), charming alphabet wordplay ("abcdefg"), a more structured episode ("Diablo," featuring a fleeting appearance from James Blake) and moving songs built around piano and Wurlitzer, "Como Un G," "G3 N15" and, above all, the closing "Sakura" (a meditation on the fleeting nature of success) — chilling, this last one entrusted almost entirely to Rosalía's bare voice, capable of moving through empty space with enviable grandeur, a display of strength that showcases the vocal abilities of the Catalan artist, able to climb to heights few can reach. It's hard to doubt her after a demonstration on this level.

Motomami stands as an exhilarating vessel of avant-pop, chaotic and irreverent, a kind of Esperanto opening onto a future still to be written, in which the use of the Spanish language makes the final result even more intriguing and sensual, bringing with it a curious gust of novelty. Rosalía, working alongside producer El Guincho, pushes as far as possible from her debut album, devising an unprecedented blend of flamenco, r&b, electronic music, reggaeton, Latin and trap, a bold mix of Latin culture, urban rhythms and electro avant-garde. Leaving out all the singles released over the previous three years, and keeping the guest list to a bare minimum, helps keep the final result cohesive. Removing the guitar as a central instrument, warping Rosalía's voice into endless shapes, constantly mixing styles, and crafting an even sexier, more provocative image all break with the past and carry the listener toward a future dimension still waiting to be decoded. It's a thoroughly globalized record, one in which roots are almost entirely uprooted, replaced instead by nods to Latin music (especially the constant use of reggaeton structures) and Japanese aesthetics (as seen in titles like "Saoko," "Hentai" and "Sakura").

Motomami represents a miracle of modernity in how it was composed, assembled, arranged, produced, and recorded. Rosalía's unmistakable personality is backed by a host of producers hurled at the canvas with the vehemence of splashes of tempera paint. The rapid alternation of heartrending ballads and energetic pop songs is rewarded by the public, propelling Motomami to the top of the sales charts in Spain (where by the end of 2022 it had reached 80,000 copies sold) and Portugal. Cited by every specialist outlet (OndaRock included) among the best albums released in 2022, it takes home four Latin Grammy Awards, a Billboard Latin Music Award and, above all, Rosalía's second Grammy Award, once again in the category "Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative Album". Motomami wins over both critics and public alike: on the special chart of the website Metacritic it turns out to be the record with the highest average rating of the year, a remarkable 94/100 as the mean of an authoritative selection of professional reviews; on Spotify it is the most streamed album of 2022 among all those made by a female artist.

On the wave of this success, the following September an expanded edition is released, titled Motomami +, with alternative cover art and the final part of the tracklist reworked to make room for eight bonus tracks. Besides the summer single "Despechà", originally not included on the album, a remix of "Candy" with a new verse handed to Puerto Rican singer Chencho Corleone, a live version of "La Fama" performed at the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona and a brief vocal interlude, four previously unreleased tracks come into play ("Aislamiento", "La Kilié", "Lax" and "Chiri", the most interesting of the four, which lend the record a darker shade, recounting the less pleasant side of success, made up of isolation and loneliness); they add little to the overall result, but they complete the snapshot that immortalizes Rosalía at the peak of her powers, buoyed by a world tour that continues into 2023, alternating between arenas, stadiums and most of the biggest music festivals. A tour that in 2022 racked up an estimated revenue of over 28 million euros from roughly 343,000 tickets sold across three continents.

But Rosalía doesn't stop there, and the year closes with the release of two more singles, the formidable bachata "El Pañuelo", a duet with Romeo Santos, formerly of Aventura, and "Besos Moja2", shared with Puerto Rican duo Wisin & Yandel. She also records "Seguiryia Madre" together with Niño de Elche, a track featured on the album "Flamenco, Mausoleo de Celebraciòn, Amor y Muerte", released in November by the Spanish musician.

2023 opens with Rolling Stone including Rosalía in its list "The 200 Greatest Singers of all Times" and with the release of a new song on January 27th, "LLYLM", in which the singer fuses her roots with the recent past of her career, blending pop, modern r&b and a handclap ("Palmas Flamencas") once again redolent of flamenco that runs through most of the track. Sung partly in English, "LLYLM" is an acronym for "Lie Like You Love Me". In February comes yet another prestigious accolade: the renowned specialist magazine Billboard awards her the Billboard Women In Music Award in the "Producer Of The Year" category for her work on Motomami.

In March 2023 Rosalía y su novio, Rauw Alejandro, release RR, a title that crosses the initials of the two protagonists, a three-track EP that cements the union—not just romantic but also artistic—between the Catalan singer-songwriter and the Puerto Rican superstar of digital reggaeton. It's not the first time this has happened: Raúl Alejandro Ocasio Ruiz, his real name, co-wrote "Chicken Teriyaki", one of the hits on "Motomami", while Rosalía appears—uncredited—on a couple of songs on "Saturno", the Caribbean singer's most recent album. Rosalía and Rauw put their passion on display, and it seems genuine, real, using social media as a megaphone, but also through three songs dense with good feelings, showing them in love and in sync, complete with a promotional video for "Beso", the opening track, showing a saccharine sequence of kisses, hugs and affection exchanged by the couple around the world.

Their private life spills over into the media, showing the most enviable, glamorous side of the couple, amid luxury homes, dream beaches and exclusive parties. R&R try to win over each other's audiences. "Beso", "Vampiros" and "Promesa" skillfully replicate the distinctive traits of the two artists, yet they show content devoid of any spark, with no vocal daring, with zero desire to explore new paths—something Rosalía in particular had accustomed us to since the very first steps of her career. Now that the honeymoon is over, we hope the two rediscover some edge and dare more again: let's hope the glittering sequins of pop and the reggaeton earworms don't overshadow the undeniable talent of the cantaora we all know so well.

Even the summer earworm doesn't go missing, and in June 2023 Rosalía lands the hit "Tuya", right in the middle of a triumphant European tour that also stops in Milan and brings her back as undisputed queen in her native Barcelona, headlining Primavera Sound.

Toward the end of the year comes a duet with Bjork, "Oral", a collaboration born with the aim of donating proceeds to the fight against fish farming in Iceland.

In 2023 Rosalía is an artist addressing an ever wider and more diverse audience, and she decides to do so without any restraint, without any stylistic or thematic boundary, and she succeeds, in a world where a generalized flattening too often prevails. An artist unafraid to let the public into her own world, sharing her romantic relationship with Puerto Rican singer Rauw Alejandro and posting long Instagram livestreams in which she talks about her days or shows herself putting on makeup backstage.

Her older sister, Pilar, two years her senior, has always been by her side: from the early days, when she accompanied her to try her luck at talent show auditions and in small venues for emerging artists, all the way to the pivotal landmarks of the music world, like Radio City Music Hall, Coachella or Primavera Sound. "Pili" is Rosalía's creative director and stylist, and has helped shape her visual identity from the very start, centered on pride in Spanish tradition, also drawing on aesthetic references from other arts, such as the cinema of Bigas Luna.

Always busy (and in demand) on multiple fronts, Rosalía is currently working (together with Arca) on the music for a major video game (the 2021 edition of Grand Theft Auto), and the next moment she's lending her image to launch a limited edition popcorn-flavored drink produced by Coca-Cola. Adored by her fans, she receives engagement rings and marriage proposals on stage during concerts, graffiti dedicated to her pop up everywhere, some of them by Italian artist Tv Boy, who made one in Barcelona that was later removed but replicated a few days afterward in Palermo, where the city's patron saint happens to be Santa Rosalia.

She's everywhere, advertised as much on the giant billboards in Times Square promoting her album releases as in the playlists of former US president Barack Obama. An artist who will stand the test of time, because her qualities are undeniable and solidly built. The only risk is that some of her artistic choices might make her look like just another shallow pop starlet, overshadowing the real weight she carries as a global icon capable of hurling herself past the geographical limits flamenco might otherwise have imposed on her, crafting a thoroughly coherent journey, always with a smile on her face and a huge sense of self-irony. Like when she disguised herself as a reporter for a Spanish TV channel, with the aim of interviewing people in the street and asking for their opinions on the singer Rosalía. Of course, someone recognized her, despite the blonde wig.

In 2024 Rosalía makes headlines above all as a model and brand ambassador for successful labels. After being chosen as the face of Dior, with giant posters of her towering over all the world's major cities, in early September photos taken for Highsnobiety are released—a fashion and lifestyle brand that encompasses an editorial arm, a creative consulting studio and a commerce platform. Highsnobiety publishes a magazine twice a year that blends fashion and culture, art and music, aimed at a young target audience of global consumers. The cover star of the September issue is the Catalan singer, complete with an interview in which the subject of the musical direction she's pursuing is also addressed. Rosalía avoids giving away any real details about her next musical project, but admits for the first time that she has started working on new material.

The only new track released during this period is the single "New Woman", put out on August 15th, 2024, recorded together with Thai singer, rapper and dancer Lisa, known to younger audiences as a member of the hugely successful South Korean quartet Blackpink.

Primero amar el mundo y luego amar a Dios

After the triumphant "Motomami" tour wrapped up on 22 July 2023 at Lollapalooza Paris, Rosalía gave the impression of being more interested in pursuing a modeling career than one as a musician and songwriter. She could be seen plastered across promotional billboards for major fashion maisons (Dior, Calvin Klein, Skims…) on the streets of both Madrid and Los Angeles, a sought-after face thanks both to her Latin allure and to the popularity she had built across the Spanish-speaking world through a long string of duets with South American pop stars. Her Instagram stories certified a glamorous life: a diva who, from every corner of the globe, shared most of her days by immortalizing messy hotel rooms, designer outfits, Spotify listening sessions, tasty treats and assorted goofy faces. Many began to think she had sold her soul to the "god of success," betraying the roots and original intentions that had led her to bring a piece of traditional Spanish folklore, flamenco, to new generations, turning her into a folk hero.

Music seemed to have vanished beyond the horizon, save for the occasional single or collaboration — the one with Lisa ("New Woman," 2024), handy for the Asian market, or the one with Bjork ("Oral," November 2023), one of the key encounters in Rosalía's career: the Icelandic icon will surely have passed on some useful advice. Meanwhile, her relationship with Puerto Rican superstar Rauw Alejandro came to an end (the waltzing verses of "La Perla" are undoubtedly addressed to him), a man with whom she had even co-created an EP ("RR," March 2023): the breakup of a romance initially presented as unbreakable would leave deep scars on the Catalan singer-songwriter's heart. The encounter with Bjork (who knows who sought out whom?) and the end of a love story — these are the two events from which to start in order to analyze and understand Rosalía's new artistic and aesthetic turn, as in October 2025 she surprise-announces the release of LUX, her fourth album, which confirms her as a champion of experimentation and reinvention.

With LUX, released on 7 November 2025, the Catalan artist once again claims the right to change, breaking away from the aggressive, transgressive electro-reggaeton image of Motomami to pursue a completely different direction (some have called it "nun-core"), centered on a sober, at times austere spirituality — the image of a woman seeking to escape all the background noise filling her intense days in order to focus on finding a new inner strength. And she does so through prayer, sacred chant, addressing God directly, an ascetic path in which the monastic habit should be read not as a symbol of renunciation but of introspection followed by rebirth. In this artistic reinvention, Rosalía once again fuses the sacred and the profane, pop and maximalist orchestration, tradition and avant-garde, recounting an inner journey in search of healing, salvation, light (I would add: divine light).

Despite the impetuous interventions of the London Symphony Orchestra and the imposing choirs of the boys of the Escolanía de Montserrat, Rosalía's extraordinary voice always remains front and center across the eighteen tracks of LUX (three of which are reserved for physical-format listeners); her singing is powerful, even when on "Mundo Nuevo" it floats weightlessly, as happened on "Sakura," the track that closed "Motomami." And while here and there you can spot the last remnants of the past ("De Madrugà" is the orchestral update of "Saoko"), the concept — both musical and lyrical — driving the composition of LUX is for the most part completely new territory for Rosalía's catalogue. These are miniature compositions packed into a span ranging from barely two minutes to just over four, with a structure that is complex (by pop standards) yet never inaccessible, often lacking a proper chorus but full of sudden, continuous shifts in scenery.

A plucked guitar sketches out the atmosphere on which "La Yugular" is built, one of the album's most moving moments, especially when Rosalía delivers a few lines in Arabic before launching into a prayer-like nursery rhyme buoyed by the orchestra's commanding crescendo, eventually giving way to a sample of a 1976 interview with Patti Smith (which explains the amusing selfie from a few weeks ago), in which among other things she mentions the Doors. This gives a sense of the sheer density of elements packed into each song of an extremely dense work, sung in 14 languages (confirming the globalist approach she has always pursued), among them Italian, on "Mio Cristo piange diamanti," a genuine sacred chant delivered with supernatural grace.

Another example is "Porcelana," in which, after a Latin quotation, Rosalía embraces trap intrusions, a verse reminiscent of Arca, a passage in Mandarin Chinese, before closing the track with hints of flamenco. Flamenco, her roots, return in force on "La Rumba del Perdò," featuring Estrella Morente — sister of the legendary Enrique — and Catalan folk singer Sílvia Pérez Cruz. Equally touching is the way "Sauvignon Blanc" unfolds (renewing the pure beauty of "Hentai"), largely built around piano, not to mention the boundless poetry contained in the churchlike minimalism of "Memòria," a Portuguese-language duet with Carminho, and the closing "Magnolias," where Rosalía confronts the ending by declaring “Io che vengo dalle stelle / Oggi mi trasformo in polvere / Per ritornare da loro”, a final prayer underscoring the fleeting nature of human existence, the inevitability of death — a theme that has always been central to her songwriting, dating back to the earliest lines of "De Plata," back in 2017: "Cuando yo me muera…"

Plenty of major names are involved in the project: Guy-Manuel Homem Christo of Daft Punk contributes to the composition of the lively "Reliquia," likely having a hand in its startling final twenty seconds; Charlotte Gainsbourg to that of "Jeanne"; Bjork and Yves Tumor (who repeats an old line once uttered by Mike Tyson: "I'll fuck you till you love me") lend prestige to the single "Berghain," one of the album's most powerful moments; much of the arrangement work is handled by composer Caroline Shaw, already a Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Award winner; and among the credits one also spots the names of Nigel Godrich, Pharrell Williams and Tobias Jesso Jr. But by the end of the listen, detractors will still be left with a few doubts: was "LUX" born of a conscious artistic choice, or is it the result of a strategy carefully plotted by the team managing her image? How much of it can be considered spontaneous, and how much constructed? Is Rosalía truly enough of a great artist to conceive, write and co-produce a project this challenging, both for herself and for her listeners?

The feeling is that no other popstar of her stature could have produced a work like LUX in 2025, a concentrate of avant-pop, modern classical and sacred music. It's hard to imagine a similar record coming from Dua Lipa, Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus or Billie Eilish. Coming from a deeply Catholic land perhaps makes Rosalía better suited, more credible and more sincere in taking on a Catholic-centric role, inhabiting the part in a very personal way, far removed for instance from the approach used by Madonna back in the days of "Like A Prayer." It would be even harder to imagine a similar product made with the help of artificial intelligence, which many artists short on ideas and inspiration now seem to be turning to. It's as if Rosalía had found a way to say: it's all real, it's all genuinely played and sung — now you try it…

Recently, a well-known Spanish music magazine, Rockdeluxe, placed two of Rosalía's albums (El mal querer and Motomami) at the top of its ranking of the most important and significant Spanish albums of the last 25 years. Now, thanks to LUX, we can consider the entire podium symbolically conquered, with three works that are, moreover, remarkably different from one another. An exceptional achievement. It took Rosalía just four albums to rightfully earn her place among the greatest Spanish musicians of all time, attaining that immortality which, though never named in the lyrics of LUX, many will now feel ready to grant her.

I feel something is happening. And not just to me. Spain is suddenly back on the world map. My generation has found a way to bring our roots and our traditions back to life, taking them to people outside this country. Even if my name hadn't been on that billboard in Times Square, but someone else from my generation had been there instead, I would have been just as happy.

There's fashion, there's art, there's music, there's 'La casa de papel,' with its whole cast. Creativity in Spain is exploding, and we're going beyond what our parents did

(Rosalía to Vanity Fair magazine, October 2018)

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google