Rosalia performing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
Rosalia’s new album Lux peaked at 4 on the Billboard 200. Varsha Anjali debates one of the world’s biggest cultural juggernauts with Rosalia’s biggest NZ fan: herself
Tell the truth. You love Rosalia. So why does there need to be a debate?
Yes, I love her. That is the problem. When you love, you’re giddy and blind. When you love, the words you use to describe your love are wholly unhelpful. Phrases like: “Omg she’s amazing” and “Omg that song is the best”.
I think sometimes love also makes you less curious. Because everything gets swept under a gushy rug. So talking about art forms objectively when you’re actually a fangirl isn’t easy – you need pushback.
Back to Rosalia – what’s the gist? I know she’s a singer-songwriter from Spain. Her full name is Rosalia Vila Tobella. She’s 33. And she dated Jeremy Allen White from The Bear.
All true. She also has a Master’s degree in flamenco interpretation. She has four studio albums, and the second, El Mal Querer (2018), served as her graduate thesis for that degree.
And she has a new album that seems to be everywhere?
The latest, Lux, was released in early November. That’s been her most successful yet. Lux debuted at No. 4 on the US Billboard 200, peaked at No. 11 in the Official Aotearoa Music Charts and hit 42.4 million streams in its first day on global Spotify – the highest debut results for a female Spanish-speaking artist.
Um, queen! But why is she popular all of a sudden? Was there one song that blew her up?
One might argue that Berghain is that “one song”. It’s racked up close to 30 million streams on YouTube just one month after its release. The song features Bjork, Yves Tumor and the London Symphony Orchestra. It is provocative. It is brutal. It is a perfect introduction to Lux.
But the whole album has been a game-changer. She’s produced a highly sophisticated marriage of pop and classical music. She sings in 13 languages. And, for what it’s worth, it’s made a lot of fans on Reddit cry.
Is it true that the album is about God?
Yeah, massively. Rosalia has said her connection with God has always been there. In Lux, she sings about divinity and the need for connection with spirituality, inspired by stories from various religions. She recently told reporters that feminine saints from around the world “accompanied me throughout this process”.
So religion is cool now?
Well, you’ve got a ton of people talking about their relationship with divinity on social media following Lux’s release. I think that says something. The album also sort of has this sainthood inside the sinner complex, the divine baddie, idea. Rosalia expresses that she is wholly flawed and still divine, and I think that’s appealing to a lot of people.
Has the church had anything to say about all of this?
Yes, they have. Xabier Gomez Garcia, bishop of Sant Feliu de Llobregat (which includes Rosalia’s hometown near Barcelona), told The Associated Press the singer “speaks with absolute freedom and without hang-ups about what she feels God to be, and the desire, the thirst [to know God].
“When I listened to Lux and Rosalia speaking about her the context of her album and the creative process, I found myself faced with a process and a work that transcended the musical. Here was a spiritual search through the testimonies of women of immense spiritual maturity,” he said.
And the Vatican’s culture minister, Cardinal Jose Tolentino de Mendonca told Spanish news agency EFE: “When a creator like Rosalia speaks of spirituality, it means that she captures a profound need in contemporary culture to approach spirituality, to cultivate an inner life.”
Is anyone else a fan?
Well, Madonna once tried to book her to play at her birthday and Andrew Lloyd Webber called Lux the “album of the decade”.
Alright, I get it. Can we go back to Berghain – is she talking about that super exclusive club in Berlin?
Actually, no! I thought that too, but in an interview with New Zealand’s Zane Lowe, Rosalia explained that Berghain, which translates to “mountain grove” in German, is like a group of trees in the forest.
“And I feel we all kind of have these labrynths in our heads, these forests of thoughts that you can get lost in,” she said. “Berghain, it’s your mind, it’s everybody’s mind.”
I hope the new listeners check out her previous stuff.
Yeah, she’s been around for a while so there’s a lot to catch up on. Her roots are in Spanish folk music and flamenco, and her first two albums celebrate this. Then she started to experiment mixing that sound with pop and urban beats, eventually collaborating with names like El Guincho for Con Altura and Ozuna for Yo x ti, tu x mi and The Weeknd for La Fama, which broadened her appeal globally.
I just listened to Magnoilias. I’ve been reduced to pure emotion.
New funeral song just dropped.
It’s like she’s je ne sais quoi or she’s everything all at once.
I think that’s it. You can’t explain Rosalia. You have to experience Rosalia. She said in the interview with Lowe that she makes music for people to feel. How can you feel an artist through someone else’s conversation, someone else’s writings? You must hear the music.
Varsha Anjali is a journalist in the lifestyle team at the Herald. Based in Auckland, she covers pop culture, travel and more.