Rosalía (singer)


Rosalia Vila Tobella, known mononymously as Rosalía, is a Spanish singer-songwriter from Barcelona. Initially known for her contemporary interpretations of flamenco music, Rosalía received international attention after several collaborations with such artists as Travis Scott, Lil Baby, J Balvin, Pharrell Williams, and James Blake. She has received various accolades, including five Latin Grammy Awards and a Grammy Award.

Life and career

1993–2016: Early life and career beginnings

Rosalía was born on 25 September 1993.
She began her professional musical formation at the age of 16 at the Taller de Músics in Barcelona, Spain. She did a six-year course at the academy. She began attending class at the Raval school. Due to her high grades and multiple recommendations, she transferred to the Superior School of Music of Catalonia in order to finish her course. There she received lessons from Chiqui de La Línea, a flamenco teacher who only accepted one student per year.
At 15, she competed on the television show Tú sí que vales, although she wasn't selected. Rosalía worked as a duo with Juan "Chicuelo" Gómez at the 2013 Panama International Film Festival and at the Festival Grec de Barcelona for the contemporary dance work De Carmen. In 2013, she participated in the Association of Performing Arts Professionals Conference in New York, and was the lead voice in the culmination of the Año Espriu 2014 at the Palau de la Música. In 2015 she collaborated with La Fura dels Baus on a show premiered in Singapore. She was the opening act for Catalan flamenco artist Miguel Poveda, accompanied by Alfredo Lagos, at the International Music Festival of Cadaqués, and also at the 2016 Jerez Jazz Festival. She worked with Rocío Márquez on the presentation of her album El Niño, produced by Raül Refree, at Primavera Sound 2015. In 2015, she also worked with clothing brand Desigual and sang the single for their 2015 campaign jingle "Last Night Was Eternal". That same year, she released "Un Millón de Veces". The song was part of the benefit album Tres Guitarras Para el Autismo. All proceeds benefited studies on autism. Through her teenage years and early twenties, she performed in musical bars and weddings. At 20, she worked as a flamenco teacher.
In 2016, she collaborated with Spanish rapper and former boyfriend C. Tangana on "Antes de Morirme". The song was a sleeper hit and entered the Spanish Singles Chart in 2018, after the success of Rosalía's other work. The collaboration received international attention when it was featured on the soundtrack of the first season of Spanish Netflix show Élite.

2016–2017: ''Los Ángeles''

On 14 May 2016, Rosalía performed to a crowd of a hundred people at the Tablao del Carmen, a flamenco specialized venue at the Poble Espanyol, in Barcelona. There, in the audience, was Raül Refree, whom she invited to the show. Since that moment, they began shaping Rosalía's first studio album, the duet album with Raül, Los Ángeles. The album talks about death in a dark way with sweet but aggressive guitar chords by Refree. It presents reworks of flamenco classics receiving several accolades. She was nominated for Best New Artist at the 18th Latin Grammy Awards. The album was released on 10 February 2017 through Universal Music and spawned two singles, "Catalina", released in October 2016 and "De Plata", released in August 2017. Jordi Bardají wrote on 1 November 2018 that the record was "one of the greatest 'sleepers' that Spanish sales lists have known in recent times." Los Ángeles reached its peak position of number nine on 11 November 2018 and has remained in the albums chart since its entry, having accumulated a total of 89 weeks. Los Ángeles won the 'Album of the Year' award at the Time Out Awards and the Ruido de la Prensa Award for Best National Record, among others. In 2018 Spanish rapper Yung Beef sampled Rosalía's "De Plata" for his song "Rosalía" which talks about her in a non-shady way.
Rosalía and Raül Refree embarked on a concert tour, Los Ángeles Tour supporting their first studio album together. The tour began on 11 February 2017 in Granada and ended on 1 March 2018 at the Palau de la Música in Barcelona.

2018–2019: ''El Mal Querer'' and international recognition

Rosalía began recording songs for her second studio album, El Mal Querer, in 2017. In May 2018, the singer announced in the final chapter of a YouTube series of hers the title of her second studio album. That same month, Colombian reggaeton superstar J Balvin released his fifth studio album, Vibras, which featured Rosalía on the track "Brillo", which was co-written by her and on "En Mí " even though she wasn't credited. On 30 May 2018 she released the album's lead single, "Malamente", her first flamenco-pop song. It had an international impact thanks to its intense promotion and its novel sound. In August, Rosalía was booked to perform at Madonna's 60th birthday in Morocco but cancelled the gig after many logistic conflicts. Rosalía promoted the song on several award shows as well as in several music festivals and an 11,000-attendance free solo concert at the Plaza de Colón in Madrid, which completed her El Mal Querer Live promotional tour. Personalities such as Kourtney Kardashian and Dua Lipa showed their appreciation of Rosalía's new song, sharing it on their respective social media. Its music video, directed by Canada, was named Video of the Year by Pitchfork. The song earned five Latin Grammy nominations, out of which Rosalía won two; one for Best Alternative Song and another one for Best Urban Fusion/Performance. "Malamente" is certified 5× Platinum in Spain for selling over 200,000 copies and is also platinum in the US. The album's second single, "Pienso en tu Mirá" was released on 24 July 2018 through Sony Music. Its respective music video acquired a certain level of social media virality, with praise going towards its aesthetics and the poetic symbolism. The song is nominated for Best Pop Song at the 2019 Latin Grammy awards. Its third single, "Di Mi Nombre" earned Rosalía's first number-one single in Spain. The song was released on 30 October 2018.
Rosalía released El Mal Querer on 2 November 2018 and debuted at number two on the PROMUSICAE chart. It is written by her and co-produced with El Guincho. It is presented as experimental and conceptual, revolving around a toxic relationship, inspired by the anonymous 13th century Occitan novel Flamenca. Rosalía revealed that El Mal Querer is actually her final bachelor's degree project, graduating from flamenco studies. The album also entered the charts in Belgium, Switzerland, Portugal and the United States, where the album debuted at the top of the US Latin Pop Albums chart. El Mal Querer was generally acclaimed by music critics. Writing for The Guardian, head critic Alexis Petridis highly commended the album, giving it the highest rating and describing it as "the calling card of a unique new talent". He praised Rosalía's vocals for giving the album "a head-turning freshness", noting that her singing style "is audibly rooted in a different musical tradition to the usual styles in which pop vocalists perform." Pitchfork ranked El Mal Querer as the sixth best album of 2018, with Philip Sherburne complimenting its combination of traditional and modern styles, and praising Rosalía's voice, saying, "Whether breathy or belting, she's as commanding a presence as Spanish-language pop has encountered in ages—less an ambassador for flamenco than the inventor of her own fascinating hybrid." In October 2019, Pitchfork named El Mal Querer the 36th best album of the decade. El Mal Querer has been nominated for four Latin Grammys, a Latin Billboard Music award, a Latin American Music award and a LOS40 Music award. Rosalía became the first female recipient of the Latin Grammy Award for Album of the Year since Shakira in 2006. The album won "Best Non-Catalan album" at the Enderrock awards as well as a Premi Alicia a la Música Catalana, which congratulates Catalan performers.
in Barcelona in June 2019
In March 2019, the Pedro Almodóvar film Pain and Glory premiered in cinemas. Rosalía made a small cameo in the film alongside Penélope Cruz. This wasn't the first time that Rosalía took part of an audiovisual production. In June 2018 it was revealed that she would sing the theme song for the second season of Spanish hit Netflix show Paquita Salas. The cameo in Almodovar's film and her musical career earned her an Antonio Banderas award for the Performing Arts. That same month she embarked on her first world tour, the El Mal Querer Tour, in support of her second studio album. The tour visited several festivals such as Lollapalooza, Glastonbury and Coachella. More than 63,000 people saw Rosalía live at Primavera Sound, in Barcelona in June 2019, making it the most attended concert of the whole tour. The tour ended on 10 December 2019 at the WiZink Center in Madrid after 43 shows.
While being on tour, Rosalía has issued several songs. On 28 March 2019 she released her second collaboration with J Balvin, "Con altura". The song received some criticism due to its urban-reggaeton sound, which was considered at odds with Rosalía's more well-known "hypnotic flamenco fusion" sound. Even though some critics did not enjoy the song, "Con altura" topped the charts in Argentina, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Venezuela and Spain. Rosalía performed the song throughout tour season as well as at the 2019 Latin Billboard Music Awards. Its music video, directed by Director X, became the most-watched music video by a female artist of 2019, surpassing Ariana Grande's "7 Rings". It reached a billion views on YouTube on 16 October 2019. The song won two MTV Video Music Awards for Best Latin Video and Best Choreography, making her the first Spanish act to win a VMA. In November 2019, “Con Altura” also won in the Best Collaboration category at the 2019 MTV European Music Awards. The song is certified Gold in Italy, 3x Platinum in Mexico, 4x Platinum in Spain and Gold in the United States.
Before beginning the tour's European leg and to celebrate one year since the release of "Malamente", Rosalía released the song "Aute Cuture". It earned Rosalía her third number-one in Spain and a Latin Grammy nomination for Record of the Year. On 3 July 2019 she released the single Fucking Money Man, which includes two money-themed tracks: "Milionària" and "Dios Nos Libre del Dinero". The first one was another success, becoming her fourth number-one song in Spain. On 15 August she released her collaboration with Ozuna "Yo x Ti, Tu x Mi", which they performed together at the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards and became her fifth number-one song in Spain. On 7 November 2019, she released the song "A Palé", which features background vocals by James Blake. The video shows Rosalía blending the appearance of Frida Kahlo and the Duchess of Alba as painted by Francisco Goya. The song was performed at the 20th Annual Latin Grammy Awards.
In November 2019, she received two Grammy Award nominations, including one for Best New Artist, becoming the first all-Spanish-language artist to be nominated for the award.
In December 2019, Rosalía featured alongside Lil Baby on the remix of Travis Scott's "Highest in the Room". The original song is a non-album single, but the remix is in the compilation album JackBoys by Scott and JackBoys, which is the known name of his Cactus Jack labelmates. The album released on the same day of the remix. This marked the first time that a song that included Rosalía's vocals entered the Global Spotify chart, peaking at number four. That same month she narrated the story behind the music video for Harry Styles' song "Adore You", which premiered on YouTube on 6 December. She also and hit a page in the 2020 Pirelli calendar, becoming the first Spanish act to ever do so.
Throughout 2020, Rosalía continued promoting herself and expanding territories. On 26 January 2020 she performed at the 62nd Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, making her the first Spanish female artist to ever perform at the gala. She ended up winning the Grammy Award for Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative Album. Three days before her Grammy debut, she released "Juro Que", a conceptual single that brings back her old "flamenco fusion" sound. On 25 February 2020, the first of three episodes of the 10-minute documentary 'La Rosalía', produced by Billboard and Honda, premiered on YouTube. Two days later, Spanish production company Canada, who also took part in the production of the documentary, revealed to radio station Rac1 that they had filmed a music video in Los Angeles for Rosalía's upcoming single. This collaboration with Travis Scott titled "TKN" was scheduled to be released in March but was delayed to 28 May due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, the singer released the ballad "Dolerme" which she hoped could make people feel better during international quarantine. After its release, "TKN" marked Rosalía's first entry on the US Billboard Hot 100, debuting at number 66, as well as her sixth number-one single in her home country. On June 22, Arca and Rosalía released their highly anticipated collaboration "KLK", included in the musician's album KiCk i.

2020–present: Third studio album

Despite the popular thought that "TKN" would be the lead single of the singer's third studio album, in July Rosalía told the press during a Zoom conference that her upcoming album would be released "hopefully in 2020 but whenever it makes sense" and that it would follow a concept. More focused on hip-hop, it will not include the seven own singles released since the release of El Mal Querer, including in this list "Con Altura" and "TKN". She has also discarted the idea of releasing a box set or a compilation album where these songs would be included. Recording sessions for this new conceptual album started in the summer of 2020 in Miami immediately after the concept was settled down and the collaboration with Billie Eilish was finished after almost two years of work. When travel restrictions from the United States due to the coronavirus pandemic started to lift, the singer traveled to Puerto Rico for the first time ever in the need for inspiration, where she had recorded sessions with Lunay, Rauw Alejandro and reggeaton legend Tego Calderón.

Artistry

Musical style and genres

Rosalía became extremely popular in spring 2018 when she released "Malamente" so, at that moment, her music was described as a "very interesting fusion of flamenco with modern arts". American magazine Pitchfork called the singer's voice "a soft liquid velvet" and wrote about the song that "Malamente consumes the listener with drums and soft synthesizers that drag you to their world completely". After releasing El Mal Querer in November 2018, The Guardian scored it with 5/5 stars and said: "the Catalan singer’s potent, smart second album is more complex than any Latin pop currently in the charts". Before that, shortly after releasing her first studio album, Los Ángeles, writing for MondoSonoro, Yeray S. Iborra felt that Rosalía "is posited as the contemporary cantaora who has better understood the current times". After Rosalía released her 2019 track "Con altura", Rosalía's music evolved to a more urban/reggeaton sound. Rolling Stone had this to say about the song: "it's a modern take in reference to Spanish flamenco songs inspired by Afro-Caribbean sounds; ever the champion of cross-cultural experimentation, Rosalía has ultimately described it as her personal homage to classic reggaeton." Since this release, Rosalía's music is much more pop and radio-friendly than her 2018 releases. Some examples of it are the funny track "Milionària" and the romantic "Yo x Ti, Tu x Mi".
She is often accused of cultural appropriation by the Romani people.

Influences

Rosalía has cited Camarón de la Isla, James Blake and La Niña de los Peines as her major musical influences. In January 2019 she told MTV "when I was 13 years old I started listening to him by chance. These genre, flamenco, was what my high-school friends listened to and so did I. When I discovered him I was like "oh my God!" I didn't think anyone was capable to sing with such a voice; it would go right through me so heartily. He was my introduction to flamenco. Thanks to him I discovered this vast universe within this music style which is almost endless and very exciting." When she was asked about the impact Blake had on her, she said: "I started listening to him when I was at university. His music has left a mark on me; not only the bold character of his production but also its minimalism and free structures. When I listen to him, I can feel that he allows himself a lot of freedom. I personally think that he doesn't do music to please nobody but only for himself." Rosalía collaborated with Blake on his song "Barefoot in the Park" which was released as the fourth single of his 2019 album Assume Form in April 2019. Rosalía states that she began listening to another big influence in her life, La Niña de los Peines, when she was 16. She states that at first she didn't enjoy her music because it sounded like 78 RPM records for her but that later on she ended appreciating her melodies and realised that she was a creator, that she was a cantaora when, at that time, most of them were men. She said: "flamenco is a masculine art form by tradition and there she was, with all her creativity as a woman. She became a professional at the time when it was very unusual".
When she was asked about her biggest fashion influence, she cited Lola Flores. In an interview with Billboard she said: "I love her. I love the attitude and the strength she had". She also mentioned Carmen Amaya; "she used to wear masculine clothes in a moment that any woman was dancing in typically-man clothing".
When she was asked about with who would she like to collaborate in the future, she said that it would be a dream to do a song with Kanye West since she loves everything he produces. She also told W Magazine that Frank Ocean is also one of her main dream collaborations. Another big American influence for her is Travis Scott which she collaborated with in the remix of "Highest In The Room" alongside Lil Baby in December 2019 as well as in "TKN".

Impact

Music in Spain in the 20th century was a huge art. The popularitzation and growing international recognition of Spanish musical legends such as Julio Iglesias and his son Enrique, Camarón de la Isla, Joan Manuel Serrat, Joaquín Sabina, Alejandro Sanz, Miguel Bosé, Rocío Jurado or Isabel Pantoja was very notable and pleasing at the time. making the country reach a satisfying peak of musical projection. The effects of musical globalization in Spain became notable after the meteoric success of Italian singer Laura Pausini in the country, whose self-titled 1994 studio album still holds the national record for the best selling album by a foreign artist. In the mid-2000s a few artists like David Bisbal, Estopa and Malú caught the attention of the international public. In that period of time "Aserejé" by pop band Las Ketchup became the biggest Spanish song in the world since Los del Rio's 1993 track "Macarena". Despite its huge projection, Spain's interest in the music industry began to decrease progressively, affecting a huge amount of potential artists. After the Spanish financial crisis began in 2008, the music industry received zero interest by the population since there was nothing fresh to bet on or to finance. Art in Spain became truly despised and wasted, expanding the thought that studying and/or performing arts is useless. Rosalía, however, stated that she wanted to study musical arts since she was a teenager, something very confusing at the time.
Rosalía is the main character in the first tidal wave of Spanish international musicians of the 21st century. Her rise to fame came just when it was needed. Aproximately in 2014 new interesting artists started to emerge in Spain from Álvaro Soler to Pablo Alborán. Spain, however, being a Spanish-language country that is able to get inspired by a lot of different projects and genres thanks to technology and communications, had a lot of pop stars but not that many urban/hip hop-orientated artists. Spain's music industry was very weak, monotonous and boring. Thus, based on this premise, and with the help of streaming platforms artists like Yung Beef, C. Tangana, La Zowi or Bad Gyal started to make fresh urban music influenced by the folklore of regions like Puerto Rico, Jamaica or Colombia. The rise of urban music in Spain grew paralelly with the increasing global interest in reggaeton, trap and, in general, Latin American music. Rosalía became very close with this artists, who became very close influences for her. The interest in music in Spain, however, didn't reach its peak until 2017 when the mentioned artists reached a high point of success and when talent show Operación Triunfo aired on television for the first time since 2011. The TV show attracted millions of loyal viewers and became a massive platform for the great artists that participated on the show like Aitana, Amaia or Lola Indigo. When Rosalia appeared on the charts for the first time with "Malamente", she became this highly interesting fresh artist that had invented something new and exiting to listen to, a mix of traditional and modern arts; Rosalía had created flamenco music for everybody. The revenue of music in Spain was of 232 million euros in 2018, a 9% more than the year before. Due to this facts, music in Spain became an art to protect and to be proud of, making people take a look at the Spanish artistic market, which had abandoned its category of C-list industry. In July 2020, Spanish novel rapper Don Patricio told El Periódico that "the interest that the world has in Rosalía has benefited all of us, because all those who are interested in her and her music have looked out to see what else we are producing here. Rosalía going to the Grammys helps, the fact that she has made a song with Travis Scott helps. It all adds up to Spain, to Spanish musicians and to our movement". This new wave of musicians in Spain and growing interest in music in the country has led to the recuperation of an annual award ceremony to celebrate Spanish music, the Premios Odeón, in 2020.
The popularization of new flamenco nationally and worldwide has opened the doors for new artists such as María José Llergo to reach a wider interest in other parts of the world. Before Rosalía rose to fame, its hard to remember interest in this way of expression by the young; it has been since her critical and general acclaim that it has caught the interest of a large number of Spanish and non-Spanish. This has also opened the door for the discussion of cultural appropriation. Rosalía has often beef acused of stealing the culture of the Spanish Romani people, who claim that this artistic expression as one of their own since it has been one of the few ways of expression that have made the Gitanos forget the discrimination and persecution this ethnic group has suffered since forever. Some people reafirm that, as a Catalan, she shouldn't perform flamenco since she isn't Gitana nor Andalusian. On the other hand, many others defend Rosalía saying that, in a global interconnected world where we can access a huge amount of information in just a few seconds and be inspired by what we read, listen or see, stating that Rosalía is just a victim of inspiration comparing the situation with Madonna's high interest in Spanish traditions among others. When asked about this topic, she responded: "I've realised that it is not that I am specifically being attacked, it is the situation where there are people who, like me, have been fortunate enough to be able to study music, which they have wanted. And having options that other people don't have", stating that this is more of a political issue and a a matter of privileges. In conclusion, Rosalía has impacted the Spanish society with a still not closed debate about poiitics, music, culture and priviledge, making cultural appropriation the object of multiple studies in the country. Following her win for Best Latin Video for "Con Altura" at the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards, Rosalía opened another debate on wether the expression "Latin" has been missunderstood and has evolved to "Latinx", extending the debate about cultural appropriation.

Personal life

She is of Asturian and Catalan heritage. Her great-grandfather was Cuban. Her mother is from Catalonia and her father from Asturias. She is fluent in Catalan, Spanish and English.

Political views

In November 2019, following a second general election in the country in six months in Spain, Rosalía tweeted "fuck Vox". VOX is a far-right nationalist political party. After being asked about politics at a press conference at the 2019 Latin Grammys, she said: "I think it is a very delicate topic and I don't think this is the place to talk about it since it requires a lot of time due to its sensitivity." In May 2020, Rosalía expressed condolences for the death of George Floyd and briefly attended the Miami protest in defense of racial equality, leaving early in order to appear on a virtual benefit concert organized by TeleHit. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Rosalía performed at many little virtual benefic concerts like "Se Agradece" in an effort to give economic support to the development of a vaccine and in "Música Solidària del Baix Llobregat", which was celebrated in benefit of Cornellà's "Botiga Solidària", a non-profit organization that distributes food to those who need it since the place was in danger of extintion due to the consequences of the pandemic.

Discography

Apart from writing her own songs, Rosalía has also written songs and has offered her vocals for many other artists' projects.
YearSongArtist
2016"Llámame Más Tarde"C. Tangana
2018"En Mí "J Balvin
2018"Suncity"Khalid, Empress Of
2019"Llama"Ana Torroja
2020"Goteo"Paloma Mami
2020"KLK"Arca

Tours

Headlining