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Rosalía

Ch. 1 of 8
— CH. 1 · INTRODUCTION —

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Rosalía

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  • Rosalía Vila Tobella, born on the 25th of September 1992 and known by her first name alone, was fifteen when she competed on the Spanish television show Tú Sí Que Vales. The judges did not select her. Today she is a Spanish singer-songwriter and actress, and critics have called her an "atypical pop star" because her music refuses to stay inside one genre. Her career raises three questions. How did a conservatory student become a record-setting artist across the Spanish-speaking world? What does it take to make a flamenco album with almost no budget? And what happens when a Catalan singer takes up a tradition that many Spanish Romani people consider their own? The answers begin with the years before anyone outside Barcelona knew her name.

  • A hospital in Sant Cugat del Vallès, in Catalonia, is where Rosalía was born, though she grew up in Sant Esteve Sesrovires. Nobody in her family worked in music. Her name came from her maternal grandmother, Rosalía Aguilera Torres. Her older sister Pilar, called Pili and born in 1989, now works with her as stylist and creative director.

    The recordings of Camarón de la Isla opened flamenco to her. In 2019 she told MTV that she found his music by chance in her early teens, when flamenco was what her high-school friends played. His voice, she said, went straight through her and led her into a vast universe inside the style.

    Formal training followed. She completed a six-year course at the Taller de Músics, studied at the Raval school, and then moved to the Superior School of Music of Catalonia, graduating in 2017. Along the way she sang independently at weddings and musical bars. The pay was a little over 80 euros, or sometimes a dinner. That circuit introduced her to underground artists who would later succeed, including La Zowi, Yung Beef, Kaydy Cain, Hinds and María Escarmiento.

    At seventeen, intense singing practice tore one of her vocal cords. Surgery followed, and she could not sing for a year. She returned in 2012 as the vocalist of the flamenco group Kejaleo, which released the album Alaire in 2013. That same year she worked as a duo with Juan "Chicuelo" Gómez. Standing in for Sílvia Pérez Cruz, they promoted the Blancanieves soundtrack at the Panama International Film Festival, and they also appeared at the Festival Grec de Barcelona with the dance work De Carmen.

    In 2015 she joined a show by La Fura dels Baus that premiered in Singapore. She also sang the jingle "Last Night Was Eternal" for the clothing brand Desigual. By the age of twenty she was teaching flamenco and coaching other singers.

    In 2016 she recorded "Antes de morirme" with the rapper C. Tangana. The song sat quietly for two years, until it reached the Spanish Singles Chart and appeared on the soundtrack of the first season of the Netflix series Élite.

  • About a hundred people watched Rosalía perform at the Tablao del Carmen in 2016. It is a flamenco venue inside the Pueblo Español in Barcelona. One guest changed her plans: the producer Raül Refree, whom she had invited. The two began work on a pair of albums. Later that year she signed with Universal Music and moved to California, but only one of the planned records ever appeared.

    That record was Los Ángeles, released on the 10th of February 2017. It reworked flamenco classics over aggressive guitar chords from Refree, and its themes of death were dark. Two singles came from it, "Catalina" in October 2016 and "De Plata" in May 2017. Critics responded warmly. It won Album of the Year at the Time Out Awards and at the Premio Ruido, and the 18th Latin Grammy Awards nominated her for Best New Artist.

    Its sales life was slow and long. Writing in 2018, Jordi Bardají called it "one of the greatest 'sleepers' that Spanish sales lists have known in recent times." It reached its peak position, number nine, on the 11th of November 2018. It has stayed on the albums chart since its entry, accumulating 89 weeks in total.

    In 2017 the broadcaster RTVE asked her to join the pre-selection for Spain's entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017. She declined, because the promotion of her debut left no room in her schedule. The Los Ángeles Tour, shared with Refree, ran from the 11th of February 2017 in Granada to the 1st of March 2018 at the Palau de la Música in Barcelona.

    At a concert in Madrid, the singer Bebe was in the audience alongside Juanes. Juanes became "immediately obsessed with Rosalía" and asked his manager, Rebeca León, to work with her. León agreed because she saw a "once in fifty years kind of artist". That partnership lasted until September 2023, when Rosalía briefly signed with Jaime Levine, Shakira's former manager.

  • Nearly bankrupt is how Rosalía described her finances while making El mal querer. In her own words she went "almost going bankrupt" because the album began in early 2017 as her baccalaureate project at the Catalonia College of Music. As an independent artist on a university project, she had no production budget and put in a lot of her own money. Most of the record was made in the Barcelona apartment of the musician el Guincho, using a computer, a microphone and a sound card.

    The concept came from a friendship. She developed the story with Ferran Echegaray, who proposed the Romance of Flamenca as the storyline. That anonymous 13th-century Occitan novel describes a toxic relationship, and the album follows it. Rosalía's own relationship with C. Tangana, which began in 2016, ran alongside the work. He co-wrote eight of the eleven songs. They broke up in May 2018, and since then each has referred to the other in songs, social media posts, interviews and music videos.

    The rollout began in May 2018 with a little homemade YouTube series that announced the title. The lead single "Malamente" followed later that month. Its music video, directed by Canada, went viral, and the song drew attention from Kourtney Kardashian and Dua Lipa. It earned five Latin Grammy nominations and won two, for Best Alternative Song and Best Urban Fusion/Performance. "Pienso en tu mirá" arrived in July, and its video was praised for its aesthetics and poetic symbolism. Three days before the album, "Di mi nombre" gave her a first number-one single in Spain.

    El mal querer was released on the 2nd of November 2018 and debuted at number two on the PROMUSICAE chart. Alexis Petridis of The Guardian gave it the highest rating and called it "the calling card of a unique new talent". More than twenty year-end and decade-end lists included it, from publications such as Pitchfork, Billboard and The Guardian. Rolling Stone placed it 315th on its 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, the highest Spanish-language album on the list. It won the Grammy Award for Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative Album, and a Latin Grammy for Album of the Year.

    The album had a quiet companion. In the same month as "Malamente", J Balvin released his fifth album, Vibras, with Rosalía featured on the track "Brillo". It was a hint of where she would go next.

  • On the 28th of March 2019, Rosalía released "Con altura", her second collaboration with J Balvin, in the middle of her first global concert tour. That El Mal Querer Tour visited South America, North America, Europe and Africa. Critics were mixed at first, yet the song topped the charts in Argentina, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Venezuela and Spain. Its video, directed by Director X, became the most-watched music video by a female artist of 2019. The song gave her the nickname "La Rosalía", and its choreography spread widely as a moment in Latin pop culture.

    The awards followed. "Con altura" won the MTV Video Music Awards for Best Latin Video and Best Choreography, which made her the first Spanish act to win one. It also took Best Collaboration at the MTV Europe Music Awards and Best Urban Song at the Latin Grammys. The song has sold over seven million copies worldwide.

    The rest of 2019 moved quickly. "Aute Cuture" in May became her third number one in Spain. In July she released the single Fucking Money Man, which pairs "Milionària", sung in Catalan, with "Dios nos libre del dinero". On the 15th of August came "Yo x ti, tú x mí" with Ozuna, her fifth number one in Spain. In November she released "A Palé", with background vocals by James Blake. She also appeared in the Pedro Almodóvar film Pain and Glory.

    Billboard gave her its Rising Star award at Women in Music for "changing the sound of today's mainstream music with her fresh flamenco-influenced pop". At the 62nd Grammy Awards she performed "Juro Que", the first time a Spanish female artist performed at the gala. She was also the first Spanish-singing act nominated for Best New Artist.

    In May 2020, during lockdown, she released "TKN" with Travis Scott. It became her first entry on the Billboard Hot 100, debuting at number 66, and her sixth number one in Spain. The song went viral on TikTok, and its video, directed by Nicolás Méndez, won the Latin Grammy for Best Short Form Music Video. In June she and Arca released "KLK".

    A remix of Sech's "Relación" in September 2020 gave her a second Hot 100 entry, peaking at 64. Her song "La Noche de Anoche" with Bad Bunny was performed on Saturday Night Live and debuted at number two on the Spotify global chart. Its 6.63 million streams in a single day marked the biggest debut for a song fully sung in Spanish. She then joined The Weeknd on a remix of "Blinding Lights" and Billie Eilish on "Lo Vas a Olvidar", which featured in a special episode of Euphoria.

    Recording sessions for her third album had begun as early as 2019. The pandemic led her to carry them on in Miami.

  • The 2nd of November 2021 is the day Rosalía announced the title Motomami. The album came out on the 18th of March 2022 through Columbia Records. Its lead single "La Fama", featuring The Weeknd, is an experimental bachata. It became her seventh number one in Spain, peaked at five in France and reached the top ten in eight other countries.

    The singles carried their own stories. In December 2021, Rockstar Games launched a Grand Theft Auto Online radio station, Motomami Los Santos, curated by Rosalía and Arca. The video for "Saoko", released in February 2022, was directed by Valentin Petit and shot in Kyiv, mainly at Podilskyi Bridge. Petit and Jon Echeveste edited it, and it won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Editing. "Chicken Teriyaki" followed on the 24th of February as the third single, alongside the promotional singles "Hentai" and "Candy".

    Critics were nearly unanimous. The Telegraph, The Independent and Variety gave perfect scores, while Clash, Rolling Stone, Rockdelux and The Guardian awarded four stars or more. Pitchfork named it Best New Music, writing that it "feels rare to hear an album that's so experimental" yet "attains exactly what it sets out to achieve". On Metacritic it became the best reviewed and most discussed album of 2022.

    The numbers were large too. Motomami entered twenty-two charts in nineteen countries and reached the top ten in seven, with number-one positions in two of them. It reached the top forty on both the UK Albums Chart and the Billboard 200. On Spotify it recorded 16.3 million streams on its first day, the biggest debut for a Spanish-language album by a female artist.

    In July 2022 she began the Motomami World Tour, with shows in Europe, South America and North America. Its setlist included four unreleased songs. One, "Despechá", was released on the 28th of July and became a global success.

    At the 23rd Annual Latin Grammy Awards, Motomami won all four categories in which it was nominated: Album of the Year, Best Alternative Music Album, Best Engineered Album and Best Recording Package. She became the first woman, and the sixth act overall, to win Album of the Year twice as a lead artist. At the 65th Grammy Awards she won Best Latin Rock or Alternative Album. Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, the New York Times and W believed the Grammys had snubbed the album in the Album of the Year category.

    In early 2023 she worked with Coca-Cola Creations on a limited flavour called Move, releasing the song "LLYLM" to promote it. A festival run of 21 dates took her to Coachella, Lollapalooza and Primavera Sound. On the 28th of April she played a free concert in the Zócalo of Mexico City for more than 160,000 people. A press statement said she had performed for nearly 2 million people across 21 countries on three continents.

    On the 24th of March 2023 she released the EP RR with Rauw Alejandro, including the single "Beso". The two had met in a Las Vegas hotel in November 2019, days before the 20th Annual Latin Grammy Awards. They became engaged on the 31st of December 2022 in Carolina, Puerto Rico. Media reported the end of the engagement on the 25th of July 2023.

  • Björk, Rosalía told Pitchfork, is someone she "thanks God" exists, for "paving the way for female producers". She named Björk, James Blake and Camarón de la Isla as her major influences. Blake's 2011 album of the same name as himself left a deep mark. She began listening to him at university, admired his minimalism and free structures, and later appeared on his song "Barefoot in the Park" from the 2019 album Assume Form.

    The flamenco singer La Niña de los Peines also shaped her. Rosalía did not enjoy her recordings at first, then came to see a pioneer. In her words, "flamenco is a masculine art form by tradition and there she was, with all her creativity as a woman." Rosalía has carried that concern into her own work. At the 2019 Women in Music gala she recalled entering a recording studio at fifteen and finding only men in the session. Ever since, she said, she has pushed for equal numbers of men and women in the studio.

    Her voice sets her apart from most pop singers. Pitchfork called it "a soft liquid velvet". Petridis wrote that its ornamental runs sound "more Middle Eastern than Mariah Carey". Despite a wide range, she tends to use Auto-Tune as an aesthetic choice in songs and live shows.

    Her fashion heroes are Lola Flores and the dancer Carmen Amaya, who wore masculine clothes at a time when few women did. She has attended the Met Gala three times, dressed in Rick Owens, Givenchy and Dior.

    In 2020 The Atlantic wrote that she had "turned the harrowing music of Andalusia into a global phenomenon." Some Spanish Romani people, known as Gitanos, accuse her of cultural appropriation, a dispute nicknamed "the Rosalía polemic". They claim flamenco as their own, since it was one of the few free forms of expression open to them under discrimination and persecution. Purists see performances by Catalans, non-Gitanos or non-Andalusians as illegitimate. Yet the exact origin of flamenco is not known, and it probably blended Moorish, Jewish and Romani practices.

    Defenders argue that global access to traditions can inspire wider appreciation, and they compare her to Madonna drawing attention to Spanish culture. In 2019 the New York Times judged the debate unfair and called her music the most eloquent artistic form of globalization: "the remix". Rosalía has answered that "music is universal". She has also said the criticism is less about her than about privilege, since she was lucky enough to study music.

    A second argument followed her 2019 MTV Video Music Awards win for Best Latin Video. She questioned whether the word "Latin" had drifted from its Romance-language meaning to cover only people from Latin America. At the 2020 Latin Billboard Music Week, the host Leila Cobo noted that Billboard classes all Spanish-language music as Latin, a usage she called interesting because it is used mainly in the United States. Rosalía said she feels "uncomfortable" when the label is applied to her.

  • In September 2024, Rosalía curated the soundtrack for Barcelona's annual fireworks show at La Mercè. On the 24th of September she premiered "Omega", featuring Ralphie Choo, and the single was released the next day. A month earlier, on the 16th of August, she had appeared on the Thai rapper Lisa's single "New Woman", which debuted at number 15 on the Billboard Global 200. In May 2024 she had also become a global ambassador for Dior.

    Lux, her fourth studio album, was announced on the 20th of October 2025. The lead single "Berghain" arrived on the 27th of October and topped the chart in Spain. The album was released on the 7th of November 2025 and became her first to debut in the top ten of both the Billboard 200 and the UK Albums Chart. It also broke the record for most streams in a single day for an album by a Spanish-speaking female artist.

    "La Perla" was not a single at first, but it proved popular in European markets. It debuted at the top of the Spanish chart, replacing "Berghain", and became her thirteenth number one there, the most for a local female artist. The digital release holds 15 tracks and the physical edition holds 18.

    The concept centres on female saints. It addresses "feminine mystique, transformation and spirituality" across fourteen languages, and it blends art pop with classical elements. Critics praised its ambition. Lux is the highest-rated album of 2025 on Metacritic and the fourth-highest rated album in the site's history.

    The Lux Tour began in March 2026, with shows in Europe, South America and North America. At the Brit Awards 2026 she became the first Spanish-speaking winner, taking International Artist of the Year. In May she won International Songwriter of the Year at the Ivor Novello Awards. Her shelf now holds two Grammy Awards, eleven Latin Grammy Awards, four MTV Video Music Awards, two MTV Europe Music Awards, three UK Music Video Awards and two Premio Ruido awards.

    On screen, she was reported in February 2025 to have joined the third season of the American drama Euphoria. In 2026 she appears there in a recurring role as Magick.

Updated

Common questions

When was Rosalía born and where is she from?

Rosalía Vila Tobella was born on the 25th of September 1992 at a hospital in Sant Cugat del Vallès, Catalonia. She grew up in Sant Esteve Sesrovires and is a Spanish singer-songwriter and actress.

What is Rosalía's album El mal querer about?

El mal querer, released on the 2nd of November 2018, follows a toxic relationship drawn from the anonymous 13th-century Occitan novel Flamenca. Rosalía made it as her baccalaureate project, working with el Guincho and the friend Ferran Echegaray.

What awards has Rosalía won?

Rosalía has won two Grammy Awards, eleven Latin Grammy Awards, four MTV Video Music Awards and two MTV Europe Music Awards. She also holds a BRIT Award, three UK Music Video Awards, an Ivor Novello Award and two Premio Ruido awards.

What is the Rosalía cultural appropriation controversy?

Some Spanish Romani people, known as Gitanos, accuse Rosalía of cultural appropriation because she draws on flamenco, which they claim as their own. The dispute is nicknamed the Rosalía polemic, and she has replied that music is universal.

How did Rosalía's album Motomami perform?

Motomami, released on the 18th of March 2022, became the best reviewed and most discussed album of 2022 on Metacritic. It won all four of its Latin Grammy categories, including Album of the Year, and had 16.3 million Spotify streams on its first day.

What is Rosalía's album Lux?

Lux is Rosalía's fourth studio album, released on the 7th of November 2025, and it blends art pop with classical elements. Its concept centres on female saints and uses fourteen languages.

All sources

257 references cited across the entry

  1. 5Rosalía Is the Future of Pop MusicLynn Hirschberg — 30 September 2019
  2. 10MagazineRosalia's 10 Star-Making SongsJudy Cantor-Navas — 12 December 2019
  3. 11Rosalía Announces New Album MotomamiAllison Hussey — 2 November 2021
  4. 12Rosalía: MotomamiJulianne Escobedo Shepherd — 18 March 2022
  5. 15Rosalía Announces New Album LuxEric Torres — 2025-10-20
  6. 16Rosalía: LUXGio Santiago
  7. 19MagazineRosalía Levels Up as a Global Pop SuperstarCarrie Battan — 17 March 2022
  8. 20Why does Rosalía cause so much controversy?Guillermo Alonso — 18 November 2019
  9. 23MagazineRosalía: la familia viajera y espabilada de donde vieneSonia Meza — 12 September 2025
  10. 25NewsPili Vila, así es DaikyriMarta Altarriba — 16 December 2018
  11. 31Rosalía, flamenca, que no charnegaCarmen Rigalt — 10 February 2019
  12. 3326 cosas que no sabías de Rosalía en su cumpleaños 26Juan Luis Hernández — 25 September 2019
  13. 37Raül Refree. ¿Cómo descubrir a Rosalía?Oriol Rodríguez — 4 April 2019
  14. 39Rosalía BiographyThom Jurek — AllMusic
  15. 40NewsRosalía, flamenc sense 'tablaos'Ester Torras — 11 February 2017
  16. 46NewsRosalía & Raül Fernández, mucha vidaJordi Bianciotto — 2 March 2018
  17. 49MagazineAll About Rosalía and Her Anticipated Album 'El Mal Querer'Judy Cantor-Navas — 29 October 2018
  18. 56Rosalía: "Ni yo ni mi música hemos cambiado"Esteban Linés — 30 October 2018
  19. 60ROSALÍA26 November 2019
  20. 75MagazineSpanish Artists Lead 20th Annual Latin Grammy NominationsSuzy Exposito — 24 September 2019
  21. 76Olé por el catalán 'tra tra' de RosalíaAnna Abella et al. — 5 July 2019
  22. 78Rosalía shares bass-heavy new single 'A Palé'Charlotte Krol — 7 November 2019
  23. 81Rosalía Shares New Song 'Dolerme'Eric Torres — 24 March 2020
  24. 85Travis Scott Wins Latin GRAMMY for 'TKN' With RosaliaJennifer Drysdale — 19 November 2020
  25. 86Nominees 202120 May 2021
  26. 87Arca and Rosalía Link Up for New Song 'KLK'Quinn Moreland — 22 June 2020
  27. 88Rosalía pide visibilizar a las mujeresJanet Mérida — 2 July 2020
  28. 102MagazineRosalía Joins An All-Girl Biker Gang on 'Saoko'Julyssa Lopez — 2022-02-04
  29. 118MagazineRosalía Signs With New ManagerLeila Cobo — 2023-09-12
  30. 120Así es 'Oral', la canción de Rosalía y BjörkAlberto Palao — 16 October 2023
  31. 122MagazineLisa and Rosalía Rev Up Their Aura on New Single 'New Woman'Brittany Spanos — August 15, 2024
  32. 131MagazineWith her album Lux, Rosalía is set to convert us to sacred musicViolaine Schütz — 30 October 2025
  33. 137Rosalía: LyxColumbia Records, Sony Music Entertainment, HJ Conte
  34. 145Fontaines D.C. reveal Rosalía feature in Dopamine ChamberTatiana Tenreyro September 17 et al.
  35. 155NewsRosalía Reserves the Right to TransformJoe Coscarelli — 2022-03-17
  36. 162MagazineRosalía about Madonna's influence on her careerPaula Gallardo — 12 November 2025
  37. 184How Flamenco Went PopJames Parker — 21 December 2019
  38. 193NewsLa conquista global de RosalíaJorge Carrión — 17 November 2019
  39. 199NewsRosalía's Incredible Journey From Flamenco to MegastardomMarcela Valdes — 8 October 2019
  40. 207JournalBoletín Oficial del Registro Mercantil nº56Registre Mercantil Barcelona — 19 March 2024
  41. 213NewsHow Rosalía Already Won Big At The 2020 GrammysAriana Romero — 26 January 2020
  42. 221MagazineRosalía y Rauw Alejandro: Cronología de su relaciónGriselda Flores, Jessica Roiz et al. — 2023-08-15
  43. 226Jeremy Allen White and Rosalia Are DatingSara Donnellan — 2023-11-30
  44. 234Fuck vox11 November 2019
  45. 239Happy early voting day!Shakira Mebarak — 24 October 2020
  46. 253Charli XCX and Rosalía Announced as SNL Musical GuestsMatthew Strauss — 17 February 2022

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