Rosalía (singer)

Rosalía was born on 25 September 1993. She began her professional musical education at the age of 16 at the Taller de Músics in Barcelona, Spain.[9] 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.[10]

At 15, she competed on the television show Tú sí que vales, although she wasn't selected. In 2012 she formed Kejaleo, a flamenco group, with Jordi Franco, Roger Blavia, Cristo Fontecilla, Diego Cortés and Xavi Turull, where she was the vocalist.[11] They released an album, Alaire, in 2013. On that same year, 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 (APAP) 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".[12] 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.[13] Through her teenage years and early twenties, she performed in musical bars and weddings.[14] At 20, she worked as a flamenco teacher.[15]

In 2016, she collaborated with Spanish rapper and former boyfriend C. Tangana on "Antes de Morirme".[16] 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 (2018).[17]

Rosalía and Raül Refree performing in Madrid in July 2017

In 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.[18] Since that moment, they began shaping Rosalía's upcoming projects. In 2016 she revealed to Show Bizzness that she was currently working on two different albums with Refree.[19] Only one of them, Los Ángeles, ended up being released.[20] The unreleased album included the tracks "Free" and "Call You" and had a neo-soul and electronic sound.[21] Los Ángeles talks about death in a dark way with sweet but aggressive guitar chords by Refree.[22] It presents reworks of flamenco classics receiving several accolades.[23] 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. The album was very well received by critics. 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.[24] In 2018 Spanish rapper Yung Beef sampled Rosalía's "De Plata" for his song "Rosalía" which talks about her in a non-shady way.[25]

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.[26]

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.[27] 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 (Interlude)" 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.[28] Rosalía promoted the song on several award shows like the 2018 MTV Europe Music Awards 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.[29] 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.[30] 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.[31] 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.[32] Rosalía revealed that El Mal Querer is actually her final bachelor's degree project, graduating from flamenco studies.[33] 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".[34] 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.[35] El Mal Querer has been nominated for four Latin Grammys, (one of them being for Album of the Year) 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.[36] 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.[37][38]

In March 2019, the Pedro Almodóvar film Pain and Glory premiered in cinemas. Rosalía made a small cameo in the film alongside Penélope Cruz.[39] 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.[40] 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.[41] 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.[42] The tour ended on 10 December 2019 at the WiZink Center in Madrid after 43 shows (12 solo dates – three of them in arenas – and 31 in festivals).[43]

Rosalía performing to a crowd of 63,000 people at Primavera Sound in June 2019

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.[44] 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".[45] It reached a billion views on YouTube on 16 October 2019.[46] 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.[47] In November 2019, “Con Altura” also won in the Best Collaboration category at the 2019 MTV European Music Awards.[48] The song is certified Gold in Italy, 3x Platinum in Mexico, 4x Platinum in Spain and Gold in the United States.[49]

Rosalía performing at the Palau Sant Jordi in December 2019.

Before beginning the tour's European leg and to celebrate one year since the release of "Malamente", Rosalía released the song "Aute Cuture" (which she began writing in 2017).[50] It earned Rosalía her third number-one in Spain and a Latin Grammy nomination for Record of the Year.[51] On 3 July 2019 she released the single Fucking Money Man, which includes two money-themed tracks: "Milionària" (which she sang in Catalan) and "Dios Nos Libre del Dinero".[52] The first one was another success, becoming her fourth number-one song in Spain.[53] 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[54] and became her fifth number-one song in Spain.[55] It scored two wins for Best Urban Song and Best Urban Fusion/Performance at the 2020 Latin Grammy Awards, marking Ozuna's first ever Latin Grammy win.[56] On 7 November 2019, she released the song "A Palé", which features background vocals by James Blake.[57]

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.[58] A month later, 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. This marked the first time that a song that included Rosalía's vocals entered the Global Spotify chart, peaking at number four. She also hit a page in the 2020 Pirelli calendar, becoming the first Spanish act to ever do so.[59]

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.[60] 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.[61] 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.[62] 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.[63] Instead, the singer released the ballad "Dolerme" which she hoped could make people feel better during international quarantine and scored a Latin Grammy nomination for Best Pop/Rock Song.[64][65] 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 and became a global TikTok phenomenon.[66][67] The music video for "TKN" directed by Canada won the Latin Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video, marking Scott's first ever Grammy win. On June 22, Arca and Rosalía released their highly anticipated collaboration "KLK", included in the musician's album KiCk i.[68]

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 singles released since the release of El Mal Querer, including in this list "Con Altura" and "TKN".[69] She has also discarted the idea of releasing a box set or a compilation album where these songs would be included.[70] 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.[71][72] During her time on the island, Rosalía also recorded a remix of Sech's "Relación", which also featured Daddy Yankee, Farruko and J Balvin.[73] The remix was released on September 4 and earned Rosalía her second entry on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at 64.[74]

She also took part in Bad Bunny's third solo studio album El Último Tour del Mundo, on the track "La Noche de Anoche", released in November 2020.[75] The collaboration reached a huge commercial success, debuting at number two on the Spotify global chart with 6.63 million streams in a single day, marking the biggest debut for a song fully sung in Spanish in history.[76] It also marked the ninth best debut on the platform in 2020 and the second biggest debut on Spotify Spain in music history. A week later, she collaborated alongside Canadian singer The Weeknd in the remix of his smash hit "Blinding Lights", which happened to be the most-listened to song of the year.[77] She also went on to release the song "Lo Vas a Olvidar" with American singer Billie Eilish on January 21st, 2021 to promote a special episode from the show Euphoria.[78]

After Rosalía's increase in popularity with the release of "Malamente" in spring 2018, 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".[79] 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 Andalusian and the Romani people.[80]

Rosalía has cited James Blake (left) and La Niña de los Peines (right) as her major musical 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 [Camarón de la Isla] 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 to her but that later on she ended up appreciating her melodies and realized that she was a creator, that she was a cantaora when, at that time, most of the flamenco singers 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".[81]

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".[82]

When she was asked who would she like to collaborate with in the future, she said that it would be a dream to do a song with Kanye West since she loves everything he produces.[83] She also told W Magazine that Frank Ocean is also one of her main dream collaborations.[84] 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".

In 2016, Rosalía started dating Spanish rapper C. Tangana. They co-wrote eight out of the eleven songs of Rosalía's sophomore album El Mal Querer and collaborated vocally twice. They broke up after two years of dating, most concretely, in May 2018. Since that moment, the couple has been referencing each other in songs, social media posts, interviews and music videos. In April 2020, Tangana told the press that there "exists a good friendship between the two".[109]

In March 2020, Rosalía started dating Puerto Rican singer Rauw Alejandro.[110]

Rosalía identifies as a feminist. After being congratulated at the 2019 Billboard Women in Music gala, the singer stated: "I was fifteen when I entered a recording studio for the first time having all this women as references. I was so shocked by the fact that there were only men in that session that, since that moment, I've been fighting for having the same number of men and women in the studio. As simple as that".[111] Her studio album El Mal Querer revolves around the liberation of a female off a toxic heterosexual relationship.[112] Rosalía is also pro-choice. In April 2019, during a concert in Mexico, she wore a green handkerchief in support of the National Campaign for the Right to Legal, Safe and Free Abortion.[113]

During her performance at Glastonbury on Pride Day, the Spanish singer told the crowd that she was an LGBT supporter and said: "there are a lot of ways to love and none is better than the other.[114] Raise your glass for love and freedom to love". Also, all profits off her Viva Glam cosmetic campaign were to be given in support of women, youth and the LGBT community.[115]

As for Spanish politics and international conflicts, in November 2019, following a second general election in the country within six months, Rosalía tweeted "fuck Vox".[116][117] VOX is a far-right nationalist political party that had earned a lot of seats at the Spanish Parliament and was constantly growing in popularity at the time. 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."[118] In May 2020, Rosalía expressed condolences for the killing of George Floyd[119][120] and briefly attended a protest in Miami in defense of racial equality, leaving early in order to appear on a virtual benefit concert organized by TeleHit. In October she offered her song "A Palé" for a voting-encourage campaign of Sony Music for the 2020 United States presidential election starring Shakira, Becky G and Camila Cabello among others titled "Your Voice. Your Power. Your Vote".[121]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Rosalía performed at many virtual benefit concerts while lock-downed in Miami like "Se Agradece" and "La Marató de TV3" 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 the "Botiga Solidària" in Cornellà de Llobregat, a non-profit organization that distributes food to those who need it since the place was in danger of extinction due to the consequences of the pandemic.[122][123]