The Spanish phenom Rosalía seems like she’s everywhere, all at once. Beginning with the traditional flamenco album Los Ángeles (2017), Rosalía has risen to global superstar status without parallel. It’s without parallel because her first albums began as school projects.
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On her second album, El Mal Querer (2018), she moved flamenco out of the past and into an urban future of hip-hop and experimental electropop. She was still in college. By 2019, Rosalía had topped the charts in her first language in countries worldwide.
A third album, Motomami (2022), was a reinvention as she traded Andalusian folk music for atypical pop. She pulled new sounds from older Cuban and Dominican traditions. Meanwhile, flamenco, her musical DNA, connected her experiments to her past.
The Catalan-born singer has 11 No. 1 singles in Spain and 12 Latin Grammys and is already one of history’s most successful Spanish singers.
She’s making pop music sound alive and innovative—a rarity in the TikTok era. Her voice is instantly recognizable and, together with stunning visuals—matched only by her recent collaborator Björk—Rosalía is changing the sound of modern pop music.
For Spanish singers in the past, finding an audience in America required an English language album. Rosalía, along with Bad Bunny, are connecting with music fans around the world with Spanish-speaking pop music. The politics of rapidly changing demographics in America has brought the sounds of the world to a nation of immigrants.
Something a language barrier cannot stop is the connection between poor and working-class people. Folk traditions in southern Spain share stories with the folk traditions in Appalachia. Music is the great equalizer. Cynical politicians use cultural differences as cudgels. The DNA of songwriting and storytelling is the interconnectedness of the human experience.
Hurricane Rosalía—as some have called her—is another connection thread. Like a hurricane, a border or language won’t stop her.
Hit a lo tsunami and listen to the force that is Rosalía and her top five must-listen songs.
5. “De Plata” (2017)
Rosalía discovered flamenco at a young age and, as a teenager, became popular in Barcelona’s flamenco scene. She studied flamenco with José Miguel Vizcaya at the Catalonia College of Music. Though her debut album, Los Ángeles, followed the flamenco tradition, Rosalía emphasized songs instead of highlighting traditional music forms or palos. The video for “De Plata” follows Rosalía singing and dancing around Los Angeles. It was filmed using 16 mm film, striking for its rawness and purity.
4. “LA NOCHE DE ANOCHE” with Bad Bunny (2020)
For “LA NOCHE DE ANOCHE,” two Spanish language giants come together on this mid-tempo reggaeton pop classic. Rosalía was in San Juan working with producer Chris Jeday. Jeday sent Bad Bunny a base track, but Bunny let it sit. The track wouldn’t leave his head, so Bad Bunny told Jeday he wanted to finish the song. “LA NOCHE DE ANOCHE” was the ninth-best debut in Spotify’s history. Bad Bunny and Rosalía performed the song on Saturday Night Live.
3. “Con Altura” with J Balvin and El Guincho (2019)
“Con Altura” is Rosalía and J Balvin’s modern take on classic reggaeton. Rosalía’s producer, el Guincho, joins the duo using Middle Eastern sounds and flamenco rhythms to bend reggaeton into a multicultural mash-up. “Con Altura” is playful ego, and it’s infectiously catchy. The song shot Rosalía to international fame. It was the most-watched female music video on YouTube. Rosalía name drops Camarón de la Isla. If flamenco had an Elvis, Camarón would be The King.
2. “MALAMENTE” (2018)
El Mal Querer was inspired by the 13th-century novel Flamenca. The album was a school project for her studies at the Catalonia College of Music. Each song represents a chapter in the book. Eventually, Columbia Records released the album in the U.S. It was co-produced by Rosalía and el Guincho. The school project reached No.1 on Billboard’s Latin Pop Albums chart. Imagine sitting in a classroom, and your classmate, Rosalía, turns in her homework, and she hands over El Mal Querer.
1. “LA FAMA” with The Weeknd (2022)
Rosalía wanted to write a bachata track. Bachata originated in the Dominican Republic and uses elements of Spanish music. Its primary instrument, like flamenco, is the guitar. Rosalía chops up her voice, creating a bachata riff without a guitar. Using “fame” as a romantic lover, Rosalía warns you cannot trust fame. You can sleep with her but never tie the knot. The experimental collaboration with The Weeknd was nominated for Record of the Year at the Latin Grammy Awards.
Photo by Juan Naharro Gimenez/Getty Images
