New York’s Metropolitan Opera House seemed a fitting setting to chat with the Spanish pop artist Rosalía after the global tour for her latest album, “Lux” (which is Latin for light). “I really like how concentrated the energy is in spaces like this,” she said.
This superstar knows about energy and performing. Her song “Berghain,” inspired by the 12th-century mystic Hildegard of Bingen, featuring an orchestra and booming choir, is not the typical pop formula. Then again, there’s nothing typical about Rosalía. With operatic vocals in Spanish and German, but also an appearance from Björk, the song makes clear the 34-year-old Spaniard’s reverence for the classics – and desire to do something different. Opera, she said, was a big inspiration.
Watch Rosalía and Björk perform “Berghain” at the 2026 BRIT Awards:
She said her tour for “Lux” has been more demanding than any she has done – performing en pointe, for instance, and singing in Japanese, Ukrainian, Catalan and Arabic. She wrote lyrics in 14 languages. “If you find 14 languages in this album, it’s not from a place of exhibition, but a search for communion,” she said.
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“Lux” was so anticipated that a countdown to announce it snarled traffic in Madrid. The album features the stories of female saints and mystics through history, like Olga of Kyiv. One might not think of the 10th century ruler as the source for a great song.
“I didn’t know about her,” Rosalía said. “This woman, she was an assassin before becoming a saint. Some of them were poets. They were prostitutes, some were drug addicts, and sometimes you wouldn’t connect sainthood to these words. It was definitely very inspiring.”
Asked if she considers the commercial potential of such an album during its making, she replied, “On one side, there’s the responsibility of, okay, I have an office and there’s people that I care about. But at the same time, I only can do what’s honest for me. It took me two years to make this album.”
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The self-described perfectionist kept making tweaks so close to the deadline that there are slight differences between the digital version and the vinyl. “I couldn’t do this for too long, because otherwise it would be interminable,” she said. “Like, I can be forever doing it.”
She says she still thinks there are things that could be done differently: “Yeah, always. The mix, the violins here, they could be half a dB up. Or my voice here, I could have done another take.”
Asked if she can enjoy listening to her own album, she replied, “I never listen to my albums. ‘Cause it’s pointless.”
But it’s something you created? “I create to share it, to let it go,” she said. “Why would I listen it back? That would be torture!”
Her fans would disagree. Rosalía’s four albums showcase vast range. Her first album, 2017’s “Los Ángeles,” was a modern twist on the flamenco she’d spent years studying in music school. 2022’s “Motomami” fused rap and raggaeton, and topped multiple “album of the year” lists.
And now, “Lux,” which hit #4 on the Billboard 200 chart, and topped the U.S. Latin chart. The album features a four-part symphonic structure. With choirs and the London Symphony Orchestra, she did not make her life easy. “Yes, it’s true,” she laughed. “But I don’t think I ever do.”
What is that inside of you? “I don’t know, there’s just something, some, un fuego, like, a fire. Some sort of, like, urgency and love for what, I don’t know.”
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That curiosity was ignited in childhood. Born Rosalía Vila Tobella near Barcelona, she remembers running headlong down a hill with family trying to stop her: “I fell to the floor and then I opened my forehead. And then they had to take me to the hospital and sew it. And I have this mark here, and this is a reminder that maybe since I was a kid that’s who I was. I never stay still. I never say no. If there is something like a guardian angel, mine is definitely tired. He cannot even stop for a cigarette! I stressed the poor thing out.”
That stressed, tired guardian angel has been good to her, considering she was dropped from a Spanish talent show, “Tú Sí Que Vales,” when she was 15. “That experience taught me that I had to prepare a lot,” she said. “It really helped me grow. I’m very grateful for that.”
By 2021, Pitchfork was including her on its list of the most important artists of the last 25 years.
With her sometimes-experimental sound and juxtaposition of styles, Rosalía is about as close to the avant-garde as mainstream pop gets. She’s a fashionista, a staple at the Met Gala, a muse for designers and brands; and she’s now acting, too, in HBO’s “Euphoria.” “I try to have fun while I try new things,” she said, “and I try not to be in fear. I think if this is my nature, then I embrace it.”
And in this latest album – inspired by saints – Rosalía reveals an almost spiritual commitment to her craft. “Being a musician is, for me, an office as noble as somebody who makes bread or shoes. So, I just go to the studio and try to put my love and my energy.”
You’ll just work and work and work? “Yeah, but out of devotion,” she said. “I love this. I love making music, so I devoted my life to that.”
You can stream the Rosalía album “Lux” by clicking on the embed below (Free Spotify registration required to hear the tracks in full):
Story produced by Robert Marston. Editor: Ed Givnish.
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