Rosalia: From local flamenco singer to worldwide phenomenon

Before Rosalia rose to stardom, she was a local flamenco singer and teacher in her native country of Spain, but this has completely altered unexpectedly, and Rosalia is only gaining more fame.

Besides her compelling albums, she has collaborated with multiple stars of diverse genres and recently she collaborated with the famous Travis Scott on her single “TKN’’ which managed to give Rosalia an abundant amount of acknowledgment in the USA since Travis is a prominent star in the country.

This article is going to discuss the intriguing stories that Rosalia has manufactured, and in addition of that it will include observations about her album “El Mal Querer” due to the fact that it contains subtle and subliminal remarks and messages regarding an ancient story about a marriage which was based on a Spanish novel. Before we’re going to unpack this we will elaborate on Rosalia’s general history and how she has achieved to evolve into a household name.

Background

Rosalia was born on the 25th of September, in the small town of Sant Esteve Sesrovires in the Spanish province of Catalonia where Rosalia has resided during her adolescences, Rosalia often explained that she listened to Flamenco from a young age, especially since she lived in an area where a lot of Andalusians were living, which directly influenced Rosalia too and this is one of the exhibits why Rosalia practically involves Flamenco into her music in everything she does.

Even when she is collaborating with stars from other descendants she remains her traditional Spanish traditions.

As a young child, Rosalia was fascinated by the entire concept behind Flamenco and even got inspired by some of the most important Flamenco stars from older era’s which have also influenced her musically, one woman that has influenced her the most was Camarón de la Isla, which she frequently recites in multiple interviews and conversations about Flamenco, and even stated that she started to emulate her movements and her singer techniques since she was a child.

Ever since she wanted to become a Flamenco dancer and singer, but this was accompanied with hardship.

Rosalia confessed that Flamenco is more than just a dance, and if you make the right observations you will immediately notice what she is trying to convey.

But since Flamenco has never been a mainstream genre people don’t really comprehend the stories behind it and the reason why it’s so emotional, she explained in an interview with Billboard that Flamenco showcases a various amount of emotions which truly depends on the background of the narrative in particular.

Rosalia also declared that it was an enduring process to completely master Flamenco and that it took her several years to master the complicated dance but eventually she succeeded.

Before Rosalia became an established singer she participated in singing contests in Spain to gain fame but, never succeeded since the judges have harshly disapproved Rosalia’s performance and even stated that she would never be able to become a star.

It has been proven that the show underestimated her and she didn’t need the show as her only resort after all, since she managed to rise to stardom on her own with a lot of hard work.

Rosalia had other occupations while she was striving to gain stardom, she also was a Flamenco teacher at the age of 20, she mostly sung at bars, events, and weddings in exchange of money, every thing that she has done has some involvement with music, which only proved further that she was destined to become a star.

How she managed to make Flamenco more recognizable

Flamenco existed for a long time and some individuals know what the dance actually entails but yet it has never really reached the amount of acknowledgment Rosalia managed to receive. Because she has impressive strategies to make the ancient traditional dance undeniably famous and to catch people’s attention around the globe.

She infuses modern sounds and production with traditional Flamenco singing but she does this quite cryptically in some songs like “Malamente” which is perceived as a pop song that still included Flamenco elements.

Aside from the music, Rosalia associates Flamenco into her garments that she wears while performing on stage and these are typical Flamenco references that you can notice right away for instance a red crop top with feathers on her sleeves, but she also includes catholic references in her garments which is also a very important part of Spanish culture but yet in a fashionable and modern way.

Even when Rosalia collaborated with other stars she still incorporates Flamenco inspired movements in their music video which she did in “Con Altura” which became an internationally acclaimed reggaeton song worldwide, and is one of the songs where Rosalia started to gain more fame and recognition or in others songs such as “Yo X Ti Tu X Mi’’ with Puerto Rican star Ozuna.

Because of these succesfull collaborations, Rosalia gained a lot of attention in Latin America, which is known to have a one of the biggest Spanish speaking markets in the industry, most of Rosalia's dedicated fans outside of her native Spain come from Latin American countries, due to the fact that the Spanish langauge market has became bigger than ever.

It was only doing Rosalia justice, especially because the Latin market has been dominating the music industry for multiple years now.

El Mal Querer

Since the singer's initial album was primarily concentrated on general Flamenco concepts and traditional sounds she wanted to take the risk to make an experimental album with a narrative that is not easy to construct but still includes traditional Flamenco elements with a combination of urban and mainstream sounds which she didn’t do on “Los Angles”.

The story of the album is inspired by a Spanish novel called “Flamenca” which is from the 13th century, portraying a story about a dysfunctional wedding , these tales are being illustrated in each song but also the visuals that are accompanying the album, which includes a lot of poetic symbolism and as a non-Spanish speaker it will be difficult to understand all these subliminal and cryptic messages, but if you translate some of the titles you will notice what the album is truly about a complicated marriage that has a lot of problematic issues, hence why the album is titled "El Mal Querer" or when it's translated to English "Bad Romance".

This simply already indicates that this person, in particular, is experiencing difficulties within their marriage, hence why Rosalia is showcasing every emotions and elements that are normally associated with relationships such as "anger" "disclosure" "fear" "violence" and even manipulation.

One thing that is noticeable is how destructed their marriage is so it's illustrating a story about a dysfunctional marriage but the most interesting fact is that Rosalia is not only singing from the women's perspective of the novel but also from the groom's visualization.

The album is basically constructed like an actual book, because each song illustrates paragraphs from the novel “Flamenca” which the album is surrounding, this is noticeable if you look closely at the titles of the album for example “De Aqui No Sales- Disputa” which showcases aggression and anger which is being indicated by the gearing motor sound that you hear throughout the track.

Without being a visual album Rosalia created multiple music videos to the point that the album could be considered a visual project, and if you analyze these visuals the story is practically evidentially portraying itself and Rosalia’s emotions are effectively showcased each visual and it makes the complexity of the narrative a little less overwhelming. It’s more understandable for people that tend to speak other languages and the symbolism is also noticeable (and the references to Romani and Andalusian slang)

When listening attentively to the album you will also notice the Romani and Andalusian references that are incorporated with the record and she does this deliberately.

Flamenco is historically a dance and music genre that has been created by the Romani demographic, which started with this genre and this is why she intentionally includes these cultural references to pay homage to the true creators of Flamenco and Andalusia is one of the Spanish autonomies where the Romani tribes have resided.

It’s also the place that is considered to be the home of Flamenco, according to the historical attachment with Flamenco.

Every song is portraying an emotion or complication that the groom is experiencing within their marriage, and it is elaborated on each song from grief to heartache and betrayal.

Overall, it is a very sentimental album with a vulnerable message which is beautifully and impressively crafted in an experimental way that many artists have not done before especially as a Spanish artist.

Rosalia has explained that the album was technically not even for her own, but it was meant to be a project since she was pursuing an education in art at her college and she was obligated to create an experimental album to receive a grade from her teacher at that time.

This is one of the reasons why El Mal Querer was so experimental because it was more than just a conventional album, and needed to have some sort of exploration due to her teachers' demands but since the album has gotten so much acclaim from different critics around the globe, I am confident that Rosalia has received a remarkable grade for her album.

El Mal Querer is the album that cemented her as an accomplished singer with global acclaim, since she received multiple platinum plaques internationally and has received positive reception from the most notable publications even referring to the album as being one of the best albums written in the Spanish language as “Rolling Stone” has stated.

Los Angeles

I intentionally elaborated on El Mal Querer first, because this album has received the most recognition out of the two but this does not mean that Los Angeles is not meant to be discovered since it’s an undeniably underrated album which usually hasn’t caused as much conversations as El Mal Querer did, but it still deserves to have some acknowledgment hence I why included it into this blog.

Los Angles is a little more simplistic when being compared to El Mal Querer since it was more experimental and has a very elaborated narrative about a broken marriage and the problems the groom is encountering within that diabolical commitment.

This album is concentrated on traditional Flamenco inspired music with no additional production or extra gimmicks to enhance the sound of the album, but actually is very stripped down with typical guitar strings and the consistent presence of clapping hands throughout the album which is definitely present in El Mal Querer as well, but it was constructed with a more sophisticated method.

The combination of traditional Flamenco elements and modern mainstream music, contrary to that Los Angeles has a more organic and traditional sound.

While being her first album it did not receive a lot of acclaims internationally, but was successful in her own country of Spain where it managed to achieve a golden certification but unfortunately it was not a worldwide success.

Despite the lack of acknowledgment I would still recommend people to listen to this magnificent album, even though I personally prefer El Mal Querer because of its interesting narrative, and because it has been compiled like an actual book this album has a more simplistic and neutral approach, but also is an album that demands time to truly admire it.

Considering the fact that the album’s production is a little more “underwhelming” in comparison with El Mal Querer, it might be a different experience, but it should absolutely not be undermined since it’s her first album that eventually orchestrated the inspiration behind El Mal Querer.

Controversies and accusations

Rosalia has been accused of cultural appropriation from several different communities, which were not appreciating the cultural elements that Rosalia includes in her music especially when it’s regarding Andalusian references and Romani references.

Even though she only incorporates these references because they have a historical attachment with Flamenco music in general and she wants to pay respect to the creators of this magnificent dance, but there have been a lot of disagreements surrounding this particular problem but Rosalia stated that she will always incorporate these references in her music but didn’t necessarily take this accusation to heart.

Rosalia has also been criticized for the garments that she is wearing, and that she emulates other cultural groups and that she might be channeling a “ghetto” like aesthetic because of the exaggerated long nails and the grills she has in her teeth but this was only recently since she is getting more acknowledged in the USA.

Another thing that Rosalia got backlash for is the fact that Rosalia has been elected for the Latin American Grammy’s, this is deemed "problematic" because Rosalia is from Spanish descent.

Most people have the impression that these accolades are soley meant for Latin American artists, ( these elections are not based on ethnicity, but rather the background of the language (Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese are all LATIN languages!)

According to the academy every Latin langauge singer is permitted to be selected for these nominations if they sing in a Latin based language, this entails that Spaniards are technically eligible to be nominated as well, since the award is based on the Portuguese and Spanish language.

It is understandable that there are a lot of misconceptions regarding the award, this gave many others the opinion that it's undeserved for her to get these awards, not only because they think it's inappropriate since she's not from Latin origin, but also because they feel like other underrated Latin artists deserve to get the same amount of recognition, which is debatable for some.

Rosalia also had a short appearance on the “WAP” music video from rappers Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion, which she has also been crucified for because she “apparently” wore braids in the music video, but these were not braids but a traditional Spanish hat that is woven as a spiral, due to this people perceived it as braids when in reality it’s a hat that is commonly used for bullfighting competitions, so she was not appropriating another culture in that music video but was resonating with her own roots.

This discussion about “cultural appropriation” is another conversation on its own but it’s frequently misused in many occasions.

Stand-alone singles and upcoming releases

According to Rosalia, she’s currently working on her upcoming album which will be her third album recorded by a major record label, but she has not confirmed anything about the singles that she has released over the time but they are most likely going to be separate singles to cause anticipation or to promote the next era.

There has been a lot of speculation regarding her upcoming album, and some are even suspecting some producers to be involved in the production of the next album such as “Pharrell Williams” and people who have previously been associated with the production of El Mal Querer.

Most of these singles are also Flamenco inspired, but also have distinctive sound, so it’s not possible to predict how this album is going to sound in its entirety, but I am assured that the album will be phenomenal and will perhaps give Rosalia even more acclaim than she already has.

The Spanish singer has recently announced her upcoming album named "Motomami", which will be released in the upcoming year.

We will have to see what the Spanish singer has in store for us, but I am assured that this is going to be another phenomenal era that will not be forgotten, and hopefully enhances her opportunities as an artist.