That’s my base – flamenco is the classical foundation I chose to build my music on. Rosalía: My music wouldn’t make sense without flamenco. Camarón or Lole and Manuel continue playing on young people’s mobile phones on the streets. I can see that young people have now rediscovered flamenco, but in a fresh and unprejudiced way. It is taught in schools nowadays, where it enjoys the same status as jazz or classical music, it goes beyond any trends. Some people say that flamenco is the ‘Andalusian belcanto’. It’s both complex and emotional, and it has been declared World Cultural Heritage by UNESCO. Rosalía: Flamenco is a strongly traditional, deep-rooted music genre. El Raval, Poble Nou, or Gràcia have been essential spots where I have developed my music career.Ĭan you tell us how flamenco is perceived in Barcelona? He suggested I started a degree in music, and I had the opportunity to study and share eight years of my life with him in this city. I met my flamenco singing teacher in this city. If you pay attention, you may be easily inspired by the places and people living there. It’s brimming with a very special creative energy. When I was around ten, I decided I would devote myself and my life to music.īarcelona is an open and multicultural city. I remember myself as a little girl dancing and singing around the house most of the time. Rosalía: Since I was a young girl, I have always felt a strong connection to music, in a natural way, without hesitation. Any language barrier between her and the audience is irrelevant. Combine that with stellar musical samples, ranging from motorbike engines to Justin Timberlake, otherworldly album artwork by Spanish-Croatian artist Filip Custic, and a mammoth 653k Instagram following, it’s no wonder why she’s so popular with young people, both within Spain and globally. Classic flamenco rhythms converge with elements of hip hop and R&B that’s rooted in Rosalía’s regional identity but accessible to the masses. Strictly speaking, El Mal Querer is not flamenco – any suggestion of which would deplore any Andalusian purist – but her fusion of genres gives the old tradition a dose of modernism. Much of her sound draws on the style of her flamenco forbearers: the deep, mournful cry of cante jondo – a term that literally translates as ‘deep song’ – made famous by the likes of Camarón, Lole, and Manuel, is a prime facet of Rosalia’s voice, which seems to project from the very pits of her belly.
Her music fits into what appears to be a global shift towards Latin pop, spearheaded by the likes of J Balvin and C Tangana. “I wanted to find a possible bridge between electronic sounds and heritage music,” she says. El Mal Querer was in fact the title of her university thesis, which she wrote on the history of flamenco. Rosalía puts it down to years of studying the genre – she was only 13 when she started listening to legendary flamenco revivalist Camarón and, to put it in her own words, she has “never stopped learning”. How a flamenco singer managed to amass such a loyal following in such a (seemingly) short period of time is another story.
Rosalía only began releasing music last year, but the world is listening. She’s recently started making music with Venezuelan singer-producer Arca. Just recently, Pharrell invited her to record with him in Los Angeles, while Oscar-winning director Pedro Almodóvar has cast her in his next film Dolor y Gloria, alongside Penélope Cruz and Antonio Banderas. But if the length of the queue outside her first UK show is anything to go by, she’s doing something right. Yet Rosalía does not fit into the typical mould of pop stardom, and releasing a flamenco-inspired record on a major international label is no easy feat. Her latest album, El Mal Querer, released today on Universal, shows Rosalía as a full-blown showman: the high-budget music video for single “Malamente”, which has amassed over 23 million views on YouTube (nearly half the population of Spain), has the polished glamour and slick choreography of a Beyoncé video. The Barcelona-based musician is already a household name in her native Catalonia, a flamenco revolutionary who is revamping the age-old tradition for the younger generation. Flanked by a flock of backing dancers, the 25-year-old flamenco singer, clapping her hands like castanets, has all the passion and posture of a traditional Andalusian artist, wearing an all-red and tasselled outfit that follows the movements of her arms. It’s a Wednesday night at London’s Village Underground, and Rosalía is waving a long, freshly diamanted finger at the crowd.
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