AN 18-track amalgamation of flamenco, rumba and opera with lyrics in 14 different languages, featuring collaborations with music greats including Björk, Estrella Morente and even the London Symphony Orchestra.
This is Lux, the extraordinary fourth studio album by Rosalia Vila Tobella, better known simply as Rosalia – Spain’s biggest modern music star.
Released just one week ago, the Catalan singer’s latest offering has been hailed by critics as her greatest yet.
For Will Hodgkinson of The Times, it is an ‘exquisite’ work of art.
For others it is ‘truly compelling’ and ‘spectacular’, a ‘masterpiece’ featuring ‘moments of melodic beauty’.
Rosalia has sent the world of music wild – and has broken several records in the process.
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On its very first day, Lux earned a whopping 42.1 million streams on Spotify, breaking the record for most first-day plays by a female Spanish-language artist.
Remarkably, twelve of its tracks entered Spotify’s daily list of the top fifty most-streamed songs globally, whilst the album’s lead single, Berghain – a reference to the famously Berlin nightclub – has already topped the charts in Spain and entered several other lists worldwide.
‘Rosalia mania’ has taken over Spain – with the prime minister even joining in.
Writing on X, Pedro Sanchez said: “Congratulations, Rosalia, on the dazzling release of Lux!
“You’ve placed Spain at the top of the world music scene, with the most successful debut by a female Spanish-speaking artist on Spotify, reaching the position of the third most listened-to artist across the entire platform.”
Wearing a rosary and dressed in a nun’s white veil on the album cover, Rosalia’s fandom has risen to scarcely-believable spiritual levels.
Across Spain, fans are in adoration of ‘Saint Rosalia’, viewing the 32-year-old from Sant Esteve Sesrovires as worthy of candlelit altars – chiming with a recent surge in the Catholic faith among some youngsters.
One baker in central Spain has started producing yemas de Santa Teresa sweets – a type of confectionary traditionally made by nuns – in honour of the singer.
The hysteria has even spread to the clergy with Xabier Gomez Garcia, a leading bishop in Sant Feliu de Llobregat, writing an open letter that read: “You seem to live art as a spiritual crossing…Your creation is a pilgrimage towards transcendence.”
He added: “Your words baffle me, but they also open up the possibility of a dialogue about the complexity of the human experience.”
Rosalia, who first rose to prominence with her album El mal querer in 2018, says her grandmother rang her up in tears after reading the bishop’s letter.
Speaking on La Revuelta to an estimated audience of over 2.7 million viewers, Rosalia hinted at the religiosity underpinning the album, explaining her fascination with ‘the spirituality that lives in doubt as much as in certainty’.
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In an interview with El Pais, she went further, saying: “I resonate with Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism […] I think they all have things that I can relate to…and all of this has allowed me to broaden my horizons and my idea of spirituality.”
But some have accused the Catalan of shamelessly jumping on the religious bandwagon, not least because her 18-track epic features lyrics including: “I will f*** you until you love me.”
Catalan author Najat El Hachmi asked: “Where is the monastic spirit in the pop star’s life of wealth and hyper-sexualised imagery?”
One thing remains certain, though – this album has cemented Rosalia’s position as the greatest Spanish music artist of her generation.
As one critic wrote in German newspaper Die Zeit: “Pop has a new goddess”.
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