SPANISH singer Rosalia made more history on Saturday night as she became the first Spanish music artist to ever win a BRIT award.
The Catalan-born songstress had already etched her name into the record books after becoming the first Spaniard to receive a nomination for a prestigious BRIT since Julio Iglesias in 1983.
But she broke new ground at a glitzy ceremony at the Co-op Live arena in Manchester, fighting off nine rivals including last year’s winner Chappell Roan to be crowned International Artist of the Year.
The prize also means Rosalia is the first musician who primarily performs in a language other than English to pick up an award at the BRITs, the highest-profile annual music ceremony in the UK.
Taking to the stage to receive the award from fellow singers Tems and Jade Thirlwall, Rosalia said that she hoped her ground-breaking achievement would inspire more musicians to write music in their own language.
Addressing the crowd in English, the 33-year-old said: “Oh my God! I was so grateful just to be here tonight, just to perform, so this is insane.
“It’s such an honour to bring my music far from home and I would love to share this [award] with all my peers who also make music in Spanish. Let’s keep celebrating the otherness, let’s keep celebrating different music, different cultures, different languages.”
She added: ““I want to thank my mum, family and my team for always having my back.”
Earlier in the ceremony, Rosalia wowed the audience with a spine-tingling rendition of her eccentric hit single Berghain, which topped the charts in Spain, hit second spot in the United States and was named as The Guardian’s Song of the Year for 2025.
The performance was hailed by host Jack Whitehall as an “epic” mix of Last Night of the Proms and an Ibiza nightclub and featured a surprise cameo from legendary Icelandic artist Bjork, who caught the eye with a futuristic-looking gown and extravagant curtain-like headpiece.
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The song is the most popular single from Rosalia’s critically-acclaimed fourth studio album Lux, released in November last year.
An 18-track blend of flamenco, rumba and opera with lyrics in 14 different languages, the album also features collaborations with music greats including Bjork, Estrella Morente and the London Symphony Orchestra.
On its first day of release, Lux was streamed 42.1 million times on Spotify – a record for the most first-day plays of an album written by a female Spanish-language artist.
Rosalia rose to prominence in 2018 following the release of her debut album El Mal Querer, which combined traditional flamenco music with pop and hip-hop and was named Album of the Year at the Latin Grammy Awards.
Since then, she has amassed thirteen number-one singles in Spain plus two Grammy Awards, eleven Latin Grammy Awards and two MTV Europe Music Awards, cementing her position as one of the most successful Spanish singers of all time.
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