“When I was 16, I came here to study English. You can hear it didn’t work.”
English may not be Rosalía Vila Tobella’s first language, yet in a music scene where flamenco was the communal language, this recent pop sensation proved emphatically fluent. Hailing from Spain’s impassioned Catalonia, the 25-year-old singer-songwriter garnered an unprecedented wave of attention over the past year, namely through the release of her captivating flamenco-pop 2nd LP, El Mal Querer. Having reviewed it positively on this channel, my incandescent anticipations awaited until her impressive Glastonbury performance a few weeks prior, yet was incomparable to the excitement waged for this sold-out show at London’s prestigious Somerset House.
Sedating the crowd of their mania, Rosalía commenced with the subdued ‘Pienso En Tu Mirá’ and ‘Barefoot in the Park’, with the former taken from her latest LP and the latter stripped from her feature off James Blake’s latest LP earlier this year. Floating amongst an air of R&B-tinged flamenco, came the unexpectedly alluring a cappella version of ‘Catalina’ - a more traditional ode to her flamenco roots empowering the audience’s auditory senses with arabic-stylised vocal melodies stretching such staggering ranges.
Grasping the audience firmly in her clutch, the reciprocated tirades of ‘ole’s, hand clappings, and dance routines began with more upbeats tracks such as ‘Que No Salga La Luna’, ‘De Aquí No Sales’, and ‘Di Mi Nombre’. Amidst the fervent ‘palmas’ (hand clappings) of the Spanish community comprising the crowd, Rosalía’s choreographed dance moves with her backing dancers radiated throughout - enticingly reacting to the sporadic, bassier samplings of automobile whirrs. These expressionistic moves further captivated this audience who proved all the more invested in Rosalía’s live presence, forever remaining fresh and vibrant for the ever-changing repertoire of flamenco permeating tonight.
Approaching the home stretch of Rosalía’s first sold-out U.K. show, the singer ultimately indulged in her latest singles veering toward a reggaeton-inspired route. From the J. Balvin-featured ‘Con Altura’, to the stringent ‘na, na, na’s of ‘Aute Cuture’, and repeated calls of “fucking money man” in ‘Milionària’, the crowd seemingly revelled amongst these newly-injected singles exuding more accessible dance beats encased in their exotic sheen. Whilst her first breakout hit of last year, ‘Malamente’, reigned supreme in the set’s latter stages with its true-blue flamenco-pop roots, the countless hours of rehearsals imbuing her choreography laced these singles together coherently in an emphatic finale.
For Rosalía, her long fought battle against the die-hard flamenco enthusiasts last summer seems a far distant cry. Staying true to her Spanish roots, the language barriers ultimately subsided through the personal connection of raw emotions, power, and musical prowess of an unparalleled fusion of traditional flamenco and modern pop - something her contemporaries desperately lack. Long may her reign continue ahead of this triumphant headline London show, indelibly burgeoning the notion of ‘foreign’ or ‘world music’ for the better - flag-bearing forward a genre which deserves its time in the London’s summer limelight and much more.
9/10
Rosalía's 2nd LP, El Mal Querer, is out now and can be found here.
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