For example, he explains, while Rosalía’s vocals often follow the melodic qualities of flamenco, they don’t maintain its strict pacing and rhythms. In an article entitled, “Why is Rosalía not flamenca?” from the Andalusian paper ABCdeSevilla, critic Alberto García Reyes presents an alternative, technically driven case that Rosalía shouldn’t be considered a flamenco artist based purely on her music. To ignore it would only further prove her point. This casts a harsh pall over Rosalía’s massive, almost unblemished success, but the history of racism Cortés cites against Romani people, with whom flamenco is intimately intertwined, is nothing debatable. Why the backlash, then? One pro- gitano activist, Noelia Cortés, takes issue with what she sees as Rosalía being the only palatable (read: white) version of flamenco with international appeal, and with Rosalía’s use of an Andalusian-inspired aesthetic and symbolism (like the bullfighting school featured in the video for “Malamente”). And of course, I’d like to imagine her as one of the majority of Catalans I met, those who didn’t hold prejudice against their neighbors to the South. She is no stranger to the ins and outs of the genre. Rosalía has a degree in traditional flamenco music from the Escuela Superior de Música de Cataluña (or the Catalan Superior School of Music), and El mal querer is her final student project. It seemed curious that Rosalía would be echoing the music and language of the people so often discriminated against in Catalonia.īut the case turns out to be more complex.
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To my understanding, this was code for “whiter” than the people whose heritage more clearly reflect Romani, or gitano (gypsy) influences.
When I lived there a few years ago, the phrase I heard a few times that stuck with me was that some Catalans pride themselves on being more “European” than their neighbors to the south. The political and cultural tensions between the regions are no secret tensions peaked in 2017 when a referendum for an independent Catalonia ended with crackdowns from the Spanish government and the dismissal of Catalan president Carles Puigdemont. She is Catalan, from the country’s northeastern region where Barcelona is the capital. Most reviews were overwhelmingly positive, but I was surprised to some headlines from Spanish outlets accusing Rosalía of cultural appropriation.Īs it turns out, the singer is not from Andalucía, the home of flamenco. The sounds I could recognize are distinctly Spanish, but as a whole, the album sounds like something completely new.Īfter listening and watching the four videos that accompany the album – which almost echo Beyonce’s Lemonade in their “heart-wrenching storytelling of modern, woman-flexing R&B,” as Shepherd put it – I went to see what else people were saying about it. On “Bagdad,” I did a double-take when I recognized a sample from Justin Timberlake’s “Cry Me a River,” in which she combined flamenco vocals and palmas (claps) with R&B to create something entirely new. On “Reniego,” the opening orchestral strings mixed with flamenco-inspired vocals is mesmerizing. While the two singles, “Malamente” and “Pienso en tu mirá” are quite pop-driven, with catchy beats and easy-to-sing lyrics, the rest of the album is a journey into a mélange of sounds you’ve never heard mixed together before. My reaction was the same when I first listened to El mal querer in its entirety. As Pitchfork’s Julianne Escobedo Shepherd wrote, the album “is one of the most exciting and passionately composed albums to appear not only in the global bass tradition but in the pop and experimental spheres this year.” She won two Latin Grammys this year, wowing audiences from around the world with her performance of “Malamente.” She also received the all-important rave review from Pitchfork, as well as other outlets in both English and Spanish. With the release of her album El mal querer, Rosalía´s presence on the global musical scene has been confirmed. Of her first music videos, “De plata” stuck with me, in which, with undeniable star power, Rosalía belts flamenco while dancing through the nighttime streets of Madrid. With her impeccably smooth vocals, she outshines her counterparts on both songs. Tangana, a Spanish rapper, and then on the stripped-down track, “Brillo,” with J Balvin. I first heard her sing on “Antes de Morirme” with C. A few months ago, Rosalía’s was a name I was only vaguely familiar with.
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