Background and career
Rosalía Vila Tobella (born 25 September 1992), known mononymously as Rosalía (Spanish: [rosaˈli.a], Catalan: [ruzəˈli.ə]), is a Spanish singer-songwriter and actress. She has been described as an "atypical pop star" due to her genre-bending musical style. After being enthralled by Spanish folk music at age 14, she studied musicology at the Catalonia College of Music and graduated in 2017. She completed her studies with honours by virtue of her debut and collaborative cover album with Raül Refree, Los Ángeles (2017), and her baccalaureate second album El mal querer (2018). Reimagining flamenco by mixing it with pop and hip-hop music, it spawned the singles "Malamente" and "Pienso en tu mirá", which caught the attention of the Spanish public, and were released to critical acclaim. A recipient of the Latin Grammy Award for Album of the Year and listed in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, El mal querer started the ascent of Rosalía into the international music scene. Rosalía explored urbano music with her 2019 releases "Con altura" and "Yo x ti, tú x mí", achieving global success. She gave reggaeton an experimental twist on her third studio album Motomami (2022), departing from the new flamenco sound of its predecessor. The album caught international attention with its singles "La Fama", "Saoko", and "Despechá", to become the best reviewed album of the year on Metacritic. Her fourth album Lux (2025) broke several all-time records by a Spanish-speaking female artist and was widely acclaimed by critics for its ambitious fusion of art pop and classical elements. In the course of her career, Rosalía has accumulated thirteen number-ones in her home country, the most for a local female artist. She has also won two Grammy Awards, eleven Latin Grammy Awards (including two Album of the Year wins), a BRIT Award, four MTV Video Music Awards, two MTV Europe Music Awards, three UK Music Video Awards, an Ivor Novello Award and two Premio Ruido awards, among others. In 2019, Billboard gave her the Rising Star Award for "changing the sound of today's mainstream music with her fresh flamenco-influenced pop", and became the first Spanish-singing act in history to be nominated for Best New Artist at the Grammys. In 2026, Rosalía was named Woman of the Year at the Billboard Latin Women in Music and inducted into the Billboard Latin Music Hall of Fame. She is widely considered one of the most successful and influential Spanish singers of all time.
Rosalía Vila Tobella was born in 1992 at a hospital in Sant Cugat del Vallès, Catalonia, Spain, although she was raised in Sant Esteve Sesrovires, Baix Llobregat. Born to a family with no musical background, she was named after her maternal grandmother Rosalía Aguilera Torres, who was born in Òdena. She is the youngest daughter of María Pilar Tobella Aguilera, who runs Suprametal, SA, a family company specialising in metalworks for windows. Her father, José Manuel Vila, was born in Cudillero, Asturias, to a Galician father from Vigo and a mother from Ávila, with one of his grandfathers being born in Cuba. Her parents separated in 2019. Rosalía has an older sister, Pilar "Pili" Vila (born 1989), who works with her as her stylist and creative director. Rosalía expressed interest in the performing arts at an early age, especially after discovering the discography of Camarón de la Isla. She began her musical education at the Taller de Músics., where she completed a six-year course. She then began attending class at the Raval school, later transferring to the Superior School of Music of Catalonia. She graduated in 2017. During this time, she also worked as an independent singer at weddings and musical bars, for which she was paid "a little over 80 euros or in exchange for dinner". During that time, Rosalía met many underground Spanish artists who would later become successful, such as La Zowi, Yung Beef, Kaydy Cain, Hinds and María Escarmiento. At 15, she competed on the television show Tú Sí Que Vales, although she was not selected. At 17, she had to undergo vocal cord surgery after tearing one of her vocal cords due to "intense singing practices" and was unable to sing for a year. In 2012, she became the vocalist of Kejaleo, a flamenco music group featuring Jordi Franco, Roger Blavia, Cristo Fontecilla, Diego Cortés and Xavi Turull. They released an album, Alaire, in 2013. That same year, Rosalía professionally worked as a duo with Juan "Chicuelo" Gómez to promote the Blancanieves soundtrack at the 2013 Panama International Film Festival in substitution of Sílvia Pérez Cruz and at the Festival Grec de Barcelona for the contemporary dance work De Carmen. In 2013, she participated in the Association of Performing Arts Professionals (APAP) Conference in New York, and was the lead voice in the culmination of the Any Espriu 2014. In 2015, she collaborated with La Fura dels Baus on a show that premiered in Singapore. She was the opening act for flamenco artist Miguel Poveda, accompanied by Alfredo Lagos, at the International Music Festival of Cadaqués, and also at the 2016 Jerez Jazz Festival. She worked with Rocío Márquez on the presentation of her album El Niño, produced by Raül Refree, at Primavera Sound. In 2015, she also worked with clothing brand Desigual and sang the single for their campaign jingle "Last Night Was Eternal". and self-released "Un Millón de Veces" included in the benefit album Tres Guitarras Para el Autismo. At 20, she worked as a flamenco teacher and vocal coach. In 2016, Rosalía collaborated with Spanish rapper and former boyfriend C. Tangana on "Antes de morirme". The song was a sleeper hit and entered the Spanish Singles Chart in 2018, after the success of Rosalía's newer material. The collaboration received international attention when it was featured on the soundtrack of the first season of the Spanish Netflix show Élite.
In 2016, Rosalía performed to a crowd of a hundred people at the Tablao del Carmen, a flamenco specialised venue at the Pueblo Español, in Barcelona. In the audience was Raül Refree, whom she invited to the show. They began working on two albums together. Rosalía signed with Universal Music later in 2016, and she relocated to California. She went on to only release Los Ángeles. The album talks about death in a dark way with aggressive guitar chords by Refree. It presents reworks of flamenco classics receiving several accolades. She was nominated for Best New Artist at the 18th Latin Grammy Awards. The album was released on 10 February 2017 through Universal Music and spawned two singles, "Catalina", released in October 2016, and "De Plata", released in May 2017. The album was very well received by critics. Jordi Bardají wrote in 2018 that the record was "one of the greatest 'sleepers' that Spanish sales lists have known in recent times." Los Ángeles reached its peak position of number nine on 11 November 2018 and has remained in the albums chart since its entry, having accumulated a total of 89 weeks. Los Ángeles won the "Album of the Year" award at the Time Out Awards and the Premio Ruido, among others. In 2017, RTVE contacted Rosalía to participate in the pre-selection to represent Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017, which she declined because of scheduling conflicts with the promotion of her debut record. Rosalía and Raül Refree embarked on a concert tour, Los Ángeles Tour, supporting their first studio album together. The tour began on 11 February 2017 in Granada and ended on 1 March 2018 at the Palau de la Música in Barcelona. Spanish singer Bebe attended one of their concerts in Madrid alongside Juanes, who became "immediately obsessed with Rosalía" and asked his manager Rebeca León to work with her. She agreed to manage her as she felt like she was a "once in fifty years kind of artist".
The recording cycle for Rosalía's second studio album, El mal querer, began in early 2017 as her baccalaureate project, graduating from the Catalonia College of Music. She personally chose to work alongside Spanish musician el Guincho and spawned its concept alongside friend Ferran Echegaray, who bet on the Romance of Flamenca to follow the album's storyline. Despite having no budget to produce the record as she was an independent artist working on a university project, Rosalía invested a lot of her own money, to the point of "almost going bankrupt". The album was almost completely recorded at el Guincho's apartment in Barcelona with a computer, a microphone and a sound card. It would mix traditional flamenco with today's pop and urban music. In May 2018, the singer announced the title of her upcoming album in a little homemade YouTube series. J Balvin parallelly released his fifth studio album, Vibras, which featured Rosalía on the track "Brillo". Later that month, Rosalía released the album's lead single "Malamente". The single caught the attention of international personalities such as Kourtney Kardashian and Dua Lipa, alongside numerous music critics, while its Canada-directed music video reached social media virality. The song was nominated for five Latin Grammy Awards, out of it won two, for Best Alternative Song and for Best Urban Fusion/Performance. The follow-up single, "Pienso en tu mirá", was released in July. Its music video received critical acclaim for its aesthetics and poetic symbolism. The song was nominated for Best Pop Song at the 2019 Latin Grammy Awards. The third single, "Di mi nombre", released three days prior to the album, earned Rosalía her first number-one single in Spain. El mal querer was released on 2 November 2018 and debuted at number two on the PROMUSICAE chart. Presented as experimental and conceptual, it revolves around a toxic relationship described in the anonymous 13th-century Occitan novel Flamenca. The album was met with universal acclaim by music critics. Writing for The Guardian, head critic Alexis Petridis highly commended the album, giving it the highest rating and describing it as "the calling card of a unique new talent". El mal querer was listed in over twenty album year-end and decade-end lists by publications such as Pitchfork, Billboard and The Guardian. Rolling Stone listed it 315th on their 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list, making it the highest Spanish-language album in the list. El mal querer was later nominated for several awards including four Latin Grammys, a Latin Billboard Music award, a Latin American Music award and a LOS40 Music award. It also won the Grammy Award for Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative Album.
In 2019 Rosalía took part in the Pedro Almodóvar film Pain and Glory. She had previously contributed vocals to the soundtracks of Arde Madrid and Paquita Salas. In March 2019, Rosalía embarked on her first global concert tour, El Mal Querer Tour, to further promote El Mal Querer, with shows in South America, North America, Europe and Africa.While on tour, Rosalía issued several songs. On 28 March 2019, she released a second collaboration with Balvin, "Con altura". Despite initially receiving mixed reviews from critics, "Con altura" topped the charts in Argentina, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Venezuela and Spain. Its music video, directed by Director X, became the most-watched music video by a female artist of 2019. It also spawned her nickname "La Rosalía" and its choreography eventually became viral and a moment in Latin pop culture. "Con altura" won two MTV Video Music Awards for Best Latin Video and Best Choreography, making her the first Spanish act to win one. It also won Best Collaboration at the 2019 MTV Europe Music Awards and Best Urban Song at the 2019 Latin Grammys. The song has sold over seven million copies worldwide so far. In May, Rosalía released the song "Aute Cuture". It became her third number-one in Spain and earned a Latin Grammy nomination for Record of the Year. In July, she released the single Fucking Money Man, which includes two tracks: "Milionària" (which she sang in Catalan) and "Dios nos libre del dinero". On 15 August, she released her collaboration with Ozuna "Yo x ti, tú x mí", which became her fifth number one single in Spain. In November, Rosalía released "A Palé", which features background vocals by James Blake, who she had worked earlier with on "Barefoot in the Park". In December, Rosalía was featured alongside Lil Baby on the remix of Travis Scott's "Highest in the Room". She was awarded the Rising Star award at Billboard's Women in Music for the international recognition she achieved during the year and for "changing the sound of today's mainstream music with her fresh flamenco-influenced pop". Rosalía's performance of "Juro Que" at the 62nd Grammy Awards marked the first time a Spanish female artist performed at the gala. She also became the first Spanish-singing act in history to be nominated for Best New Artist. During lockdown, Rosalía released "Dolerme" and, in May, "TKN", her second collaboration with Travis Scott, which eventually became her first entry on the Billboard Hot 100, debuting at number 66, as well as the sixth number-one single of hers in her home country. The song went viral on TikTok. The music video for "TKN", directed by Nicolás Méndez, won the Latin Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video. It also spawned a nomination for Best Direction at the Berlin Music Video Awards. On 22 June, Arca and Rosalía released their highly anticipated collaboration "KLK", included in the musician's album KiCk i.
Recording sessions for Rosalía's third studio album started as early as 2019. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Rosalía relocated to Miami where she continued to work on the album while also providing vocals to multiple songs. On 4 September 2020, a remix of Sech's "Relación", which also features Daddy Yankee, Farruko and J Balvin, was released, earning Rosalía her second entry on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at 64. She also took part in Bad Bunny's third solo studio album, El Último Tour del Mundo, on the track "La Noche de Anoche", which was later released as a single on Valentine's Day. The collaboration, performed on Saturday Night Live, became a huge commercial success, debuting at number two on the Spotify global chart with 6.63 million streams in a single day, marking the biggest debut for a song fully sung in Spanish in history. A week later, she collaborated alongside the Weeknd on the remix of "Blinding Lights" and, in January, with Billie Eilish on "Lo Vas a Olvidar", which was featured in the Euphoria special episode "Fuck Anyone Who's Not a Sea Blob". Rosalía later collaborated with Oneohtrix Point Never and Tokischa on "Nothing's Special" and "Linda" respectively. On 2 November 2021, Rosalía announced the title of her new album Motomami. It was released on 18 March 2022 through Columbia Records. Promotion prior to the album release encompassed the release of three singles and the promotional singles "Hentai" and "Candy". The lead single "La Fama", featuring the Weeknd, is an experimental bachata that saw great commercial success. It became Rosalía's seventh number one single in Spain while also peaking at five in France and reaching the top ten spot in eight other countries. In December 2021, Rockstar Games launched a new Grand Theft Auto Online radio station, Motomami Los Santos, curated by Rosalía and Arca. In February 2022, Rosalía revealed the album artwork for Motomami and released "Saoko" as the album's second single to wide critical acclaim. The song's accompanying music video, directed by Valentin Petit, was shot in Kyiv, mainly at Podilskyi Bridge. For its editing done by Petit and Jon Echeveste, the video would go on to win the MTV Video Music Award for Best Editing. On 24 February, Rosalía released "Chicken Teriyaki" as the album's third single.
