Grammy award-winning artist Rosalía’s fourth studio album “LUX” is breaking records across the world, debuting at number one on five separate Billboard charts.
Released on Nov. 15, the Spanish-born singer, along with performers originating from other countries, sings in a total of 13 different languages on the 15-track album, including Spanish, Catalan, English, Latin, Italian, Japanese, Arabic, Hebrew, Ukrainian, German, French, Portuguese and Sicilian.
“It’s really about the transitions and contrasts between songs,” junior Lucy Stutz said. “For example, it goes from ‘Berghain’, which is a harsh German song, into ‘La Perla’, which has much softer butterfly vibes.”
Stutz isn’t a native Spanish speaker, but she’s still found ways to appreciate the culture and beauty of Rosalía’s music.
“I love it so much,” Stutz said. “It’s a work of art, seriously. My favorite song is ‘La Perla’ and even though I don’t know what she’s saying, I still sing gibberish and it’s so good.”
Rosalía is a Grammy award-winning singer, born in Barcelona with a background in flamenco and music production. Flamenco is a traditional form of Spanish music which mixes singing, dancing and guitar into its own genre. Rosalía’s best known for blending flamenco with more contemporary genres like pop and reggaeton.
While being popular with the Latino and Hispanic communities, Rosalía has received strong criticism for being a Spanish female artist in a male and Latino-dominated industry.
The main controversy Rosalia faces is her use of southern Spanish culture, like flamenco, in her songs since she’s from the Catalan region in Spain. Still prevalent in Spain today, tensions linger between Spaniards from the Catalan region and the rest of Spain due to the Catalonians’ known desire to be independent from Spain.
“I think it’s cool that she’s at least representing Spanish culture,” sophomore Michael Alvarez said. “Even though Catalonia wants to separate itself, she’s still promoting Spanish culture and being a positive influence on Spain.”
“LUX” isn’t a typical Latin pop or reggaeton album like most of Rosalía’s previous albums. “LUX” is classical music with a mix of classical pop and Spanish flamenco. These kinds of genres don’t typically make top charts, let alone become number one globally. She’s received a mixture of both criticism and praise for stepping outside the box with her artistic choices.
“It’s very much a little more experimental, not experimental as in a pots and pans thing, but something that a lot of artists would be scared to do,” junior Kallen Sidhu said.
It also debuted at number one on Billboard’s ‘Top Latin Albums’, ‘Top Latin Pop Albums’, ‘Classical Albums’, ‘Classical Crossover’ and ‘World Albums’ charts. Rosalía made history as the first-ever Spanish-speaking woman to reach number one on the World Albums Chart. It also debuted at number four on the Billboard 200 chart, marking Rosalía’s first top 10 on the overall chart.
After one week of being released, “LUX” surpassed Taylor Swift’s “The Life of a Showgirl” on the top charts globally.
Overall, Rosalía’s hit album has already shaken up the music industry across the world, opening up the world of Spanish music and culture to a wider, more diverse audience.
