Rosalia | Artist
Rosalia Vila Tobella is a Spanish singer and songwriter born 1992 in Sant Esteve Sesrovires, Catalonia. She has been described as an "atypical pop star" due to her genre-bending musical styles which incorporate flamenco, latin-pop, art-pop and hip hop. Born to a family with no musical background, Rosalia is the youngest daughter of María Pilar Tobella Aguilera, who runs Suprametal, SA, a family company specialising in metalworks for windows. After being enthralled by Spanish folk music at age 14, she studied musicology at the Catalonia College of Music while also performing at musical bars and weddings. 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. The 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. All four of her studio album releases to-date are standouts: Los Ángeles (2017), El mal querer (2018), Motomani (2022), and Lux from 2025. The album Lux has catapultued her into mainstream success and attracted rave reviews, such as the following from RYM: "The production, vocals and instrumentation are gorgeous, big shoutout to the London Orchestra for those flawless strings. The concept is definitely ambitious as Rosalía sings lyrics in many languages to deep dive into her own romantic and religious feelings structured in several movements each dedicated to a different female saint.. Like Bowie, one of the greatest talents of Rosalía is finding inspiration in unexpected ways and bending those sounds or ideas to her own vision". Rosalía has cited Camarón de la Isla, James Blake and Björk as her major musical influences. In 2019 she told MTV "when I was 13 years old I started listening to him [Camarón de la Isla] by chance. This genre, flamenco, was what my high-school friends listened to and so did I. When I discovered him I was like 'oh my God!' I didn't think anyone was capable to sing with such a voice; it would go right through me so heartily. Forbes named Rosalía in their list of "Most Influential Spanish Women" in 2020 and in 2022. In 2021, Pitchfork named Rosalía one of the most important artists of the last 25 years.
Artist Website: rosalia.com
Featured Albums: Rosalía
Related Artists: Kejaleo
