I first heard Rosalía’s name a couple months ago from one of my students during a “one-to-one” English conversation session. “Sure, she sings flamenco”, she said, “but young people are actually listening to her”. Needless to say, the very evening I went to YouTube to look Rosalía up and was promptly blown away.
[It was also irritating to see those endless comments criticising her for cultural appropriation, for singing flamenco while being neither gypsy nor andalú, for not singing flamenco (“¡Esto no es flamenco!”), for — whatever. Do yourself a favour, don’t waste your time reading them.]
El mal querer, which was conceived as Rosalía’s university thesis, is an unashamedly conceptual album. Every song has a second title, corresponding to a chapter in an XIIIth-century Occitan romance Flamenca, of which history has preserved neither beginning nor end. Musically, it is all but straightforward — if interested, watch a fascinating although at times a bit too technical analysis by Jaime Altozano (recommended by yet another student). But, before doing that, try to listen to the whole thing several times in a row without distractions. I was doing just that and kept discovering new things.
As great (and it is great) as the studio album is, there is more to Rosalía. Six months after its release, Malamente is a cultural reference as integral to the Spanish landscape as anything you can think of. (Just watch the parodies by Los Morancos and Polònia (Lentamente) and you’ll see what I mean.)
On 31 October Rosalía played a free concert, sponsored by Red Bull, at Plaza de Colón in Madrid. The concert was also streamed live on the Red Bull website. This stream was recorded and published by somebody on YouTube, only to be taken down a few days later (Red Bull blocked it “on copyright grounds”). I was lucky to see it, in its entirety, before it disappeared. The live performance, with dancers and all, seems to be even more impressive than the videos.
I don’t expect Rosalía’s detractors will ever shut up. This matters not. It is not just Spanish “young people” who are listening to her: she is gaining audience worldwide. Now that my beloved Ojos de Brujo, Canteca de Macao and Chambao (all great flamenco fusionistas, but how many people outside of Spain know them?) are no longer performing, it is up to new generation of musicians to make flamenco cool again.
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