Rosalía

Rosalia 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 acclaimed by critics for its 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. 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, 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