Rosalía Is Pop's Next Global Star — Last Night, She Proved It

in case you missed 2017’s Los ángeles, the studio debut by Spanish singer Rosalía, you wouldn’t be alone. Though beloved by the critics who reviewed it, the album — a stirring series of ruminations on flamenco and death — didn’t break behind her residence country’s charts. Although, if you’ve missed everything that’s come since — her appearance on J Balvin’s Vibras standout “Brillo,” 2018’s chart-topping Los ángeles follow-up, El Mal Querer, a featured credit on James Blake’s Assume Form, along with a months-long festival tour that’s taken her from Indio, California to Virginia Beach, Virginia, and in back of — well, you’re unfortunately late.


El Mal Querer re-told a centuries-old love story of ill-fated romance, handily re-purposing anything from roaring engines to Justin Timberlake’s “Cry Me A River” while doing so. The CANADA-directed visuals that accompanied singles like “Malamente” and “Pienso en tu mirá” exhibited an atypical eye for composition, color, and image: a motorcycle, frozen in space while charging through a torero’s cape; black cherries loaded into the chamber of a shotgun; a bed of nails hammered through a skateboard deck. Rosalía’s fashion, symbolism, and songs didn’t escape essential and commercial acclaim either, earning two Latin Grammys, a rapturous efficiency at the 2018 MTV Europe Music Awards, hundreds of millions of YouTube views, plus a No. 1 spot on the Billboard Latin Pop chart.


Rosalía and her team of dancers on-stage at New York City's Webster Hall.


This groundswell for the Spanish romantic, which started forming in mid-2018, most recently carried her to a two-show stop at the East Village’s newly-reopened Webster Hall for Red Bull Music Festival New York.


On April 26, soon after two-year-long renovations, the venue reintroduced itself to the city’s concert scene with Jay-Z’s B Sides 2 show, a possibility for 1,500 people to stand unusually close to Hov’s aura for a night of live rarities and fan favorites. The tickets, even with their $250 price tag, sold out in an instant and, by all accounts, were worth the price, as he brought out added rap royalty (Nas, Cam’ron, and Jim Jones) to officially start a new chapter for this beloved Manhattan club. A homegrown icon isn’t easy act to follow nevertheless, to anyone who’s been charting her trajectory, Rosalía’s appearance in Webster’s mid-size Grand Ballroom is similarly precious. This was your last chance to catch the singer at this proximity; in each year, it’s a near-certainty she’ll be touring in spaces at least 10 times the capacity of those storied nevertheless modest confines. And, on the next night of her sold-out stay (April 30), Rosalía showed why her spotlight keeps it up and continues to grow.


Wearing a red vinyl ensemble, she made the most of a tiny stage, charging the air with sharp, statuesque poses before turning on a dime to mob with her team of dancers. Her poise — a sudden twist of her arm into a crescent, delivered with the punch of an exclamation point — was complemented by her strength, how rapidly she and her crew could dip into a humming, energetic bounce. And her voice, as powerful and poignant in-person as it is on-record, filled the room, quieting a chattering crowd arrested by her presence.


The hour-long set — which featured her latest Balvin teamwork, “Con Altura,” and also a nearly-entire run of El Mal Querer — captivated the assembled fans, peers, and surely lots of industry executives curious to be able to see one of pop’s most promising talents on her way to the best. Above, Dua Lipa watched from the balcony, while even Frank Ocean strained to get a good view of the stage.


Acknowledging the moment that was unfolding, Rosalía was gracious, even on a night that, in her words, “isn’t normal.”


Rosalía’s climb has been steady, although on Tuesday, she reminded you how suddenly that rise can bloom into full-blown stardom. It’s true: Last night wasn’t usual, and neither will be everything that comes next.