Rosalia’s striking blend of old and new styles has seen her win fans and awards around the world – Copyright AFP Adrian Dennis<\/p>\n
Rosa SULLEIRO<\/p>\n
Spanish singer Rosalia spent her early years training in classrooms, rehearsal spaces and small venues across Barcelona as she developed the voice and style that would define her career.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She has now returned to the city where she honed her craft as a global star with her \u201cLux\u201d tour.<\/p>\n
\u201cBarcelona, I love you madly,\u201d she said in Catalan on Monday night, opening the first of four sold-out shows at Barcelona\u2019s Palau Sant Jordi arena.<\/p>\n
The concerts are part of the rollout of her fourth album, \u201cLux,\u201d a sweeping, spiritual work that does not overlook the flamenco rhythms of her earlier records.<\/p>\n
\u201cThanks for carrying me,\u201d the 33-year-old added before breaking into tears as the audience erupted into applause.<\/p>\n
The tour which began last month in France will also take her to the United States and Latin America.<\/p>\n
Fans packed the arena to see Rosalia, who grew up in the nearby commuter town of Sant Esteve Sesrovires, perform in the city where he first began attracting attention as a student.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was already an intention there, a very flamenco way of moving through life \u2014 which is to move with confidence,\u201d \u00a0Luis Cabrera, founder of Taller de Musics, the music school where Rosalia enrolled in 2010, just before she turned 18, told AFP.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u2018Always restless\u2019 \u2013<\/p>\n
Rosalia, hailed for her genre-defying versatility, studied several subjects at the school, including flamenco singing with her mentor, Chiqui de la Linea.<\/p>\n
Cabrera recalled Chiqui saying early on that Rosalia\u2019s voice blended ancient flamenco styles with a strikingly modern sound.<\/p>\n
Hard-working and deeply engaged in her studies, she already had a clear sense of direction.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe used to ask a lot of questions, always restless. And when she said \u2018I want my music to reach millions of people\u2019 I was shocked,\u201d Cabrera said with a smile at the school, where photos of Rosalia now decorate the walls.<\/p>\n
The \u201cRosalia effect\u201d has since boosted enrolment in the school\u2019s vocal programme, he added.<\/p>\n
That same determination is remembered by music journalist and composer Luis Troquel, who closely followed her early years in Barcelona\u2019s music scene.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe told me she wanted to be a diva, but not in the distant sense. In the sense of an artist who sings on stage, dances, and pays close attention to image.\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd she achieved that, even better than expected,\u201d added Troquel, who worked on the lyrics of one of the songs of Rosalia\u2019s 2018 breakthrough album \u201cEl mal querer\u201d (\u201cBad love\u201d).<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u2018Boldness and self-confidence\u2019 \u2013<\/p>\n
That album, her second, began taking shape during her time at Catalonia\u2019s main public conservatory for higher music education, Barcelona\u2019s ESMUC, where Rosalia completed a degree in flamenco singing.<\/p>\n
Like all students, she had to complete a final research project and graduation concert.<\/p>\n
Rosalia based her project on \u201cFlamenca\u201d, a medieval anonymous novel that inspired \u201cEl mal querer\u201d, which she later performed as her final graduation recital.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone still remembers that concert,\u201d said ESMUC director general Nuria Sempere, describing Rosalia as a student who was \u201calways focused and had strong family support\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe had the boldness and self-confidence to take all her influences and present them to the public without any hesitation. That requires a lot of work,\u201d Sempere added.<\/p>\n
ESMUC offers one place each year to study flamenco singing. Rosalia was awarded the place and now funds a scholarship for future students.<\/p>\n
A few years ago, Rosalia returned to the school to give a masterclass on creativity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first piece of advice was this: \u2018screw it \u2014 it doesn\u2019t matter, just go for it. You\u2019ll fix it later, but you have to jump in,’\u201d Sempere recalled.<\/p>\n
Rosalia did \u2014\u00a0and it worked. With two Grammy awards, 11 Latin Grammys and 28 million Instagram followers, she is now impossible to ignore.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Spanish music, it\u2019s hard for me to find a phenomenon with the same scale of impact as Rosalia,\u201d Troquel said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rosalia’s striking blend of old and new styles has seen her win fans and awards around the world…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5070,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[92,1373,3510,3402,3511,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-5069","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-barcelona","8":"tag-barcelona","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-people","12":"tag-rosalia","13":"tag-spain"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}