Rosalia Rewrites the Pop Music Playbook for ELLE US June-July 2020

In January, 2020 Rosalía performed two songs at the 62nd Grammy Awards. Alicia Keys introduced her as the “Spanish sensation waking up the world.” In advance of her performance of of “Malamente,” she had won the Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative Album.The rising star was also nominated for the Best New Artist award, a first for an artist singing entirely in Spanish. The award was won by Billie Eilish.

“Rosalía, whose full name is Rosalía Vila Tobella, was raised in Sant Esteve Sesrovires, a small town in northeastern Spain, in Catalunya, about 23 miles outside Barcelona.,” writes  Carina Chocano in ELLE US for their new cover story “Rosalía Rewrites the Pop Music Playbook”.

Chocano proceeds to pay Rosalia some high compliments, ones that underscore the growing numbers of the world’s young women who truly are feeling their own power.

It feels strange to be writing about a pop star at this particular time, but the fact that it’s Rosalía makes it seem okay somehow, because now, even more than before, she feels emblematic of the moment. Maybe it’s the way she seems to have emerged out of nowhere, fully formed, as a rising global pop star. Or the way her music and her style fuse together cultures and traditions, referencing a variety of art forms and mirroring our interconnected lives. Or perhaps it’s her seriousness and discipline, her intense scholarship, her burning passion. Rosalía is only 27 and looks younger, but she emanates such power, it makes you realize how frivolously that word gets thrown around.

Rosalia’s response to this perceived power is rooted in discipline. “In her view, what really makes a difference in an artist’s work is drive. Since beginning her formal education, and since having surgery on her vocal cords at age 16, she has devoted herself to her music. “People might think it’s such a tra-la-la life, but it’s the opposite,” she says. “I’m in the studio all the time, chipping away.” It’s all about discipline, she says: “How much do you care about your vision and being faithful to it?”

As for the fashion part of the ELLE US June/July 2020 cover story, Natasha Royt styles the singer in looks from Area, Balmain, Christopher John Rogers, Collina Strada, Eckhaus Lata, S.R. Studio and more. Zoey Grossman is behind the lens with Rosalia wearing 4 Moncler Simone Rocha (burgandy) on one cover and S.T. Studio (floral) on the other. Makeup by Romy Soleimani; hair by Panos Papandrianos.