New York's Metropolitan Opera House seemed a fitting setting to chat with the Spanish pop artist Rosalía after the global tour for her latest album, "Lux" (which is Latin for light)."I really like how concentrated the energy is in spaces like this," she said.This superstar knows about energy and performing.
Her song "Berghain," inspired by the 12th-century mystic Hildegard of Bingen, featuring an orchestra and booming choir, is not the typical pop formula.Then again, there's nothing typical about Rosalía.
With operatic vocals in Spanish and German, but also an appearance from Björk, the song makes clear the 34-year-old Spaniard's reverence for the classics – and desire to do something different.Opera, she said, was a big inspiration.
Watch Rosalía and Björk perform "Berghain" at the 2026 BRIT Awards: She said her tour for "Lux" has been more demanding than any she has done – performing en pointe, for instance, and singing in Japanese, Ukrainian, Catalan and Arabic.She wrote lyrics in 14 languages.
"If you find 14 languages in this album, it's not from a place of exhibition, but a search for communion," she said."Lux" was so anticipated that a countdown to announce it snarled traffic in Madrid.
The album features the stories of female saints and mystics through history, like Olga of Kyiv.One might not think of the 10th century ruler as the source for a great song.
"I didn't know about her," Rosalía said. "This woman, she was an assassin before becoming a saint.
Some of them were poets.They were prostitutes, some were drug addicts, and sometimes you wouldn't connect sainthood to these words.
It was definitely very inspiring."Asked if she considers the commercial potential of such an album during its making, she replied, "On one side, there's the responsibility of, okay, I have an office and there's people that I care about.But at the same time, I only can do what's honest for me.
It took me two years to make this album." Th...