When I saw Rosalía for the first (and only) time live – it was 2023, in Barcelona – I understood that something big was about to explode. Very big. Not because I was particularly perceptive. And logically I wasn’t the only one who realized it either. But his performance – late at night at Primavera Sound Festival, awaited by thousands of fans – it was something impactful for me. Really.

Now, 3 years later, I am aware that its metamorphosis (which certainly has not distorted it) continues and passes through the new tour. Now Rosalía definitively stops being “a pop star”, albeit an innovative one, and becomes something else: an artist who uses pop as a language, not as a limit. Now it’s time for “Lux tour”. And those who witnessed it live speak of a real light. The one that Rosalìa has always emanated and which today lights up the largest stages in the world. The Spanish artist’s tour includes 57 dates between Europe and America (in Italy only one stop: at the Forum in Assago, next March 25th). The real question is: why is everyone talking? Not just fans, but international newspapers, critics and social media.

The album is a musical project, the tour a work of art

Two days ago, in Lyon, the debut. 24 songs in the setlist: from historic hits (Despechà, La Fama) to the more recent ones (Berghain, La Perla) contained in the album “Lux”, released last November: fourth platinum record in Spain. A real project that has no difficulty in defining “musical”, because “recording” would be an understatement. Now the tour, which resembles a great opera. Social media (TikTok in particular) is full of videos of the Spanish artist performing. Each performance feels like a clip to be released. Some performances are, in fact, thrilling. Deeply Spanish but international at the same time. Attached to its origins, to its music but incredibly global. His sounds draw from the most disparate worlds and blend perfectly in a concert made up of 4 acts and 1 interlude.

The first aspect to take into consideration is the absence of a single choreographer. Or rather: the tour – conceived as a sort of collective project – sees the artistic direction of (La)Horde, the collective that directs the Ballet National de Marseille. However, some key sequences bear the signature of artists such as Dimitris Papaioannou. The Greek choreographer – who grew up in the Sschool of Fine Arts of Athens and with a strong connection with the theater – who was chosen by the organizing committee of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens as director of the opening and closing ceremonies.

The result is evident even to the eyes of the less experienced: the choreographies are real paintings that capture attention. And they are – rightly – praised. Even from the foreign press. For example Hola! he writes in black and white that the Spanish singer has “redefined the concept of pop concert” and speaks of “avant-garde music” together with a great “elegance of classical ballet”. All this translates into “a real operatic experience”.

Unique and inimitable on record, but also on stage with “a bold fusion of contemporary and classical ballet, in which it creates a bewitching backdrop for the singer’s musical narrative”. Billboard France instead, it speaks of an astonishing result and also hints at the fusion of genres and styles. So it highlights a detail that isn’t much of a detail. Each song, in fact, “was translated and projected in French above the stage and on two side screens. For a show performed almost entirely in Spanish, this gesture made the unknown poetry something deeply felt in real time.” The icing on the cake? The live orchestra.

Rosalìa’s music lives beyond the stage

The answer to the initial question probably lies right here: why is everyone talking about Rosalìa’s tour? But, perhaps, we could expand it: through the tour, actually well beyond the tour. Rosalìa is not limited to being seen, to being heard. Rather, it is told. It does so in an original, new, culturally rich way. His music lives beyond the stage. It expands. The “Lux tour”, therefore, confirms itself as yet another winning card for the artist born in Sant Cugat del Vallès (20 km from Barcelona) in 1992.

In a historical moment in which everything seems tremendously already seen, already heard. The replica of the replica. The copy of the copy. Rosalìa instead tries to break the mold, without abandoning her roots. Indeed, perhaps it makes them even more visible (there is no shortage of echoes of flamenco during his concerts). It is precisely this tension – between local and global, between tradition and experimentation – that makes Rosalìa so magnetic. That’s why everyone is talking about it.

Video from the TikTok page @motopapi95

@holaluxtour Rosalia dancing ballet during the LUX TOUR in Lyon #Rosalia #Lux ♬ original sound – LUX TOUR