Rosalia caps journey from student to star with Barcelona concerts

BARCELONA

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.

She has now returned to the city where she honed her craft as a global star with her "Lux" tour.

"Barcelona, I love you madly," she said in Catalan at the first of four sold-out shows at Barcelona's Palau Sant Jordi arena last week.

The concerts were part of the rollout of her fourth album, "Lux", a sweeping, spiritual work that does not overlook the flamenco rhythms of her earlier records.

"Thanks for carrying me," the 33-year-old added before breaking into tears as the audience erupted into applause.

The tour, which began last month in France, will also take her to the United States and Latin America.

Fans packed the arena to see Rosalia, who grew up in the nearby commuter town of Sant Esteve Sesrovires, perform in the city where she first began attracting attention as a student.

"There was already an intention there, a very flamenco way of moving through life, which is to move with confidence," Luis Cabrera, founder of Taller de Musics, the music school where Rosalia enrolled in 2010, just before she turned 18, told AFP.

"She 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," he said.

"And she achieved that, even better than expected," added Troquel, who worked on the lyrics of one of the songs of Rosalia's 2018 breakthrough album "El mal querer" ("Bad love").

That album, her second, began taking shape during her time at Catalonia's main public conservatory for higher music education, Barcelona's ESMUC, where Rosalia completed a degree in flamenco singing.

Like all students, she had to complete a final research project and graduation concert.

Rosalia based her project on "Flamenca," a medieval anonymous novel that inspired "El mal querer," which she later performed as her final graduation recital.

ESMUC offers one place each year to study flamenco singing. Rosalia was awarded the place and now funds a scholarship for future students.

With two Grammy awards, 11 Latin Grammys and 28 million Instagram followers, she is now impossible to ignore.