Do we like Rosalía?
Our score: 8 out of 10. Decent record, quick to apologise, charity work for LGBTQ+ people and women, with a few clumsy moments and a contested silence on Gaza.
Rosalía Vila Tobella grew up in Sant Esteve Sesrovires, just north of Barcelona, and found her singing voice at eight. At thirteen she fell for flamenco after hearing Camarón de la Isla, and later studied it at Barcelona's music school. She knocked out a self-released debut in 2017, then El Mal Querer in 2018 and Motomami in 2022 turned a conservatory kid into a global pop name.
Her 2020 turn as MAC's VIVA GLAM ambassador is the clearest good-news story. The proceeds from her lipstick went to charitable groups supporting people living with HIV and AIDS, and women and girls in the LGBTQ+ community. That is a real thing done for others, not just a press release.
On the harm test, nothing turned up. No nasty remarks, no conspiracy rabbit holes, no campaigning against anyone's rights. Her one big contested spot is Gaza: designer Miguel Adrover said he'd refuse to work with her over her silence, and she replied that she didn't “see how shaming each other” moves the fight for Palestinian freedom forward. Where you land depends on whether you read that as a fair line about blame or as dodging.
In March she told writer Mariana Enríquez she'd never separated Picasso the artist from his art. Critics online pointed to accusations that Picasso mistreated the women around him, and within hours she said she was “not at peace” with what she'd said. She apologised for a lack of sensitivity toward those women's testimonies. Fast and unprompted-by-lawyers, which counts for something.
She then arrived in Buenos Aires and opened her first show there with a face-to-face apology, saying it was never her intention and that her affection for Argentina was “intacto”. The four Movistar Arena nights went ahead. A repost without reading it is careless rather than cruel, and she cleaned it up on stage in front of the people she'd annoyed.