Rosalía Interview! On ‘Lux,’ Singing in 13 Languages, ‘Euphoria’ & Björk

Popcast

The New York Times

Music Interviews, Music Commentary, Music

3.6 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 30 October 2025

⏱️ 91 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The experimental Spanish pop star on why (and how) she pushed herself to use 13 languages on her new album “Lux,” a labor of love exploring the feminine divine and the brutalities of romance. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	My sister, she says, then I don't know if I agree. I disagree, I think, but she says that my music
0:05.0	is not pop, but she says that I am. That's what I'm saying. That's the theory that I was saying.
0:10.4	I disagree. Why? Because I want to think that my music is pop. There has to exist another way of
0:17.3	making pop. Bjork proved it. Kate Bush proved it.
0:21.5	I need to think that what I'm doing is pub.
0:24.6	Because otherwise, I don't think then that I am succeeding.
0:44.7	Welcome to the New York Times Popcast, your deepest dwinday of music news and criticism.
0:46.9	I'm John Caramonica, and I'm the critic.
0:48.7	I'm Joe Kaskarelli, and I'm the reporter.
0:52.6	I'm Rosalia, and I'm here today with you guys.
0:53.2	Yes.
1:28.6	Thank you so much for being here. Like literally, on some days, Joe. Some days. On some days, I think, is this person the only good pop star? What? Some days I think. No pressure. No, I'm sorry. It's a big statement right there. But it has to be said. It has to be said. Damn. There are days that I genuinely feel like. You know what I felt that? Not to jump ahead in the conversation when I walked out of the Motamami tour. Yeah. I was just like, no one else is good. No one else is good. I'm sorry. Really buttering you up to just get going. I don't, you know, I don't over, I don't do that. I don't over in that.
1:28.7	And we've had many of my favorite people on this show.
1:32.0	But some days, I'm just like, is there only one good Bobstar and is it Rosalia?
1:35.8	That's all I'm here to say. Rosalia has had an ambitious, widely varied, and ultimately, profoundly successful career, starting as a radical flamenco singer, turning into one of the biggest Spanish
2:02.0	language pop stars on the planet.
2:17.4	She broke out in 2018 with the release of El Mar Kare, her baccalaureate project at school.
2:22.2	She went on to win the Latin Grammy for album of the year, as did its follow-up Motomami,
2:28.5	which explored Caribbean traditions in reggaeton and beyond.
2:40.5	When the cupita de jello... European traditions in reggaeton and beyond. Her fourth album is called Lux.
2:43.0	It is, I don't want to say totally unlike everything that preceded it, but it certainly is on its own wave and its own rhythm.
2:50.5	And it features an appearance by Bjork and extremely lush string arrangements.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The New York Times, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The New York Times and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.