Fellow pop star Dua Lipa and her fiancé, actor Callum Turner, were in attendance in the VIP section, with the “Physical” singer wearing a floor length snake print coat and the actor in a black leather shearling jacket. Other artists including Emily Ratajkowski, playwright Jeremy O. Harris, and photographer Tyler Mitchell were also present to experience Rosalía’s highly anticipated new body of work.
Around 7:30 p.m., fans were ushered from the cocktail hour to their seats, on white benches in front of a massive white sheet, somewhat reminiscent of Charli XCX‘s Brat wall in it’s size and simplicity. All recording devices including phones were confiscated and placed in Yondr pouches, so the attendees could be fully present when the album began. “When was the last time you were in complete darkness,” read text projected onto the sheet before the album listening began. “Sometimes being in complete darkness is the best way to find the light.”
And with that, the Lux listening commenced, with the hundred or so attendees sitting in silence as Rosalía’s powerful voice enveloped the space, with the lyrics of the Lux album projected at the head of the room. The orchestral, genre-bending album finds Rosalía singing in 13 different languages over 18 tracks, from her native Spanish to English, as well as Catalan, Hebrew, Mandarin, Italian, Arabic, Latin, and more. While she stays true to her flamenco roots on the album, Rosalía’s nuanced and comprehensive use multiple languages on Lux shows how truly global she is as an artist. Her influence has spanned multiple continents and her artistry has been influenced by that as a result.
“Berghain,” Rosalía’s lead single in which she operatically sings in German, features Bjork and Yves Tumor, and received a roar from the audience. The spicy, anti-fuck boy anthem “La Perla” also got the audience going with its incessant jabs at a former lover. “The local disappointment /National heartbreaker /An emotional terrorist /The biggest global disaster,” she sings of her ex. It’s a song that would fit perfectly on Lily Allen‘s divorce-album West End Girl.
