Rosalía's Lux : Is The Fourteen-Language Opera-Pop Masterpiece Album of the Year?

WISE NEWS PRESS / LONDON, UK — Nov. 10, 2025

In her limited discography, there has been no rule Rosalía hasn't broken, and her fourth album, Lux, is a radical opera-pop masterpiece recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra that may be the most original release of the year.

The Barcelona-born singer has spent the last seven years innovating at a pace that sheds light on the complacency of her contemporaries. In 2018, she recorded her breakthrough album, El Mal Querer, as a graduate thesis, blending the folkloric traditions of Flamenco with addictive R&B rhythms. Her 2022 album, Motomami, was a massive innovative pop hit, combining Latin American genres like cumbia and reggaeton with glitch hip-hop beats. With lyrics themed around fame, sex, and self-discovery, Motomami topped Spotify's global album charts, won Album of the Year at the Latin Grammys, and was Metacritic's best-reviewed album of 2022, surpassing even Beyoncé's Renaissance.

When Rosalía completed her last album tour three years ago, fans wondered which direction she would turn next. The answer is found in her fourth album, Lux, released on November 7th.

A Radical Opera-Pop Masterpiece

Far from following the paths of previous musicians, Rosalía uses her classical training from the prestigious Catalonia College of Music to forge a unique path with Lux.

Recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra and featuring numerous arrangements by Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Shaw, the album is a radical and rebellious opera work unlike anything previously produced in the pop world.

The album's first single, Berghain, is inspired by Verdi’s Dies Irae. As the strings accelerate the song to light speed, accompanied by the fearful and angry words of a German choir, Björk intervenes, shifting the track's gears by telling everyone, "The only way to save us is divine touch."

Another standout hit candidate, Reliquia, takes chamber orchestra melodies and breaks them down into unrecognizable electronic patterns before reassembling them. In the lyrics accompanying this rhythm, the singer comes to terms with her ability to love excessively, embracing the beauty in her fragility. She sings: "Take a piece of me, save it when I die / I will be your treasure, I am your relic."

Pop music icon Madonna even sent Rosalía a message of admiration on Instagram, proclaiming: "I can’t stop listening! You are a true visionary!!!"

'Emotional Terrorist' and Spiritual Longing

Lux, which took three years to produce, deals with the tumultuous period the 33-year-old singer experienced personally and professionally. During this time, Rosalía broke off her engagement with Puerto Rican reggaeton star Rauw Alejandro, began working with Adele's manager Jonathan Dickins, and took her first major role in the teen drama series Euphoria.

The split from her fiancé Alejandro seems to have inspired the album’s most scathing lyrics. In La Perla, she addresses a man as an "emotional terrorist" and uses a heavy expletive. She delivers this insulting track with a cheerful waltz arrangement that makes it feel like she's greatly enjoying it.

Focu 'Ranni, available only on the CD and vinyl copies, is a full emotional outpouring, narrating the turmoil of a bride who cancels her wedding at the last minute. In an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde, Rosalía revealed that the song was inspired by her namesake, Saint Rosalia of Palermo, who fled the altar to dedicate her life to God. "I found this coincidence absolutely insane," the star said, declining to give further details, calling it "a long story."

The search for spiritual fulfillment, which is the meaning of Lux (Spanish for "light"), forms the basis of the album. Sauvignon Blanc is a ballad featuring quiet promises like "I will listen to my God / I will throw away my Jimmy Choos."

But what is truly breathtaking when listening to the album are its moments of introspection. The album’s closing track, Magnolias, is a gentle acceptance of death: "You will do one thing I never did in my life when I die." La Yagular, with its soft and calm flow, celebrates the beauty of the Earth and humanity: "I fit the world / And the world fits me / I cover the world / And the world occupies me."

La Yagular ends with a 1976 recording by Patti Smith, who encourages artists to tear down expectations: "Tear down and cross to the other side. Passing through one door is not enough, passing through a million doors is not enough." It is an almost perfect summary of Rosalía's creative impulse.

Before the album's release, the singer advised fans to listen to Lux in a dark room with headphones, calling it an antidote to TikTok trends and viral videos. "In these days of the dopamine age, I really want to do the opposite," she told The New York Times. "I know it’s hard to ask, but that’s my wish."

Anyone who accepts Rosalía's challenge to the quick dopamine hit will be generously rewarded. Despite its magnificent orchestral qualities, Lux is a modern album through and through. The sharp production, featuring hip-hop elements accompanying Rosalía's impressive, operatic vocals, elevates the album to the top. A lesser-talented artist might have been crushed by the conceptual weight of singing in 14 languages (including Hebrew, Ukrainian, and French), but Rosalía somehow avoids this trap on her path inspired by the mystical writings of French philosopher Simone Weil.

"I just want to have fun making music," she told Nick Grimshaw on BBC 6 Music, adding: "And the only way is always to try to do something different. You want extremes. You are looking for oppositions."

"It’s like a pendulum. In Motomami, the subject was inventing words. In Lux, I thought, let me try to find a way to write lyrics that feel carved in stone."

The result is an album that is both audacious and relatable. Turn off the lights, give it your full attention, and discover one of the most original and unique artists of our time.

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