Disclaimer: I’m not hispanic, I don’t speak Spanish, but I am a Rosalia fan.

She wasn’t even on my radar until one day she way all over my fyp on Tiktok. Who was this girl, and why was she constantly trending one song after the next?

My latin music knowledge is extremely limited, I’ve heard the mainstream stuff – ahem, Despacito. They always play latin music at clubs because there’s no way to stop your hips from moving when the beats start rolling in. But I’m not all that well versed with latin artists.

But Roaslia. First song I heard was of course the infamous Bizcochito. It took me a minute to figure out if I liked this song or not. But it grew on me, and like Tiktok does best: it started showing me more and more Rosalia. That was when I heard Despechá. I can’t even describe what I felt when I heard this, I felt like a fucking Motomami. I had it on repeat for weeks. To this day have no idea what she’s saying, but its just an experience listening to the song.

Rosalia combined those latin beats with reggae and EDM. Then she surprises us with vocal distortion and synths, and raps in Spanish to top it all off. It’s like she’s throwing everything at the wall and it all sticks. She’s doing it strategically and it works.

My first listen of Motomami came shortly after I heard Despechá. What a fucking masterpiece. The short snippets of the two songs I had already heard did not at all do justice to this entire album. Starting with Saoko, I had no idea what I was in for. Kind of was like maybe this an acquired taste? Then the beat drops and I’m hooked. Again for some reason it shouldn’t work, but it does?

Candy is probably one of my top 3 favourites of the album, I did not know she could sing like that. Rosalia has such controlled vocals, she likes to experiment for sure, but this is where she shines. The synths and just her vocals.. chef’s kiss. Don’t sleep on the remix, it takes the song to a whole new level.

Rosalia is one of the hardest working people in the industry. Her days are filled with studios, rehearsals, worldwide tours, innovative and conceptual performances, etc. Like she doesn’t stop. The woman is a machine of her own creation.

La Fama the lead single of Motomami, love it. It’s the perfect song to feature the Weekend. Neither artist over powers each other, they compliment the other so well. Its definitely not the collab I was expecting. If you haven’t already listen to the live version on the deluxe album: one word… LUSH. He’s an amazing artist in his own, but now he’s possibly even a Motomami?

Rosalia being from Spain, the middle eastern influences are heard oh so clearly in Bulerías. She experiments even more with her voice in this song, with the men in the background, the ululation, drums, and eventually the voice distortion. I can’t even imagine how long each song took to compose, produce, and eventually the little edits and additions. Makes sense why she keeps throwing her telephone away.

Hentai another ballad, another masterpiece. Her vocals, I cannot get over how beautiful her voice is. Whatever she’s singing about you can hear the emotion, the little vocal shakes are so subtle yet effective. The piano backing her up is the perfect compliment.

We keep the vibes going with G3 N15. Nothing makes sense in terms of the title of the song, but that’s just keeping up with the whole theme of the album. Everything not making sense just makes sense. I want to go to a Rosalia concert just for this song alone. This time it’s Rosalia ft. a literal organ. The organ has a solo, whoever decided on that instrument is a genius. It’s so underutilized and here it’s front and centre.

Motomami the title track, brings us back into that badass vibe. Not my favourite but its the perfect transition from the emotional ballads to wonky eargasms.
She introduces us to her roots. I have clearly not looked into Rosalia’s journey enough, but Delerio de Grandez alone makes me so curious to figure out all her influences.

La Combi Versace, one of my favourite tracks on the album. The choreography she performs with this song on her tour is fucking iconic. The song is already gold, but she takes it to a whole new level with the choreography. It’s the traditional latin beats. There’s nothing outlandishly experimental about this song – relative to the rest of the album. It’s like the 7 rings of Motomami, it’s been done before and it’s going to continue to be loved. It’s definitely easily become a fan favourite.

Motomami is a total of 22 tracks. Talking about each and everyone would probably require another post. I’ve talked about some of my favourites in this post. There’s so much going on in each song, it’s not fair to skim over anything. Rosalia deserves all the adulation she’s getting, honestly I hope she gets bigger in the western world. We are missing out on music, culture, and the fan based communities. The fans are honestly so sweet, they welcome uncultured swines like me with open arms.

Safe to say I’m a Rosalia fan, can’t wait for her to come to Canada again and go to one of her concerts.

Overall – 9.0/10

Bonus – Epic album cover.