A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Spanish pop star Rosalia has a new album out called "Lux." Now, on it, she sings in 13 languages, performs the full orchestra and choir and wrestles with her relationship with the divine.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "RELIQUIA")
ROSALIA: (Singing in non-English language).
MARTÍNEZ: Is this the future of pop, and is it pop at all? NPR Music's Anamaria Sayre spoke with her about everything that went into the making of "Lux."
ANAMARIA SAYRE, BYLINE: Rosalia has been called the world's most ambitious pop star, and "Lux" lives up to the billing.
ROSALIA: I think that if I could've fit the entire world in an album, in a record, I would.
SAYRE: The elements of Rosalia's music don't always seem like they'd fit together until you hear them in her art. She fused hip-hop and flamenco on her breakthrough album, "El Mar Querer."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MALAMENTE (CAP.1: AUGURIO)")
ROSALIA: (Singing in non-English language).
SAYRE: Her next album, "Motomami," was Caribbean-inspired and pop-forward.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CANDY")
ROSALIA: (Singing in non-English language).
SAYRE: Her new record, "Lux," is the one she's trying to pack the entire world into. No big deal. But it begins with something incredibly simple - a single breath.
ROSALIA: I find it so interesting how much the air is important, how you use the air. The breath, that's where it all starts. That's why in the beginning of the album, after that piano intro, the beginning is a breath.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SEXO, VIOLENCIA Y LLANTAS")
ROSALIA: (Singing in non-English language).
SAYRE: That breath is the first and maybe only moment of calm in a record that quickly explodes into a larger-than-life sonic, cultural lyrical homage to the world. The album includes the voices of other ambitious female musicians, including Bjork and Patti Smith. Rosalia sings in Spanish, of course, but also Italian, Arabic, German, English and more. And you can hear musical influences that's been around the globe from Mexico...
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LA PERLA")
ROSALIA: (Singing in non-English language).
SAYRE: ...To Spain...
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LA RUMBA DEL PERDON")
ROSALIA: (Singing in non-English language).
SAYRE: ...To Japan.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG "NOVIA ROBOT")
ROSALIA: (Singing in non-English language).
SAYRE: One of the most immediate influences on "Lux" is classical music. The entire album was recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra.
(SOUNDBITE OF ROSALIA, BJORK & YVES TUMOR SONG, "BERGHAIN")
SAYRE: Her love for classical music began with a very important figure in her life.
ROSALIA: If you want, maybe I can play for you that - the audio. I woke up with something really nice, which was this message.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
GRANDMOTHER ROSALIA: (Singing in non-English language).
SAYRE: That's a voice memo from Rosalia's grandma, who is also named Rosalia.
ROSALIA: Oh, she's so funny. She just basically - she's saying, like, I heard your new song, and I loved it. You changed the style. Ha-ha-ha.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
GRANDMOTHER ROSALIA: (Speaking Spanish).
ROSALIA: "You do it special."
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
GRANDMOTHER ROSALIA: (Speaking Spanish).
ROSALIA: When I was a kid, I remember she would have a lot of records - Pavarotti records in her place, and she would always kind of, like, singing while she was, like, washing dishes, whatever. It's funny to me 'cause it stuck with me, and I was like, OK, one day, I'm going to make a song that my grandma's going to be like, ah, OK. (Singing in non-English language).
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BERGHAIN")
ROSALIA: (Singing in non-English language).
SAYRE: Her grandmother laid another path towards two of the album's influences, femininity and religion.
ROSALIA: She was the one who put me into God. She would always do prayers right before falling asleep. I think that those are my - maybe my first experiences aside of this intuition that I've always had, and I've always felt kind of like something that it's even hard to put in words. Some sort of connection.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MIO CRISTO PIANGE DIAMANTI")
ROSALIA: (Singing in non-English language).
SAYRE: When we spoke in Mexico City, Rosalia said that she had become obsessed with stories of women saints from around the world and the way they represented different perspectives on the feminine and the divine. At times on "Lux," she's in love with God, at war with God. Sometimes she herself is something divine.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MAGNOLIAS")
ROSALIA: (Singing in non-English language).
SAYRE: Rosalia's appetite for new sounds, new experiences is fundamental to her music. But if transformation is the rule, she says there is one constant.
ROSALIA: I think freedom has always been there. It's very important for me. How can I be freer? How can I be freer? I repeat that to myself over and over.
SAYRE: You can hear that in her new album, "Lux," too.
Anamaria Sayre, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LA YUGULAR")
ROSALIA: (Singing in non-English language). Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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