Rosalia: The Art of Performance & Question of Culture 

sorry if I sound a lil robotic (slowed the vid down bc I was talking way too fast)

It's insane how Rosalia constantly reinvents herself successfully. I remember at the roll out of Motomami everyone was saying she "fell off" and "made no sense" because her album was nothing like El Mal Querer, and now after a year of releasing hits after hits and making one of the most iconic performance tours ever, everyone is licking her boots and rightfully so. She's ahead of her time

As someone who was born and grew up in LATAM, I understand some of the things that people talk regarding her cultural appropriation. The thing is, whether you view as bad or good, LATAM does not have the same perspective regarding cultural appropriation the same as the US and the UK do. We have had a longer history of colonialization but also immigration in general. The past century was a huge time of immigration from quite literally every country in the world coming to many LATAM countries and their cultures got integrated in it. Therefore the idea of “separating cultures” or “not including” cultures isn’t a thing there. Also I find it hella hypocritical that they use that argument of her being Spaniard but not to the other spaniard men that do the exact same aka Enrique Iglesias. I just think people don’t want to find a middle ground regarding the conversation.

She Said in a interview in DR that she feels uncomfortable When people call het Latina because she is not. She really loves Latin culture and is inspired by it. She Said it her self When she won a Latin grammy: Thank you to Latin America for inspiration. She gives shout out ❤

for me she brought back the POP STAR status. she's doing what Lady Gaga did last decade: making iconic moment after iconic moment.

She is the definition of talent, hardwork and passion. There are barely any artists who dedicate this much time to perfect their craft.

Im native to Andalucía (cabo de gata in Almería) and Roma and I have no problem with her using flamenco, she clearly knows what she's doing and handles the artfrom the way it deserves

I love, particularly with Motomami, how forward looking her music feels. In an age where it feels like so much music is backwards looking, pastiche or nostalgia driven, when I listen to Rosalia I get excited cos I feel like she’s more committed to this abstract new future potential. Her songs sound like now. Like the product of the rate we currently consume deconstruct and reconstruct culture.

In Argentina, lots of grandparents listened to flamenco every day. That style of music almost lost its way here, until Rosalia appeared with "Los Angeles" and "El Mal Querer". She brought back an adored genre in a brand new way, we really do appreciate her here.

As a Spaniard I'm pretty sure I can say I have never seen someone from my country have this much impact overseas. Also I think it's great that she feels free to do whatever she feels like doing. Because after 'El Mal Querer' I'm sure no one expected her to go the MOTOMAMI way (myself included). At least in Spain, even if she had released reggaetón droplets after EMQ, we all expected another flamenco album afterwards. Because that's what made her an icon here, she brought flamenco back into the mainstream and the charts. But she didn't take the expected route, and people started saying she was a "sellout" and that she had given up making good music for a few bucks. But well... she has proven that she can excel in whatever she does, because 'MOTOMAMI' (along with 'RENAISSANCE' imo), was 2022's AOTY. It's also my favourite album of hers personally. Also, this video was a great analysis of her career and the cultural appreciation/appropriation debate. You always do a great job :)

She can really sing

I think a lot of the criticism of her appropriating Latin culture stems from the fact that for years Spaniards have been so discriminatory and dismissive of Latinos when it comes to culture and so it’s in a way unfair that she has profited so much off of it

Girl, you crushed this video. So impressed by your Spanish pronunciation, and the use of proper names (roma instead of gypsy). Great history lesson too

i’m from Chile and i have seen her twice here…honestly, breath taking, her live performance is INSANE, if you have the change to see her live, do it.

The 👏 best 👏 modern 👏 mainstream 👏 performer. Saw her live last year on her motomami tour, lemme tell you, I have never seen this talent so effortlessly displayed. She's really incredible. Good dancer, singer, charisma, uniqueness.

For me the line between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation is always kind of blurry. But I think it's most obvious when you begin to make money off of it. Particularly significantly more than an artist that shares the cultural heritage would make. Thanks for this video I was unaware of the controversies around Rosalía. As well as how long she had been honing her craft.

I love Rosalía. I understand other latinos opinion about cultural appropiation, but rosalias use of differenf musical sounds are done in an honorable and respectful manner. She gives credit to every influence she uses and shouts out and collaborates with prominent latino artists. At the same time, i wish that afro latino artists got more credit and recognition for creating these musical styles.

I am Latina (born in Mexico and spent most of my childhood there) myself, I don't hate Rosalia as much as my other Latine mutuals do. I appreciate her embracing Latino culture and music, and her way to describe how she feels when visiting Latino America is what I love about my culture and people: we accept everyone and make them feel at home. While I am glad that she loves my people as well as appreciating my culture, I just wish she could NOT identify herself as Latina just bc she enjoys our culture and correct the media of her real identity. I will say, I appreciate how educated she is about culture. I have scrolled through my tiktok for the past three years and encountered a lot of Spaniards who try to "be Latino" just because they liked our music, while decades ago were shitting on our music for "not being real music" and even disrespect our culture. Know this fact, is so disingenuous seeing none Latinos embracing Latino music as those ppl didn't respected Latino people, the people who cultivated the music they enjoy, in the past but now they like our music NOW we are worthy of being respected. Rosalia on the other hand, she is very educated of history behind the music she does even Latino music; her knowledge and appreciation of my culture is something I do credit her for and I think some of my fellow Latinos are going a little bit too far with the hate against her. We can criticize her, but not hate her. Note: I appreciate you for giving an accurate history behind Reggaetón, have been seeing a lot of people spreading misinformation about the genre. And I have also noticed that the genre is also influencing Kpop, but I hope idols and composers can continue the respect and don't turn it into appropriation like they did/are still doing with Hip-Hop and R&B .

She’s so talented and her voice when she sings gives me chills like the song “aunque es de noche” she sings so hauntingly

Latin Grammys are not intended for Latin American artists. They are intended for those who sing in Spanish or Portuguese. In fact, the 2023 Latin Grammys will be held in Spain

I think the problem with Rosalia (as someone who is from the DR) is that in her latest works, she is "remixing" or borrowing elements from Reggaeton and Dembow, which are not only from Latin America but are especially born from black and brown impoverished Puerto Rican and Dominican people. So yes, she is walking the tightrope between cultural appreciation and appropriation, but how she is singing and what she is writing is really giving "white girl trying to be from the hood." For example, she uses Dominican slang like a white American trying to use AAVE to be cool (incorrectly, devoided of any context and history).

As a latina from Puerto Rico, I love Rosalia and have always appreciated her sharing the Spanish and flamenco culture with me. So why would I have a problem with me also sharing my culture with her? I don't believe in cultural appropriation as much as I believe in cultural appreciation. I love her mixture of cultures and influences and honestly it makes me feel seen and validated as a higher form of art.

really need her and Arca to collaborate again. KLK was so iconic and Arca's influence on her sound in Motomami was very apparent so a joint project from them would EAT

I am sensitive to questions of cultural appropriation, and I understand the critiques. BUT to have watched Rosalia in performance, listened to a lot of her music and listened to many interviews also, I became convinced of her artistic integrity and of her intelligence in reactualizing many musical traditions (beginning with her own). I will continue to love and support her work. I also encourage a rich and nuanced conversation about all musicians ‘ inspirations in a context which is far from perfect (discriminations and culture wars)…

What i love about her, it's she doesn't deny her catalan roots, and when she does concerts is catalonia or catalan speaking places, the entire concert she sings and speaks catalan

Us Latinos really can't stand Spaniards because they talk A LOT of shit about us! Think of it as British people coming over here and trying to make it in hip-hop... 😬 That being said you can't stop Rosalia from making really 🔥 music so I wish her the best 💕

She is very good, wish latina women of color would thrive as much, but they are not as embraced by neither the industry nor the public, racism and colorism are very present and implicit in latin america. She is a result of globalization, however she is not sensible enough to be fully respectful. I think she makes structural and social frictions in the industry more evident.

Cultural appropriation is for American people. Hispanics, for the most part, love when others enjoy their cultures and that includes music, food and clothing styles. We take it as a compliment.

Thank you for this amazing video! As a Cuban myself I felt very proud when she used a sample of Justo Betancourt, a Cuban singer who was in a group called “Fania” with many other amazing artist like Celia Cruz, Ruben Bladez etc… Personally it doesn’t bother me because she always gives credit and shows appreciation.

I’m a professor that teaches popular culture including art forms like Reggaeton and Flamenco and I wanted to say you did an excellent job with your research.

Hi! No one mentioned that when Rosalía is "labelled" as a latina is probably considering the Spanish definition of the word. In Spanish, the word latino/a refers to everything that is related to languages that comes from the latin language (Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and French being the more well known of those languages even though there are more languages like the Romanian and others). The definition used in this video is the one used in the US. In the United States people considered latino/a are the ones from Latin America only. For this reason, Rosalía is latina, because she is a speaker of the Spanish language and also she was born in one of those latin countries. Also of course she can be nominated to an award like the Latin Grammys cause they considered music created in latin languages like Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, etc.

We all here in Latam love her so much, some people say she appropriates regueton but she said multiple times she just gets inspired by it and doesn't consider herself Latina. Also she and Arca are such a duo, a latina and a Spanish girlie bringing Neo-Perreo everywhere. Also funny how both flamenco and tango were seen as poor people music and dancing until it reached paris, then the Spanish elite loved it. We Latinos love when someone likes pur culture and gets inspired, for the outside people that complain about "taking opportunities", there are plenty artists in each country that do not care about appealing to gringos or europeans, if you want "actual rep" seek local stuff instead of spitting hipocrisy

Nowadays there are so many things that can be considered cultural appropiation. In my opinion, the most important thing is that you are honest about your inspiration/sources and you give credit to those. Rosalia credits all the time everyone and every culture that inspired her. She is a really honest and brilliant artist

I would like to say that Catalonia is one of the most regions where Andalusians migrate years ago. My father is andalusian for example. If anyone comes to Barcelona, will see that there is a strong influence of andalusian culture and in fact, on of the flamenco’s palo is Rumba, which is originated in Barcelona. Rosalia has cultural appropation? Not in my opinion, because she grow uo influenced by that. She’s not gitana, but this dont mean that you cant understand flamenco. Anyways, I LOVE this video Naomi, really. You really “do your homework” and its a really complete video about flamenco and Rosalia❤❤

The criticism that Rosalia gets is so uncalled for. In the Billboard interview, she said she felt Latino. She never said that she was Latino. She probably said that because she felt welcomed and she sees the connections between Latin America and Spain which is why she feels at home. There are soooo many artists from Spain who are popular in Latin America and have gotten awards but they have never been dragged like she has. If people watched her interviews, she fully understands her influences and deeply respects them. The conversation of appropriation is kind of null when the creator is respecting it's source which Rosalia does for both cultures that have created Flamenco and Latin American music

I was blown away when I saw her love for the first time and then again at Coachella. She seems to show so much love and respect for us Latin Americans. Her music is literal art so I’m here for it and her.

Thank you for covering Spanish speaking artists ❤ I can’t wait for more 🎉 her voice just gives chills

El mal querer is one of my favourite albums of all time, thank you for covering Rosalía (including the controversies)

She is brilliant. I saw her late last year and she is one of the best performers out there. Her vocals are fantastic.

This is a master class in documentation, as a Spanish person I am really impressed with the work you have done! All the flamenco and historical references are incredibly accurate. Well done

Rosalía gets hate because she succeeded so much and is bringing so much new by playing with the context, that people just hate on her when so many people did and do the same but not giving half credit of what she does! She is always mentioning her references. I knew so many artists of different countries thanks to her ♥️! When she performed at the Louis Vuitton show, she played songs from different cultures, songs from the streets that I had never imagined being played in a sophisticated environment like that one. The artists of those songs were so happy for that and thanked her so much! Instead she was still criticized 😂🤦🏻‍♀️!! Ridiculous! Also. If you look for what “Latino” in the awards, they make reference of: honors works recorded in Spanish or Portuguese from anywhere around the world that has been released in Ibero-America. Ibero-America, as defined by the Latin Recording Academy, encompasses Latin America, Spain, Portugal, and the Latino community in Canada and the United States. This is WHY not only Rosalía but also Alejandro Sanz, Enrique Iglesias, C.Tangana, David Bisbal, and maaaaaaany other Spanish artists have been always invited and have won awards. Actually next year the Latin Grammy for example will be celebrated in Seville, Spain!!! People should do a small research before opening their mouths. But who gets hate? Alejandro Sanz? Enrique Iglesias? No… none of them. Just Rosalía! 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️. Casualty that is a successful woman? I don’t think so. People should start enjoying music as it’s universal. I’m Spanish and I wouldn’t mind to see someone from Latin America singing flamenco if they respect it and honor its roots. People are just too bored my God. We are in 2023… “POP” music was born in US and UK… I hope nobody in LATAM supports an artist from LATAM singing POP??!!?? It sounds ridiculous, because indeed it is…

I loved this video. Since you like to touch on international artist too. I would love you to talk about AYA NAKAMURA. The biggest french artist now and biggest french female artist ever, historically beating records after records but how direspected she is by french media and european media in gneral because of the fact that she does yrban music and she is black.

Hey I’m Jamaican and I absolutely love rosi despite not understanding what she’s saying off the bay. What gets me though, is her ability it evoke the right emotion for whatever record she’s on that’s real talent. And her stage presence is out of this world, I watched the concerts from yt and I still felt just as excited as those who were actually there 🫡. Malamente, PIENSO EN TU MIRÁ, A Palé, Chuuuuttteeeee, COMO UN G, SAKURA, Barefoot in the park, HENTAI, BAGDAD, DE AGUÍ NO SALES. All masterpieces

Im mexican and puerto rican i love rosalia. I feel like most latinos feel the same and dont mind. I think she her music is beautiful.

i had to come and comment bc i never clicked a video so fast. rosalía has been helping me figure out my life for the past 6 months. i knew that there was something about the way she sang. i just watched her hot ones interview and it was so admiring hearing her speak about her flamenco days. motomami was really her personal work of art, people fail to recognize sometimes that really she just put all the inspiration in her life into her own art form. saoko features jazz inspiration and is probably one of my favorite tracks. i am genuinely invested as a fan.

Im mexican and puerto rican. Ive never taken offense at how Rosalía "appropriates" because its pretty obvious shes influenced by all her traveling. Shes an actual artist that is inspired by her surroundings, which are always changing. She comes off as super genuine with it so it never feels offensive to me. Its very cool to watch her sucess. Its also not her fault shes put in all these latin categories- its the system and not her own doing. Artists will accept whatever exposure theyre privy to. I dont think she means any harm but i do see why people get upset.

i’m brazilian, so not spanish-speaking but most definitely latino. all i see from my fellow brazilians is praise towards rosalia, and what i admire the most about her is being able to both toy with experimentation and avant-garde ideas AND reach MASSIVE commercial success. that is truly something almost unheard of today, an era of lack of creativity and experimentation in pop music. plus, it’s absolutely beautiful for me to see someone this famous in the west who is NOT an english speaker. she’s dropping hits after hits, having sold-out shows not only in LATAM but also in europe and north america! that’s impressive! and it makes me very proud. plus, she may not be latina but is clearly very well-informed of latine culture, and CONSTANTLY works with latino artists. she literally had thee most streamed song IN SPAIN be a reggaeton track with J BALVIN ! that’s impressive. she’s got the massive appeal, proficiency, professionalism and elegance of a popstar, without loosing quality, depth, or care for her craft. in my opinion as a latino and loved of music, rosalia is everything the world needs today.

Omg I'm so happy you did an episode on Rosalía. She got me into flamenco. She really is one if a kind. El Mal Querer speaks to my heart do deeply.

I had the pleasure to watch her live in Puerto Rico. She’s one of the best out there.

Music is not meant to be gatekeeped. We should spread cultures and learn from each other. There are too many walls that need to be broken down. There’d be more love in this world

I was super surprised when I found out people were accusing her of appropriating latinx culture cause at least here in Argentina were I'm from, she has a pretty decent reputation and the general audience is not really bothered by the fact that her most recent work is heavily based in reggeatón and bachata. If anything people here seem to favor her even more BECAUSE of how she shifted from a flamenco based sound to a more reggeatón/pop sound since those are the genres that dominate the LatAm music market the most. As a Latina myself I wouldn't say she's appropriating anything but rather honoring Latinx/Andalusian culture. She is not parodying it or just playing with aesthetics she knows nothing about to make profit. Everything from the way she talks about music and folklore, to visuals, to performance, to production style, to studying and formation; it's pretty obvious to me that she really respects Flamenco and Latinx music and cares deeply for both.

Hopefully one day you can do a video on Tego Calderon he is a black Puerto Rican and one of the bigger reggaeton artist and he should have all the game but Daddy Yankee got the fame and yes because he is talented but also because of his skin tone

It is crucial to contextualize and understand the nuance and many angles of such a complex topic, which I think your video does very well. However, I see this recurrent trend where North Americans project their own cultural understandings on other cultures, resulting in a very erroneous conceptualization of the matter at hand. One of these cultural understandings that gets constantly thrown around is the "cultural appreciation vs. cultural appropriation" debate as if it were black or white. However, as you very rightly point out, these topics are rarely dichotomous, but instead very nuanced. That is to say that the US, being such a dominant culture worldwide, has misleadingly appropriated the conversations around these very complex topics, oversimplifying them and reducing them to a bad vs. good debate while demonizing whatever does not fit their cultural understandings. This excludes and silences so many individual experiences from other cultures while US-dominated viewpoints are positioned like the "ethics police". There are so many examples of this which have been pointed out in other comments, like when Katy Perry wore a Kimono and this was interpreted in such different ways by Japanese people and Northern Americans (Which really brings into question WHY a white Americans' opinion of something like this even matters and why it should cast a shadow on a Japanese persons' opinion). Indeed, this specific situation is very complex, and although I really appreciate the depth of your video I think that there are certain crucial angles which are left out, one of them being the multifacetedness of the word LATIN and the vastness of its interpretation. The origins of the word LATINX are in ancient Rome, being a reference to the language which was spoken there. Therefore, the definition of LATIN varies per cultural context, but in Europe it comprises something "Of or relating to the language spoken in ancient Rome and other cities of Latium which is now rarely used." That means that by that definition, Spanish (Yes, even Castellan Spanish from Spain) IS A LATIN LANGUAGE. Of course it is important to acknowledge that in South America and in the US you have a very different understanding of the word, but this does not mean that the word's origins and its various understandings should be completely disregarded. It is obvious that here, the line between cultural appreciation and cultural appropriation is very thin. But if we understand the definition of cultural appreciation "as a way of honoring another culture through exploration and seeking an understanding as a way to honor that culture, beliefs, and traditions", I think that Rosalia fits well in this description. She does not only acknowledge the culture from where her sounds originate, but she respects it and frames it in such a way where she openly and recurrently expresses the gratitude she feels towards all those cultures which have offered her so much. Of course this does not completely erase the inherent dynamics which come from colonization, and the very problematic elements which may emerge from her capitalizing on sounds from other countries that have historically suffered oppression. And to add even more depth to this, we have to realistically acknowledge that most (if not all) of the sounds which are popular today originate in some shape or form from communities of color. Does that mean that we should ban all other people from making music all together? To conclude, this is an extremely convoluted topic, and one which can never be presented as "black or white" because we fail to account for the richness and diversity of human experience, which is exactly the same thing which "cultural appreciation vs. cultural appropriation" proponents attempt to criticize.

❤ i adore rosalía and have been a spanish music lover since shakira in the 00s. i know a little spanish but am definitely a learner so i had no idea about these cultural nuances and rosalía’s use of dialect etc. thanks so much for explaining, great video! ❤

In latam we love Rosalia very much, our countries DON’T have the same perspective about cultural appropiation. Believe me people born and raised in Latin America dont see Rosalia’s inspiration as bad as Americans or “Latinos” born in America. And feels a little condescending when some people says so, it’s NOT that we don’t care about this topics or are behind this conversation is just that our cultures and countries are just a mixture of so many cultures, it’s not the same as America, our history is VERY DIFFERENT. Fighting over which was the first or who did it better or who has more rights than the other in doing a thing or profiting about something is just not our priority and feels odd to the majority of Latinos(born and raised in latam). The majority of our people is MESTIZA which means being a MIX literally from a lot of countries, we just love what Rosalia does and she is very respectful and clear about where her inspiration comes from and there are clear references in her songs to Latino artists is very obvious that she want people to be aware of this, she talks a lot about this. For me Rosalia at this point is much more Latina than many “Latinos” born outside latam, at least the knows about and appreciate our culture, music, helps and collaborate with a lot of Latin artists, is a prodigy in what she does. I think is not fair the hard critiques for what she does and think is a little funny that some Latinos that doesn’t even know spanish hate her for saying she feels Latina or takes inspiration from Latin music and culture but they don’t even know much about Latino culture and our history as Rosalia (sorry).

The Latines that are speaking here, bare in mind that you can't speak for all of us. Latin America and the Caribbean are very diverse, and have their own sounds and music. Not every Latine is qualified for this conversation, just on the basis of speaking spanish.

Rosalia is the definition of true artist

I find it so funny that Jamaican dancehall artist Shabba released a silly song called “dem bow” just joking about men that go down on women…and that spawned a whole genre in Latin Music and new sub-genres that’s still thriving today . 😂🇯🇲

rosalia really is one of a kind, she has the university background, studying music theory and such and i think that is what makes her so successfull. she respects music as a form of art so deeply. you can see it when you watch her interviews, she dedicates so much time and hard work into her albums and i mean just look at the motomami tour ? the only "pop" tour in these years with no costume change, a blank canvas as background and a group of dancers and she`s able to fill the stage with just her power and presence as a performer.

When i tell you I CRIED at her concert! She is an AMAZING performer!

I appreciate and love her culture and her ability to morph and appreciate other cultures! Growing up as a Mexican boy, I was always bothered by the over saturation of white Spaniards in our media. Any latin channel you turn on, will typically have Spaniards as the lead actors or Spaniards as the T.V Hosts. It’s no hate to Rosalia rather the disenfranchisement that corporations and networks create. It took a long time for me to see a darker complexion Mexican on a big screen. The Latino/Latina experience will always be different than a Spaniards life experience in my opinion. People in the Latin American region will typically struggle or have to work harder than their Spaniard counterparts. The first time I saw a latin person that looked like me wad Yalitza Aparicio. I guess I just wished actual latin culture and latin people were appreciated and celebrated/glamorized the way our Spaniard counterparts are celebrated and put on a pedestal.

My thing with the arguments that Rosalia shouldn’t be making reggaeton, is that if she can’t do it then neither should someone like Karol G or J Balvin do it , b/c if we are only going to allow people from that specific country (the originators) to make it then let’s keep the SAMMEE energy for everybody else. Besides the issue I have with the colorism conversations around her is that Latinos NEVER keep the same energy for other acts like Bad Bunny or Karol G. Like you can’t be for those people making music and yet down on Rosalia when they’re all white. Chile anyways 🤷🏽‍♀️

As an andalusian person with latino ancestry, I really love that she is expanding and globalizing flamenco, I hate the discourse of her culture appropriating when she just admires and loves our culture + she never said it was her of from her city, however, the latino discourse about her it’s kinda true, she is not latina but some people are going too far calling her a colonizer, like it isn’t like she had anything to do with the colonization ages ago come on, and criticizing her for making reggeton it’s just stupid to me like people just love to hate, anyways, all my love and admiration to her, she’s really an artist and I can’t wait to see her career growth though out the years

I'm peruvian, born and raised, the last 20 years of my life i've lived inmerse in not just my country culture but also most of South America Culture, so I can HONESTLY SAY, we do not call themselves "Latinos" we are aware we are Latin America, but we do not have a "LaTiNO CuLtUrE", we are a mix, of our own culture, MIXED with Spaniard culture and African culture since and BECAUSE of the colonization, and just thinking, like ACTUALLY THINKING, we would NOT be a Latino continent if it wasn't BECAUSE of the colonization, because if you search and read the term, the ACTUAL AND ORIGINAL TERM of "LATIN" it is a language which originated on the Italic Coast (IN NOW EUROPE) to then expand to what is today Italy, France, Spain, Portugal and Romania ... with the language and its derivation came the culture itself, that then, CENTURIES LATER, BECAUSE OF THE COLONIZATION, expanded to the "New world", our continent AMERICA, SOUTH, CENTRAL AND NORTH. Italians, Spaniard, even the French are Latinos, originary from a Latin Country, damn the Italians are the owners of the Actual Latin culture ... the European Union just got formed 30 YEARS AGO, before that they didn't even called themselves EuRopEaNS ... So I can honestly and with a heavy heart say that most of "Latinos" (aka hispanics immigrants) in the USA or even the 1 gen americans born in the US that came from a Hispanic family, are ignorants AS FUCK, most of this info I am giving rn I learned in school, A south american school, A LATIN AMERICAN SCHOOL, we are thought, that our culture it isn't completely ours, it was imposed to us by the Spaniards, and thats why we are Latinos, so yes, Rosalia is Latina, she comes from a Latin country, in fact one of the Originals Latin Countries there is ... I've always said it, but just the Hispanics in the US are ignorant enought to fight for something that is completely stupid like the argument she is not Latina.

I appreciate Rosalia as an artist, I get that as Hispanics there's a lot of culture we're gonna share because of the Spanish language itself but doing the "Growing up Latino" when you're not is what really rubbed me the wrong way, specially considering how uneducated most people are on who is Latino and who is not.

thank you so much for this video! i’m Panamanian literally one of the first places where Reggaeton was born so i have a lot of passion sharing the genre and seeing the way it has been sharing the same spotlight as Pop nowadays. i see Rosalia as a sign of the times artist, someone who has conjured all sorts of experience both personal and artistic and produced something that made many many heads turn. and the controversy what came up from her musical choices sparked really intriguing discourse in my opinion. i can enjoy what she’s putting out there and find myself following around what she’ll be doing in the near future, because what an artist!!

Rosalía is by far one of the artist to receive a lot of backlash for taking advantage over a title that was given to her by the music industry, it’s funny to me that all the backlash comes from the same people that praised and love Spanish music by non-Latin artist. Artist such as Rocio Dúrcal, Enrique Iglesias, Laura Pausini, Natalia Jiménez, Belinda, Aitana, Lola Índigo ect are just of the few EUROPEAN artist loved by the Latino community. I’m not taking the fact that Rosalía has in fact used the Latina Label to her advantage. But Rosalia, Rocio, and Natalia are within the few artist that has definitely taken advantage of the “Latina” label so far to the point of marketing themselves like one. With Rocio Dúrcal and Natalia dressing in Mexican attire and even Having a whole album decided to Mexico. European artist have been “inspired” by Latin countries musically and culturally for many years.

Absolutely NO ONE does it like her. As someone who's from & is in Spain, her breakthrough was a national cultural/social TSUNAMI here

I am from Spain, actually I'm from north Spain like Rosalía (North Spain and south Spain are very different, south Spain is where Flamenco was born) Thank you so much for making this video, you really inform yourself before doing it like everything you do 👏🏻. I don't feel latina, that's it. I respect and admire my Latinamerican brothers and sisters but no, Spaniards we are not Latinos. If it's true that we share a lot of things, the language mainly, and we have some traditions that are quite similar. Most of Spanish radios play Latin songs, we love music from Latin America, we have been very influenced by Latinos in the last years but that doesn't mean we are Latinos. I love Rosalía, I think she is very very talented and not only that, she work her ass off but I also think she is really wake ups in the morning and say "ok today I'm going to be latina", tomorrow im a gitana (Gipsy flamenco singer), "tomorrow I'm going to play the anime girl type" 😅😂 she really doesn't care and takes what she likes from each culture. For me that's not cool and makes me feel a bit uncomfortable hearing her sign with a Latin accent! Saludos desde España ❤️

I am constantly amazed by how often ur able to upload such well made and informative videos. Like girl i really hope ur not overworking urself making this content

Thank you for featuring so much visual material, especially from Rosalía’s earlier days ❤

What I do appreciate about Rosalia is how she is pushing herself to give us a different sound. Something edgy and with substance.

One thing I believe is key to this whole debacle is that a lot of this is because the media phrases information about her in a very ignorant way (at least for some of the music genres, especially the Latinamerican ones). As many people have pointed out, we Latine people who are born and raised in Latinamerica don't really mind others taking inspiration or integrating parts of our culture in their art. We see it as a celebration of what is *our* world, which is something that rarely gets accurately shared*. From what I've seen, most articles and interviews in other languages introduce or talk about Rosalía in a way that mixes "hispanic" and "Latino/a/e". And knowing that many of her inspirations come from Latine music, writers just say "ah, so she MUST be Latina if she's making "Latin music"" (to this day many people in English STILL say "Latin music/culture/etc" when Latin is a completely different thing...). It's gotten to the point that some sites are so clueless about Latinamerican music styles that some have claimed Rosalía created a music subgenre that has actually existed for decades in Central America. (Electro-calipso if I'm not mistaken, I saw the article about a year ago), just because Rosalía made a song that was similar to the little to no aparent knowledge of Calypso music that the writer of the article had. Obviously, many people gave the writer the benefit of the doubt about it because journalism of this kind is supposed to RESEARCH their subjects, and not just guessing. *Encanto, to pose a recent example of "bad sharing", despite being quite well researched, is from a very different time, far from how the present looks for Colombia. This isn't always understood by foreign audiences, who think "ah, this is Latine culture ALL of the time. They still live like this :)" because they just don't get current examples of us, and if they do, they're still showing us as very far behind in society (cue the yellow filter on everything, like that new "Oye primos" series)

I’m Latin American and I’ve never thought about any of this before. Culture appropriation is something that we know of but that doesn’t really exist in Brasil. Our culture is a mix of so many different countries and people, it would be ridiculous to even think of it. I mean, you know Anitta, right? She sings in Portuguese, Spanish and English, and even thou she came from Funk, she incorporated other genres as well (such as reggaeton itself) and she even received a VMA for a song that she sings in Spanish! Would you say she’s stealing an award from a Spanish singer or from an American artist? All of theses questions are ridiculous to us, due to our mixed culture. But hey, I’m from Brasil, the only place in Latin America that speaks Portuguese (not Spanish), so I don’t know how people from other countries feel. That’s pretty much it.

El Mal Querer is a masterpiece

More of this content please. And thank you for always informing and entertaining

Thanks for this video. I have been trying to get into Rosalía background journey and her music in English. I discovered her because of Malamente MV and I remember I love the dynamic music video with cinematic aesthetic with that song. It's so cool to look up new artist and begin to stan.

You have made a great review of her career!! As andalusian I love her, Im a huge fan, but it is true that is kinda controversial because we feel that our culture often gets capitalized by other welthier regions like Catalonia or Madrid only when is profitable but gets ghetto or lower class coded when is performed by andalusians or romani people themselves

I think she’s such an incredible artist, I was lucky enough to see her in October and I would 10/10 recommend her music to anyone

I am from LATAM and I don’t take what she does is an appropriation of our culture. I have actually never heard anyone close to me even mention that, we’re just huge fans. I don’t think we’re quite as paranoid as US or UK people regarding that. Specially because we have a very mixed culture because of colonization so it’s like… everything is very combined here. It’s just music experimentation for me

loved this video!! i love how much research and detail goes into your vids! have you thought about making a video similar to this about bjork? cuz that would be really interesting

You definitely did your homework. Ultimately there are millions of ways that we can separate who we are and where we come from. I am so thankful to music and food for being a constant thread of connectivity in this word!

this was a great video as always, love the content !

Thank you so much for so many mentions to Venezuela! I'm glad someone finally acknowledges my country

I am Puerto Rican and I love Rosalia and flamenco. She heavily influenced my view on music. Introducing me to artists like Arca, Camarón de la Isla, Lole y Manuel etc. She has respected and accredited the latinoamerican and caribbean culture. In Puerto Rico we sing and dance flamenco thanks to our heavily Spanish influenced culture. The only thing that she has failed is in giving the cale natives the recognition. Tho I agree in the modernization of music genres. One should always recognize the roots. I love that she studies before creating. Something that I have applied to my own music. Culture should be shared, but with respect. This happens with salsa, bachata and trova. People disrespect the caribbean & afro-caribbean dances. Artists create and share to the world. Rosalia has done a decent work doing that. We should appreciate the work of a women and her reach, instead of bashing it. We cannot keep everything to ourselves, that's greed. In terms of reguetton, this is a genre for everyone. It is a mix of cultures and dances. The colonization has nothing to do with modern days. It's not like they are coming with they're galleons with music. People should reflect before criticizing. Also latino means people that talk languages derived from the latin language. So, spanish people are technically latin.

Gonna mention three points here because I feel it's necessary to include: 1. The whole Latin Grammy academy has always favored the commercial success of Spanish-speaking artists regardless of where they're from, Rosalia included. For an earlier example of a Spanish artist racking up many Latin Grammies, Alejandro Sanz (who is from Madrid) has collected 23 of them in his career, but no one really brought this up until Rosalia collected half of the Latin Grammys he has. 2. Similar to MOTOMAMI's backlash (but further proving how a Roma artist could never reach the heights Rosalia could in making bold creative decisions within flamenco) - Camaron de la Isla, the undisputed icon and legend of flamenco (and a Roma artist), also faced controversy for releasing "La Leyenda del Tiempo" in 1979, an album whose experimental elements (including the use of sitars and drums) opened the genre to new audiences. Flamenco's fundamentalists treated Camaron horribly because he was also accused (as a Roma, no less) of tainting the genre's Romani purism. He intentionally engaged in these creative decisions to prevent himself from being held hostage to purism within the era of the flamenco genre that made him successful. However, he was inevitably forced to move away from it soon after because nobody understood the album's intentions at the time. 3. It's important to note that Rosalia holds privilege of succeeding in an era of flamenco (and music as a whole) where experimentation is tangibly encouraged as something that is meant to be developed, rather than perceived as something to retreat from. Many parts of Spain emphasized the importance of local traditions after General Franco's rule (which misappropriated flamenco as a nationalist symbol stripped of its Roma roots). In fact, local and regional Spanish languages such as Basque, Galician, and Catalan were revoked by the Spanish republic for the same fear of Spanish identity losing its purity. It becomes less difficult then to understand why Rosalia has been accused of further suppressing national traditions as a Catalonian whose musical education is Anglophonic and Andalusian, whose lyrics use Spanish-isms (including what some Catalan scholars claim to be a corruption of their language, like in the song "MILIONARIA"), whose customs are not considered "Spanish", and whose mother tongue (Catalan) is synonymous with stigmas of national impurity.

I have to add another comment :great great video !! Very well researched.

I’m glad I gave her a proper chance. She’s such a good artist. Way better than her other Spanish contemporaries that’s for sure !

Latin was the language of Rome and it's the origin of Spanish (and half the languages of Europe) It's called Latinoamerica because of their main language, Spanish. Rosalia is more latina than many of those ignorants.

EXCELLENT!!! Absolutely excellent work. ♥

If people are starting to tell people within a country they are appropriating cultures from a different part of their country. (Which in Spain is not very big) we are really going too far. Now come on now this is just getting ridiculous. I can understand the Latina Music Awards issue but claiming she’s a modern day colonizer is just ridiculous. Also aren’t the white Latinos the ones that actually descend from the Spanish colonizers?? Why does no one seem to get that. Sure they face different struggles in South America than in Spain but a lot of Latinos are still white and clearly very much European descendant with no actual South American roots in the beginning-> no native roots. JUST Spanish or Portuguese

I could never understand the outrage over Latin Grammy's as she does not pick those awards. More importantly, her album MOTOMAMI is such a gorgeous and seamless blend of reggaeton, flameco, and dembow. I'm puertorican and loved the fact that she was experimenting with these characteristics of reggaeton and making something new. Latinidad is such a bitter topic in LATAM, so i understand the discourse of her being called Latina sometimes

THANK YOU FOR THIS VIDEO, I LOVE YOUR ANALYSIS ❤❤❤

Gracias for this amazing video ❤

Wow. This video is so well researched. You earned a sub. Thank you for covering Rosalia, one of my favorite artists.

Culture is universal, it is absurd to try to confine it behind walls. Artists have always been influenced by other artists and cultures, even when there was no internet. It is possible that right now young people from all over the world are being influenced by Rosalia.

For the record, I think all the controversy around Rosalía winning Latin Grammy awards is a bit nonsensical. Many other Spanish artist have won and been nominated to the Latin Grammys. This award is not just for Latin artists, just as the Grammys are not for American artists. The point, as I understand it, is to award great achievements of released music in the area. For the Grammys the area is USA, and for Latin Grammys is Latinoamerica. Basically, since Rosalía has been popular and successful in Latinoamerica, she earned her place in the nominations. No one was awarding her as a Latina lol

nah this video is phenomenally done. more than halfway through and it feels like i'm in a music history class. the effort you put is clearly visible and i wish you surging growth this coming months. well done👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

Another amazing video! Thank you for doing some research so that you could provide important context

shes the best. she doesn't say she is Latina. her music might be screaming it but it is music. everyone can make music they way they feel adn they way they express themselves through it. It's not bad. she's so apreciative of the Latin music. When she received the AOTY at the latin grammys she said thank you LATAM for tanta inspiracion. She does not identify as a Latina, obviously. She says it over and over again and shes proud of Spain, barcelona and her orogin.