There is no doubt that Rosalía is at the peak of success. Praised by critics and the public, the artist from Sant Esteve Sesrovires has become a global idol who dazzles in all areas: musical, scenic, aesthetic and business. But Rosalía is much more than that. Because for the numbers to skyrocket and her concerts to bring together millions of acolytes around the world, she needs something more than stage presence and a good voice. That is what the first doctoral thesis on Rosalía that has been presented before the tribunal of the Complutense University of Madrid analyzes, a work that the musicologist and psychologist Daniel Gómez Sánchez began working on five years ago. “It is titled Rosalía, cultural exchanges between the singer and composer and her formative-creative team, and in it I connect the figure of Rosalía with that of Enrique Morente and Sílvia Pérez Cruz,” he explains to La Vanguardia.
The influence of the singer from Granada, with his philosophy of creating in freedom or the use of musical formulas of repetition attributed to flamenco, is evident in the universe that the artist has been shaping, a way of doing that has internationalized and vindicated the genre of Flemish. And all this, as stated in this doctoral thesis directed by Francisco Bethencourt Llobet, thanks to the musical training that Rosalía received from the beginning.
“I consider that Morent’s philosophy of tendency towards experimentation and risk, which underlies and beats in the Taller de Músics, permeated Rosalía both in her identity as a person and also as an artist,” states the author in his writing, who also influences in that “Rosalía is a musician with a trade, like jazz musicians, who are musicians in capital letters. She has musical, vocal and creative talent, and that has been fed with a network of synergy that has elevated and projected her in an unstoppable way. She is not a musical product, no matter how much people say.”
To carry out this academic study, Daniel Gómez has resorted to direct sources to immerse himself in field work that has connected him with Rosalía’s closest environment. Interviews with Joan Albert Amargós (conductor of the orchestra who worked with Camarón and who arranged the singer’s second album El Mal Querer), Bernat Vivancos (composer and arranger for Rosalía’s performance of Me stay with you at the 2019 Goya Awards). ), Anna Colom (fellow student at l’Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya, ESMUC, and chorus singer on the El mal qué tour), José María Barbat (President of Sony Music Iberia) or musicians such as María José Llergo and Judith Neddermann, among other testimonies, they have been the key to revealing the artistic figure of the young Catalan woman.
The research work also focuses on the concept of ‘encapsulated songs’. “What are called ‘meta-songs’ have been discovered […]. “The artist usually creates songs within her own songs, especially in collaborations with other artists,” she says in her writing, and the clear example is cited of her duet with The Weeknd in ‘Blinding Lights’. “She doesn’t limit herself to singing a harmony above the song, but she changes the beat from 2 to 3 and puts in a fandango. She incorporates flamenco into a disco song and slows down the tempo to do the melismas. Is incredible. She creates her own song within the song and it works,” highlights the author.
“Their creative team and their environment saw that it was serious work and allowed me to enter their ecosystem. This is a necessary work, of intense and deep analysis, which reflects the musical identity of the artist,” comments the musicologist, who can also say that “I have the full support of Rosalía.” And the creator of Motomami has actively participated in the preparation of this thesis through Instagram messages and audios, as well as with a direct conversation with Gómez: “I was able to interview her after a concert at the Palau Sant Jordi and in When he saw me he told me ‘Oh, Dani, I finally know you.’ She thanked me for valuing her art and for wanting to take her music to an academic level. It is something that impressed her, and it gave me a lot of strength to continue with my study. “We remain in contact through networks and we have talked a lot about music.”
The research work also focuses on the concept of “encapsulated songs.” “What are called meta-songs has been discovered […]. The artist usually creates songs within her own songs, especially in collaborations with other artists,” reads her writing, and the clear example is cited of her duet with The Weeknd in Blinding Lights. “She doesn’t limit herself to singing a harmony above the song, but she changes the beat from 2 to 3 and puts in a fandango. She incorporates flamenco into a disco song and slows down the tempo to do the melismas. Is incredible. She creates her own song within the song and it works,” highlights the author.
This doctoral thesis also relates Rosalía to Sílvia Pérez Cruz, with whom Daniel Gómez chatted. “I link them, on the one hand, in the dimension of the choir: the control of the dynamics that their voice has, of singing piano, of mastering all the melismas, the melodic drawings that it makes… It is almost as if it were baroque music. On the other hand, both are Iberian voices, both take folklore and tradition when they sing, that is why they are so moving. One brings the duende of flamenco; the other the saudade of fado. We must not forget that Rosalía learned to sing by imitating Sílvia Pérez Cruz,” explains the researcher.
The passion for Rosalía’s creative universe has led Daniel Gómez to develop other previous works such as the one that analyzes the connection between the cover of the album El Mal Querer and the stamp that commemorated the Barcelona International Exhibition created by the artist Francesc Fàbregas Pujadas in the year 1929, or the presentation “Beethoven and Rosalía, two artists committed to humanity”, carried out together with Dr. Abigail Jareño Gómez for both ESMUC and the Université Sorbonne-Nouvelle in Paris. In addition, the next course will be teaching a masterclass at the Taller de Músics focused on the figure of the singer.
Without a doubt, Rosalía’s artistic career is full of particularities that make her an interesting object of study, many of which are included in Gómez’s doctoral thesis. “I conclude that Rosalía is an artist of high capabilities as a singer and as a composer. She is a genius and her environment has helped him create a synergy with her talent that gives her great value not only as a performer, but as a creator,” he says with the certainty that the Catalan will continue to surprise us with her ability. of innovation and transformation of it.
