Rosalía has become one of the most recognized names in current Spanish music. The singer from Sant Esteve Sesrovires leads a new generation where Latin, electronic rhythms outside the usual structures triumph around the world. However, everyone has origins, whether they are more positive or negative with respect to her career. In the case of the Catalan, one of her first television appearances was in a Telecinco contest.
This is what he explained to Penélope Cruz, in the extensive interview that they both shared in the November issue of Vogue magazine. Rosalía occupies the cover and speaks at length with the renowned actress, to whom she confesses how one of her first musical opportunities affected her. The artist made an appearance on Tú si que vales, Mediaset’s anonymous talent program, when she was still 15 years old. One from which she learned a lot.
“At 13 years old I already knew that I wanted to sing and be on stage. I had that concern, but I didn’t know very well how to open the melon because in my house no one was dedicated to anything that has to do with the industry. Then I saw that there was a casting in Barcelona and I skipped school that day to go with a friend. And I managed to get into the program. It was an experience and I learned a lot, because I realized that you have to prepare a lot, so it was a lesson in humility,” she noted.
“I also think that what it means for you to be an artist changes over time. I don’t know if that has happened to you too but, for example, at that time for me it was very related to the stage, but from the age of 16 or 17, I began to want to choose what to write and what to sing. Then, as I grew up, I also wanted to decide what the production was going to sound like and what the visuals were going to be like,” she told Penelope, clarifying that she chose music as a career at the age of 9.
Rosalía’s participation in Tú si que vales took place in 2008. At that time, the Telecinco program had Christian Gálvez as presenter, along with Àngel Llàcer, Noemí Galera and Xavier Sardà in the jury team. Rosalía, who was in 4th year of ESO at that time, performed the song Como en un mar eternal, by Hanna. Unfortunately, the judges were not impressed with her performance and the Catalan was eliminated.
“You have a lot of potential, but you still don’t know how to take advantage of it,” Llàcer pointed out to him on that occasion. The singer had better luck in a second attempt, where she reached the semifinals. It was there that her fortune ran out. After performing Leave (Get Out), a song by the American artist JoJo, Sant Esteve Sesrovires was eliminated, this time with a more forceful reply from Llàcer: “Rosalía, you have been out of tune quite regularly during the song.”