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, stage design, aesthetics and business. But Rosalía is much more than that. For the numbers to skyrocket and for their concerts to bring together millions of acolytes around the world, a little more than stage presence and a good voice is needed. It is what analyzes the first doctoral thesis on Rosalía that has been presented to the court of the Complutense University of Madrid, a work on which the musicologist and psychologist Daniel Gómez Sánchez started working five years ago. “It’s called Rosalía, cultural exchanges between the singer and composer and her formative-creative team, and it connects the figure of Rosalía with that of Enrique Morente and Sílvia Pérez Cruz,” he explains to La Vanguardia.
The influence of the singer, with his philosophy of free creation or the use of repetitive musical formulas attributed to flamenco, is evident in the universe that the artist has been shaping, a way of doing things that he has internationalized and claimed the genre of flamenco. And all this, as stated in this doctoral thesis directed by, thanks to the musical training that Rosalía received from the beginning. “I consider that the Morentian philosophy of a tendency towards experimentation and risk-taking, which underlies and beats at Taller de Músics, filtered into Rosalía, both in her identity as a person and also as an artist”, says the ‘author in his writing, which also points out that “Rosalía is a musician by trade, like jazz musicians, who are musicians with capital letters. He has musical, vocal and creative talent, and this has been fueled by a network of synergy that has elevated and projected him in an unstoppable way. It’s not a musical product, no matter how much people say it.”
To carry out this academic study, Daniel Gómez has turned to direct sources such as Joan Albert Amargós (conductor who worked with Camarón and who made the arrangements for El mal querer), Bernat Vivancos (composer and arranger for the interpretation of Me quedo contigo ), Anna Colom (study partner at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya, Esmuc), José María Barbat (president of Sony Music Iberia) or musicians such as María José Llergo and Judith Neddermann, among others witnesses “His creative team and his environment saw that it was serious work and allowed me to enter their ecosystem”, comments the musicologist, who can also say that “he has Rosalía’s full support”.
The creator of Motomami has actively participated in the development 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 so he saw me and said: ‘Oh, Dani, I finally know you’. He thanked me for appreciating his art and for wanting to take his music to an academic level. We keep in touch through the networks and we talked a lot about music”.
This doctoral thesis also relates Rosalía to Sílvia Pérez Cruz, with whom Daniel Gómez spoke. “Both take folklore and tradition when they sing, which is why they move so much. One brings the charm of flamenco; the other, the saudade of fado. It must not be forgotten that Rosalía learned to sing by imitating Sílvia Pérez Cruz”, explains the researcher.
