This Saturday, March 18th, a year has passed since the release of “Motomami”, Rosalía’s third album, an album that sparked a disruptive phenomenon in pop by combining flamenco, latin and avant-garde electronics with an unprecedented international projection for a Spaniard merges artists. 365 on the powerful and fast motorcycle that the Catalan star created and that has taken him around the world to present his work with a staging based on his music: innovative.
All of this has turned it into a shocking global brand that moves with surprising ease in the digital universe, presents itself as close, familiar and, of course, in love. Twelve months later, we summarize the keys to the child prodigy.
1) The internet concert
“Motomami” is a disruptive album and so is its staging. The concerts of the “tour” of Sant Esteve Sesrovires’ third album are an audiovisual experience that draws in a very obvious way from the culture of the Internet, this space (the social networks) in which the Catalan moves with a naturalness that makes it earthly. On stage, flanked by vertical screens (as dictated by cellphone-dominated audiovisual media), she is accompanied by a camera that follows her. Close-ups, imperfect, natural. And he even gets to use an artifact that he uses to take a picture of himself in “Selfie” mode. Another internet element seen on the show: lighted masks worn by her and her dancers, inspired by Instagram filters.
2) Viral advertising
Rosalía is authentic and handles the codes that the internet currently demands. And he knows how to play very well with the digital universe to further his work. Using TikTok and the small steps it shows to build anticipation before a launch is a good example of this. The great example is “Despechá”, a song that had to be released very quickly, having presented a fragment on the tour and had already become a summer anthem before its official release: with the minute that it went viral on the web , was enough .
3) More prices in the sky
The release of “Motomami” began to break listening records in the first days of life. Critics around the world applauded the most. And this February, Rosalía won the Grammy for Best Alternative Latin Album for “Motomami,” an honor she’d won years earlier with “El mal querer.” A recognition that cements it in the Yankee firmament in the global industry. Perhaps as a challenge, if she has her way, all she has to do is force the Academy’s surrender and leave them at the Album of the Year table, little less than a chimera for music made in Spanish.
4) A global critique reproduced
Never before has the album of a Spanish artist received such international praise as “Motomami”, the “New York Times” proclaimed it one of the three best of 2022 and inaugurated it with headlines of very different omens: from “Rolling Stone” to the British ‘New Musical Express’, from ‘Pitchfork’ to the French ‘Les Inrockuptibles’. Top rated disc (94 out of 100) on Metacritic. And something similar in Spain.
5) Singer became a brand
Rosalía did not hesitate to capitalize on her power beyond music: alliances with Coca-Cola, which launched the Move flavor with her, and with Lancôme in the fragrance La Vie est Belle. This was followed by the agreement with FC Barcelona and Spotify to produce the Motomami jersey at moderate prices (399.99 and 1,999.99 euros). Let’s hope she doesn’t end up like Rihanna, who almost forgot she was a singer.
6) The endurance tour
The “Motomami World Tour” has been leading halfway around the world from America to Europe since July 6, 2022 (start in Almeria). This weekend, Rosalía will be performing at the Lollapalooza Festival in Buenos Aires and Santiago de Chile, an extension of the “tour” that will take her to Primavera Sound and other major showcases, such as the Danish one in Roskilde. And without stopping releasing songs (the latest, ‘Llylm’).
7) An army of ‘Motomami’
“A motomami takes care of other motomami”. Someone pulled out a banner on 8M with this slogan and Rosalía retweeted it. The gesture is an example of the image she projects, a hybrid of two a priori self-exclusive things: she is a global star, but also a close one. Motomami also mixes up two seemingly contradictory concepts — moto and mami, strong and vulnerable — likely because Rosalía understood that the “zeitgeist” of 2023 has more to do with sisterhood and nurturing than competition.
8) The family, at the center
The break with manager Rebeca León after six years of brilliant success came as no surprise. Family is important to Rosalía, both in creativity and in business: her grandmother and nephew are in the album’s most tearful song, “G3N15”, while her mother, Pilar Tobella, is the sole administrator of Motomami SL, the company , which was founded in 2019 run the business. His sister Pili Vila, who takes care of part of his styling, is always there.
9) With a Versace Tracksuit (and Bershka)
Rosalía’s influence was felt at all levels of fashion: from the most exclusive catwalks (she was the star of the last Louis Vuitton show in Paris) to the biker jackets released by Zara, the Bershka tracksuits that have their navels in the air or the upcoming H&M collection, which will initially only be available in the USA, Mexico and England. Far from becoming the image of luxury brands, it continues to rely on independent and local designers such as Yolancris, Palomo Spain, Dominnico and Pepa Salazar.
10) To celebrate, Rauw
The first year of ‘motomami’ ends this Saturday, but celebrates next Friday with new music: a three-song EP with partner Rauw Alejandro. A collaboration that his supporters had obviously been demanding for a long time. However, they always warned that the moment had to come and be created without forcing it. Since going public with their relationship, the Catalan and Puerto Rican have nurtured each other and achieved “trendy couple” status, something they spontaneously embraced by living their love courtship intensely, including public outings, intimate scenes and some parties make
