Rosalia Vila Tobella (born 25 September 1992), known mononymously as Rosalía  is a Spanish singer, songwriter, producer, actress and musician. Born and raised in the outskirts of Barcelona, she has been described as an “atypical pop star” due to her genre-bending musical styles. After being enthralled by Spanish folk music at age 13, she studied musicology at Catalonia College of Music while also performing at musical bars and weddings.

She completed her studies with honors by virtue of her collaborative cover album with Raül Refree, Los Ángeles (2017), and the baccalaureate project El Mal Querer (2018). Reimagining flamenco by mixing it with pop and hip hop music, it spawned the singles “Malamente” and “Pienso en tu Mirá”, which caught the attention of the Spanish general public, and were released to universal critical acclaim. Recipient of the Latin Grammy Award for Album of the Year and listed in Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, El Mal Querer started the ascent of Rosalía into the international music scene. 

Rosalía explored urbano music with her 2019 releases “Con Altura” and “Yo x Ti, Tú x Mí”, achieving global success. She gave reggaeton an experimental twist on her third studio album Motomami (2022), departing from the new flamenco sound of its predecessor. The album caught international attention with its singles “La Fama”, “Saoko” and “Despechá” and became the best reviewed album of the year on Metacritic.

Throughout her career, Rosalía has accumulated eleven number-one singles in her home country, the most for a local artist. She has also won two Grammy Awards, twelve Latin Grammy Awards (including two Album of the Year wins), four MTV Video Music Awards, an MTV Europe Music Award, three UK Music Video Awards and two Premio Ruido awards, among others. In 2019, Billboard gave her the Rising Star Award for “changing the sound of today’s mainstream music with her fresh flamenco-influenced pop”, and became the first Spanish-singing act in history to be nominated for Best New Artist at the Grammys. She is widely considered one of the most successful and influential Spanish singers of all-time.

Rosalía was born on 25 September 1992 in Sant Cugat del Vallès and raised in Sant Esteve Sesrovires, Baix Llobregat, Catalonia. Born in a Catalan speaking family with no artistic background, she is the youngest daughter of Pilar Tobella, a businesswoman of Catalan and Spanish descent who runs a small family company specialised in metalworks. Her father, José Manuel Vila, was born in Cudillero, Asturias, to a Galician father and an Andalusian mother, with one of his grandfathers being Cuban. They separated in 2019.She has an older sister, Pilar “Pili” Vila (born 1989), who works with Rosalía as her stylist and creative director. Rosalía expressed interest in the performing arts at an early age, especially after discovering the discography of Camarón de la Isla. She began her musical education at the Taller de Músics. 

She did a six-year course at the academy. She began attending class at the Raval school, later transfering to the Superior School of Music of Catalonia. She also autonomously worked as an independent singer at weddings and musical bars, for which she was paid “a little over 80 euros or in exchange for dinner”. During that time, Rosalía met many underground Spanish artists who would later succeed such as La Zowi, Yung Beef, Kaydy Cain, Hinds and María Escarmiento.

At 15, she competed on the television show Tú Sí Que Vales, although she wasn’t selected. At 17, she had to undergo vocal cord surgery after tearing one of her vocal cords due to “intense singing practices” and was unable to sing for a year. In 2012, she became the vocalist of Kejaleo, a flamenco music group featuring Jordi Franco, Roger Blavia, Cristo Fontecilla, Diego Cortés and Xavi Turull. They released an album, Alaire, in 2013. That same year, Rosalía professionally worked as a duo with Juan “Chicuelo” Gómez to promote the Blancanieves soundtrack at the 2013 Panama International Film Festival in substitution of Sílvia Pérez Cruz and at the Festival Grec de Barcelona for the contemporary dance work De Carmen. In 2013, she participated in the Association of Performing Arts Professionals (APAP) Conference in New York, and was the lead voice in the culmination of the Any Espriu 2014.

 In 2015, she collaborated with La Fura dels Baus on a show that premiered in Singapore. She was the opening act for flamenco artist Miguel Poveda, accompanied by Alfredo Lagos, at the International Music Festival of Cadaqués, and also at the 2016 Jerez Jazz Festival. She worked with Rocío Márquez on the presentation of her album El Niño, produced by Raül Refree, at Primavera Sound. In 2015, she also worked with clothing brand Desigual and sang the single for their campaign jingle “Last Night Was Eternal”. and self-released “Un Millón de Veces” included in the benefit album Tres Guitarras Para el Autismo. At 20, she worked as a flamenco teacher and vocal coach. In 2016, Rosalía collaborated with Spanish rapper and former boyfriend C. Tangana on “Antes de Morirme”. The song was a sleeper hit and entered the Spanish Singles Chart in 2018, after the success of Rosalía’s newer material. The collaboration received international attention when it was featured on the soundtrack of the first season of the Spanish Netflix show Élite.