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Rosalía was not only one of the main artists of the third day of Primavera Sound Barcelona, nor only the most important: she was the biggest star of the whole festival. For the local public and for the foreigner, which proportionally come to suppose half and half. Not Blur, not Depeche Mode, not Kendrick Lamar. Rosalía's performance in her city has aroused an expectation with the category of great event and has mobilized an immense mass of people that probably exceeded 60,000 people, some of whom have waited in front of the stage two hours before to ensure a privileged place.

The interest in seeing the sensational Barcelona artist was so intense and widespread that something that seems contradictory happened: she triumphed without it being her best concert. Or to use a motorcycle simile: half gas.

Their first problem was that during the first half of the performance the sound was low.

Is that really important?

Imagine: Saturday night, 2:03 a.m. An electropunk song by the Japanese band Ni Hao! The girl squeals. The noise spreads through the immense esplanade of the Parc del Fórum. Above the heads rise tens of thousands of mobiles recording the nuclear white scenario. The human conglomerate is a pot of adrenaline. The stridency ends and the thick engine of a motorcycle rumbles like a threat.

The excitement spreads even further. The screens flicker and the and lights approach the epilepsy-imminent level as nine bodies slowly appear. People want to party. Between the white neon helmets Rosalia emerges and 'Saoko' begins to play, which is one of the best songs I have ever done...

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Music.

How much does it cost to go to Primavera Sound? Between 500 and 2,000 euros per person

  • Writing: TEXT AND PHOTOS: CARMEN LÓPEZ Barcelona

How much does it cost to go to Primavera Sound? Between 500 and 2,000 euros per person

Music.

Primavera Sound: John Cale Master Class and St. Vincent's Sexy Party

  • Editor: PABLO GIL Barcelona
  • Writing: CARMEN LÓPEZ Barcelona

Primavera Sound: John Cale Master Class and St. Vincent's Sexy Party

That's where it takes a volume that hits you in the chest like the five pressure points to explode a heart. But no: what you could hear was the crowd chanting "Saoko, Daddy."

The futuristic pop songs followed each other like lightning, none reached three minutes: 'Bizcochito', 'La fama'... The dancers surrounded like a futuristic tribe the Catalan singer and producer, who almost rapped with too much energy. It was when making a long thank you to her fans, first in Catalan and then in English, when it became clear that the sound was weak: among the crowd there were people who asked for silence and who joked because they did not understand what Rosalia was saying. Someone with a sense of humor would have exclaimed, "Girl, what do you say?"

Much more Latin than flamenco, she chained 'La noche de anoche' with 'Linda', which she did not sing with Tokischa despite the fact that the Dominican had performed three hours earlier in the Primavera and that would have been a very special invitation.

The show calculated and choreographed until the last blow of mane was similar to the tour he offered last summer in Spain, that 'tiktokero' concert of vertical format in which the realization of video of the screens is fundamental and in which the songs are falling like a succession of short, fast and striking stimuli (in last year's tour, By the way, the sound was a real thunderstorm).

Thousands of fans were torn between dancing, jumping or recording with their mobile. Many of them wore costumes inspired by the aesthetics of the album 'Motomami', something that explains well the deep degree of identification that many young people (and not so young) have established with the artist, one of the most valuable conquests that a pop musician can achieve: being one of the voices of his generation.

After 'Diablo' and 'Despechá' (in two parts, a second remixed madly), she sat in front of the piano ready to sing that wonderful ballad that is 'Hentai' and in that silence, from the shouting of the audience she must have received a message: "It is not heard". Rosalia stopped the concert: "Can't you hear?" And the people: "Nooooo." There was a moment of confusion. "Turn up the PA", that is, the speaker system, the artist asked from the stage. And the sound improved, although for example later there was the paradox that when singing 'Con altura' the recorded voice of J. Balvin was heard a little louder than that of Rosalía herself. 35 minutes had passed and there were only another 33 minutes left. And that was another problem: with its 68 minutes, the show became short. Although yes, it is true, people were still happy: on the bus back home everyone admired with a smile the videos that, like precious fetishes, he had recorded on his mobile.

With her concert last night, the Catalan began a series of 13 performances at European festivals that will also pass through Madrid next Saturday (in the Madrid edition of Primavera Sound) and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria at the Granca Live Festival, on July 7. At the end of July, the successful tour of 'Motomami' will end, with more than 70 concerts over a year in Spain, Europe and, above all, throughout America, where he has been confirmed as one of the great world stars of current Latin music. Among the milestones of that long tour, his free concert in the Plaza del Zócalo in Mexico City before 160,000 people or his double triumph on one of the main stages of Coachella, the most important musical event in the US, with 125,000 daily attendees.

In the final stretch of the 'show' entered some novelties with respect to his concerts last year: 'Beso' and Vampiros', two of the songs he has just published with his partner, Rauw Alejandro, and an intimate version of 'Hero' by Enrique Iglesias. Then 'Malamente', the only song from 'El mal querer' in the repertoire, was played, and ended with 'Chiken Teriyaki' and 'CUUUUuuuuuute'. It was 3:11.

  • Rosalie
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  • Barcelona
  • Articles Pablo Gil

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