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A look at the past, to a photograph of the summer of 2004. The girl with braids that inherited her grandmother's name is on a swing. Smile. Raise your thumb up. "He has something special," said Mrs. Rosalia . His granddaughter, with that unusual name in the Catalan region of Baix Llobregat, then hummed Álex Ubago, Estopa and the Ear of Van Gogh. I also danced the vallenatos of Carlos Vives at the village festivities. And the sardanas in the schoolyard. Years later, Shrimp would appear to the rescue. The cantaor's Our Dreams rang for three minutes in a car cassette during a teenage bottle in the park. That song would never go out of the swing girl's ear. Flamenco entered his life. He wanted to be a cantaora . And he got it. But that style one day fell short. He was rebellious. I wanted to do something different. A flamenco that fuses other more urban rhythms. Because, as her grandmother said, she was special.
A look at the present, at the park that is next to the La Roureda public school, at that swing unleashed by the intense midday sun at the end of August. 17 years ago nobody knew the girl in the picture. Today everyone puts face and voice. It's Rosalía Vila Tobella . The Rosalia
We are 40 kilometers from Barcelona, in the village of Sant Esteve Sesrovires , at the foot of the Montserrat mountain. Here was born the star that is on its way to legend, the most international Spanish singer in recent years. The daughter of a Catalan who worked in a factory plates and an Asturian with Galician and Andalusian blood. The musical earthquake that last Monday won - along with the Colombian J Balvin - the MTV awards for Best Latino Video and Best Choreography. "I come from Barcelona and I am very happy to sing in Spanish, " he shouted proudly on the New Jersey stage. Never had a Spanish artist achieved this award. That is why we travel to his Catalan crib, to put letter to the environment that pushed the girl on the swing to become 25 years old in a whole musical muse throughout the world.
To arrive by public transport from Barcelona, you have to take a train from Sants station to Martorell and then transfer by another regional train to Sant Esteve Sesrovires (7,800 censored neighbors). This industrial and agricultural town, famous for its Chupa-Chups factory, is now in the middle of the Fiesta Mayor de La Bebida. During the day there are sardanas, popular foods and the parade of Giants (dolls). At night, orchestra.
In many balconies of the town, as in most municipalities on the outskirts of Barcelona, there are stelae, yellow ties and murals calling for the independence of Catalonia. Sant Esteve has some relevance because on the outskirts is the Brians 2 jail, where seven of the 1-O prisoners are. Here, in the last municipal elections, Esquerra Republicana (ERC) won. Although the mayor was finally the socialist Enric Carbonell thanks to the support of the local Arasa, Ciudadanos and En Común Podem. «Rosalia is a person who has known what she wants for years and has worked very hard to achieve it. Nobody has given him anything, ”says the mayor about his most illustrious neighbor.
However, when walking through Sant Esteve, there is nothing to indicate that the Catalan artist was born in this town. There are more posters in which Albano Dante Fachin (the former leader of Podemos in Catalonia) appears than Rosalia. «We do not know if we are going to pay tribute, put a street or whatever. Everyone is asking us the same thing. We will see. In his day we already gave him an acknowledgment, ”says a City Council official. Last year, coinciding with the festivities of Sant Jordi, Rosalía was named “sesrovirenca of the year” from the session shortly after the artist won two Latin Grammys for her song Malamente . “We are not going to talk about her or her family because what we want is to protect her. Once a television came, wanting to get shit, asking for their parents and knocking on the door of their house. And everything recorded so that the world knows where he lives, ”protests another employee of the City Council.
The residents of Sant Esteve also want to protect "the girl" in their homeland. Most, regardless of their musical tastes, speak with pride of Rosalia. «She still lives here with her mother. Although in recent years little has come for his travels, ”says a lady named Amelia . "We take great care of what we talk about because we want you to feel at ease when you come, as one of the people, without people who overwhelm you, and that you can enjoy your family and friends," says Carme , another neighbor, who proudly adds that her Daughter has become "nails like Rosalia." It has been in a nearby town, in Cerdanyola, in the Maritza manicure salon, the architect of the gel nails worn by Rosalia ("for 150 euros, she changes them every two weeks," he explains).
ASTURIAN BLOOD
In Sant Esteve, Rosalía's house is a single-family home in an urbanization. His father, José Manuel Vila , was born in Cudillero (Asturias). His mother, the Catalan Pilar Tobella , worked as commercial deputy director in the family business, Suprametal, dedicated since 1967 to manufacture identification plates, covers, labels and tags. "She left the company when Rosalia began to succeed and now she is dedicated to helping in the progress of her daughter's career," says a former college classmate of the artist. He points to Rosalia as a "rebel girl" in her teens, and highlights the role of the older sister, named Pili, although everyone knows her as Daikyri , who acts as a stylist and right-handed singer.
Looking back to the past, in the town everyone knows Rosalia's biography by heart. Of the girl who was seven years old already studying jazz and blues and who dazzled with her voice for the first time at a family meal. The one who did dance at the Manoli school ("at 11 I heard her sing for the first time and I knew she had something different"). The one that he knew about flamenco thanks to the afternoons he spent with his grandmother watching Lola Flores and Carmen Sevilla films that were broadcasting in Barrio Cinema . Then, Camarón would come, the guitar lessons with Israel at the Flamenco Cultural Entity of Sant Esteve and the flamenco dance group that he rode with two other friends. «In my family there are no musicians or contacts. I have started from scratch, and have been studying, sacrificing and looking for a good teacher for many years, ”Rosalia repeated in her interviews.
That teacher was the singer José Miguel Vizcaya , El Chiqui , his teacher for seven years at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya. He managed to focus the rebel and restless girl ("she was a crazy goat," she explained in an interview) who had to operate on the vocal cords at age 17 after damaging her voice. He spent two years practically in silence. That changed her, made her more disciplined.
Rosalia has now achieved what no Spanish artist. In their land, in Sant Esteve, they await their return soon. Meanwhile, in the orchestra of the festivities, some of the songs of the swing girl that one day dreamed of being a cantaora and who has become a world star will sound .
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