Rosalía – nan first Spanish female creator to scope nan apical 5 Official UK Album Charts. Credit: Christian Bertrand, Shutterstock
Rosalía has made UK floor plan history this week arsenic her new medium LUX entered nan Official Albums Chart astatine number 4 – nan highest position ever achieved by a Spanish female artist. According to nan Official Charts Company, nary Spanish female has ever reached nan UK apical five, making this a landmark breakthrough for some nan creator and Spanish euphony successful Britain.
The infinitesimal comes during a female-dominated fewer weeks successful nan UK chart’s precocious ranks, pinch Taylor Swift, Olivia Dean and Lily Allen holding nan apical positions. Rosalía’s presence makes her nan first Spanish female to subordinate nan apical five.
On merchandise day, LUX besides collapsed different milestone, amassing astir 42.1 cardinal Spotify streams – nan astir streams successful a azygous time for a Spanish-language female artist.
A cross-genre connection of ambition
For those who person heard it, nan album’s triumphant debut is hardly surprising. LUX is simply a bold, genre-blending activity that merges orchestral arrangements, choral passages, multilingual songwriting and Rosalía’s signature vocal power into thing acold bigger than a accepted popular release. She sings crossed much than a twelve languages – including English, Spanish, Catalan, Japanese, Portuguese and Latin – while shifting betwixt flamenco, opera, enclosure euphony and modern physics production.
Her meticulous attraction to item gives nan medium an affectional and cinematic standard that stands isolated from thing other released this year.
LUX – From sainthood to fickle manhood
LUX (“light”) announces its intentions immediately. The opening way places listeners wrong a cavernous religion hall, pinch a distant soft and a azygous activity from Rosalía that lands unexpectedly successful nan foreground. It sets a reside of contemplation that runs done nan record, shaped by themes of faith, devotion and nan complexities of quality relationships.
From choral interludes to flamenco-infused rhythms connected De Madrugá, nan medium moves betwixt eras and genres pinch deliberate precision. In an question and reply pinch Apple Music, Rosalía said she spent 3 years penning LUX, dedicating astir of that clip to studying sainthood crossed cultures and refining lyrics that time off thing unsaid.
This honesty comes done during nan entirety of nan album, particularly successful tracks for illustration La Perla wherever she confronts a man she calls a “peace-thief”, adding that he “finally goes to therapy, nan scientist and psychiatrist, but what’s nan usage erstwhile he lies much than he speaks?”
Critics hail a boundary-pushing masterpiece
Since its release, LUX has earned wide world acclaim. The Guardian praised it arsenic “a unique conflict of classical and chaos that couldn’t beryllium by anyone else.” Rolling Stone described it arsenic “unlike thing other successful modern pop.” AP News called it “a demanding but rewarding perceive that positions her arsenic a unsocial sound successful modern music.”
On Metacritic, LUX presently holds 1 of nan highest scores of 2025, marking it arsenic Rosalía’s strongest captious success.
Why this UK grounds matters
Although Spanish-language euphony has seen world occurrence successful caller years, nan UK marketplace has traditionally been difficult for non-English albums to break into astatine nan very top. The occurrence of LUX – a multilingual, concept-driven medium rooted successful classical structures – signals a meaningful shift. It is simply a immense symbolic breakthrough for Spanish female successful music, and reflects a increasing openness to ambitious, cross-cultural projects successful nan UK.
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