Rosalía has revealed that Bono reached out to ask for her help with some Spanish lyrics while working on U2’s forthcoming song about her.
The Spanish star discussed the unlikely exchange during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last night (Wednesday October 7), explaining that she and the U2 frontman have still never met in person.
Their contact came while Bono was working on ‘The Mirror Maker (Rosalía)’, the fourth track on U2’s forthcoming album ‘Carnaval De Luz’.
“I don’t know him personally, but he texted me and told me that he had this new project and this song, ‘The Mirror Maker’,” Rosalía told Fallon.
She said Bono then asked whether some of the Spanish words he had written actually made sense. Rosalía recalled being puzzled by one in particular, saying she had “never heard this word” and eventually researched it to discover that it did not exist in standard Spanish.
Her advice to Bono was straightforward: “I don’t know, but feel free to invent your own language.”
She went on to describe the entire situation as “mind-blowing”, adding that she had grown up listening to U2 and singing a snippet of ‘With Or Without You’.
“Bono is a legend,” she said. “It’s incredible.”
Bono first revealed the story behind ‘The Mirror Maker (Rosalía)’ last month, describing the singer as an “extraordinary artist”.
“We normally just write songs about people in jail or dead people,” he joked at the time. “This is just celebrating somebody just because they’re an extraordinary artist.”
He said he had become particularly fascinated by Rosalía’s 2025 album ‘Lux’, with its themes of spirituality and “re-enchantment” overlapping with some of the ideas U2 had been exploring on ‘Carnaval De Luz’. “She’s arrived at the same point just before us, which is annoying and also really inspiring,” Bono said.
The song itself actually began life around 2017 as a demo by The Edge titled ‘Kuti Rocker’, inspired by Fela Kuti. Producer Jacknife Lee has said the version eventually selected for the album was its 196th iteration.
Bono also previously revealed that he contacted mutual friend Penélope Cruz because he was nervous about approaching Rosalía for permission to use her name.
“I called Penélope: ‘What am I gonna do?’” he recalled. “I’m like, ‘I look like a stalker.’”
Rosalía’s next collaboration with an Irish band is more direct. She appears on Fontaines D.C.’s forthcoming fifth album ‘Dopamine Chamber’, lending her vocals to ‘Where Is Gone?’. The record arrives on October 16 via XL Recordings.
Before then, Rosalía is due to appear as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live this weekend, with Shane Gillis hosting the October 10 episode.
Meanwhile, U2’s ‘Carnaval De Luz’ arrives on November 13 and will also feature Dolly Parton’s final recorded vocal performance on closing track ‘Torn’.
