Rosalía opened her four-night residency at Madrid’s Movistar Arena on Monday (March 30) — the first stop of her Lux Tour in Spain — just days after being forced to cut short her concert in Milan due to what she described as “food poisoning.” The Catalan superstar appeared fully recovered and completely committed to her audience in a large-scale show sustained by constant emotional tension.
“How are we feeling tonight? I’m so happy to be here,” she said at the beginning of the concert. “Last week, I wasn’t feeling too well, but I’m much better now,” she added, earning the first round of applause from a crowd that responded with unusually focused attention for a venue of this scale — respectful silences, measured reactions, and occasional eruptions during the most demanding moments of the setlist.
The show maintains the structure debuted at its premiere in Lyon on March 16, featuring a setlist of more than 20 songs divided into four acts. At the center of the venue, an orchestra of about 20 musicians sets the pulse of the concert, while Rosalía moves seamlessly between theatrical moments and more electronic ones.
The connection with Madrid was palpable throughout the evening. “Madrid, tonight is special… it’s the first night in the capital with all my ‘chulapos’ and ‘chulapas,’” Rosalía said. “I’ve been coming here for more than a decade… it’s a city I love deeply and one that holds so many memories for me.”
She also reminisced about one of her first performances at Casa Patas, a historic flamenco venue in the city. “I remember feeling the magic there like nowhere else. Who would have thought that a decade later I’d be here, filling this arena? It’s incredible… life really comes full circle,” she added, visibly emotional.
One of the most celebrated moments came with “Mio Cristo,” one of the most challenging pieces in the repertoire. “Who here knows it, even if it’s in Italian?” she asked. The response was immediate: the audience sang it along with her.
The concert also had lighter moments, such as her rendition of “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You,” during which Rosalía posed as a contemporary Mona Lisa before stepping off the stage to join her fans, smiling all the while. In the same segment, she invited several audience members onto the stage and sang to them face-to-face.
The interaction was constant and, at times, intimate despite the size of the venue. Before performing “Sauvignon Blanc,” seated at a piano, Rosalía addressed a fan in the audience in a brief exchange that broke down the distance between the stage and the crowd. The concert balanced monumental production with moments of closeness throughout. Humor made an appearance with the participation of content creator Soy Una Pringada (Esty) in an onstage confessional, where she humorously confessed her “sins” before Rosalía performed “La Perla,” one of the most enthusiastically sung along numbers of the night.
Later, she brought the arena to life with “Despechá.” “Madrid loves mambo. Long live Dominican mambo, and long live flamenco too!” she exclaimed during one of the evening’s most euphoric moments.
The show closed with “Magnolias” in a scene evoking her own funeral, taking the performance to its most minimalist point. Without theatrics, the artist disappeared in a single beam of light after the final note.
Following this first show, the Lux Tour will continue with three more dates in Madrid (April 1, 3, and 4), before heading to Lisbon, Portugal (April 8 and 9) and wrapping up the Spanish leg in Barcelona (April 13, 15, 17, and 18). The tour will arrive in the U.S. in the summer, kicking off on June 4 in Miami and stopping in cities like Boston, New York, Chicago and Las Vegas.
