Rosalía has responded to a wave of criticism, claiming comments she made about Bad Bunny and singing in multiple languages were taken “out of context.”
The dust-up stems back to the Spanish singer’s recent appearance on the New York Times’ Popcast, where she was asked about singing in about 13 different languages one her new album Lux and the challenges of communicating with a global audience. Specifically, the hosts mentioned a previous interview they’d done with Bad Bunny, where they asked him if he ever worried that what he was singing in Spanish was being misunderstood or going over the heads of listeners. The Puerto Rican superstar responded in a sing-song voice, “I don’t care!”
Rosalía, for her part, said, “I think I’m the opposite of Benito. I think I care. I care so much that definitely I’m going to make the effort to sing in a language that’s not my language. It’s not my comfort zone.”
Rosalía went on to suggest that her choice to incorporate so many different languages on Lux was an artistic one meant to engage different listeners and to encourage curious fans to explore a language they didn’t know. “There’s 13 languages, I hope there’s a little something, or hopefully there’s translations,” she said.
Still, the comments caused some social media uproar, which tapped into longstanding critiques over Rosalía’s relationship with Latin music and its Afro-Carribean roots as a singer from Spain. One TikTok user argued that Bad Bunny sings only in Spanish “because he’s standing up for his culture, something you cannot relate to because, what? You are not a Latina, you’re a Spaniard.” The user also said Rosalía had “benefited from the Latino culture, so you should be able to stand up for it, but it does not surprise me that you’re just like… ‘Not my circus, not my monkeys.’”
Rosalía posted a comment in response to that video (though it seems to have since been deleted), saying, “Hey, I understand your point of view but I think it’s being taken out of context” (translated from Spanish). She said she had “nothing but love and respect for” Bad Bunny, called him a “great colleague” and collaborator, and noted that, through knowing him, she understands “better why he does his projects the way he does.”
She added, “I’ve always been grateful to Latin America because, despite coming from another place, the Latin people have always supported me throughout my career and I empathize with what you’re explaining. Precisely for that reason, it saddens me that this is being misinterpreted because that wasn’t the intention.”
Lux marks Rosalía’s fourth studio album and first full-length since 2022’s Motomami. For those curious, she uses 14 languages on the album, including Spanish, Catalan, English, Japanese, Latin, Italian, German, Ukrainian, Arabic, Sicilian, French, Mandarin, Hebrew, and Portuguese.
