Rosalía: ‘We all want love – brotherly love, divine love, carnal love’

We all want love. We long for it, we pine, we ache, we’re consumed by our desire for it. It’s a drive that has always been inherent to the human condition, though recently yearning has become somewhat of a cultural buzzword thanks to a wave of art exploring the emotion. Yearning has dominated what we’re watching (Heated Rivalry, Summer I Turned Pretty, Wuthering Heights) and what we’re listening to, from Mitski and Sophia Stel to Rosalia’s transcendental latest album, LUX, which was released to rapturous reaction last November. 

“LUX is an album where there’s this feeling of longing, this feeling of searching. And I think we are all somehow always searching, looking for something, whatever it is,” Rosalia tells Dazed on why she thinks the album has resonated so deeply with people. “Todos queremos amor, amor en differentes formas: amor fraternal, amor divino, amor carnal. [We all want love, love in different forms: brotherly love, divine love, carnal love]. In the end, the mystical is the experience in its most intense form, abandoning yourself to the experience. I created LUX from an absolute curiosity to better understand concepts like ecstasy, surrender, mystery and the otherness, and through doing that, maybe understand better my own human experience.” 

Since its release, Rosalía has been enjoying that rare combination of critical and commercial success, breaking streaming records and achieving universal acclaim from music critics. And now she’s set to have one of her biggest years yet. Later this month, she embarks on a world tour for LUX, while in April, she’ll be making her acting debut in the much-anticipated season three of Euphoria. “I love any excuse to learn from anybody I admire,” she says of working with Sam Levinson on the project. “What is all this crazy life for, otherwise? I think it is to crack a few jokes and have random experiences with incredible minds that expand your own.”

Rosalía has also just been announced as the face of Calvin Klein’s new Euphoria Elixirs, a collection of three intense, vanilla-inspired fragrances with fruity, musky and woody notes. In the Carlijn Jacobs-shot campaign, the musician embodies the feminine, sensual and confident spirit of the scents as she performs against a colourful, surreal backdrop. Fresh off her performance and win at the Brit Awards this weekend, Dazed spoke to Rosalía about feminine mysticism, making her acting debut and what to expect from her upcoming world tour.

What smells remind you the most of making LUX? 

Rosalía: Jacaranda, new notebooks, old books, dates, argan, gasoline, neumático quemado [burnt tire], vanilla, cigarros [cigarettes], palo santo, freshly beaten butter and brown sugar, sweat, tears, blood, permanent marker, thumbtacks, cacao, popcorn, the smell of the corroded metal on gym weights, lip gloss and pimentón.  

At the centre of LUX is feminine mysticism, and you studied the lives of female saints and their hagiographies. What part does feminine mysticism play in your own life?

Rosalía: Mysticism has been the main inspiration since I began building the universe of LUX. Phrases like that of Rabia Al Adawiyya where she says: ‘No woman ever claimed to be God’; ‘I am not afraid, I was born to do this’ by Joan of Arc, or ‘Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire,’ from Catherine of Siena. They are always in my head and accompany me during my day, while I have breakfast, do my hair or arrange my room. 

You’ve been wearing a bleached halo in your hair since the release of the album. Is it a way of keeping the saints close to you? 

Rosalía: Ojalá! [Hopefully!]

The LUX world tour starts in March – what can fans expect from the show? How has it been translating the album into a live performance?  

Rosalía: Que me gusta a mi meterme en lios [I like getting into trouble]! I love a maze!  

It’s definitely challenging to translate such a maximalist musical proposal into stage values, but I’m having fun experimenting with that. I love the operatic, the drama, a wig here and there and a little bit of fantasy. But I don’t want to make too many promises at this point because I’m still in rehearsals: in that process of trial and error, and we’ll have to see where it all ends up. I didn’t think twice about whether to go on tour with LUX or not. Even though the tour life is so hard and you can so easily become mentally unstable, I think it’s worth it for two main reasons: to share with my fans and to try to get lucky and find truth on stage. 

You are in the upcoming season of Euphoria. Sam Levinson described your natural instincts when acting as ‘fascinating, charismatic and funny’. How did you find the creative process of acting and its differences from music?

Rosalía: I’m glad that my struggle to survive on an American film set ended up translating into me being funny on camera, because girl… that wasn’t easy! My first job acting on a series and its Euphoria? I have always performed on stage, but this was scary in a very, very different way. 

In music, I’m the director, I call the shots, I’m on everything from the biggest thing to the smallest. I build my own structure, rhythm and scenario. In Euphoria, it’s the opposite, but I decided to put myself in the service of Sam’s vision because I love the way he creates, and I love any excuse to learn from anybody I admire. What is all this crazy life for, otherwise? I think it is to crack a few jokes and have random experiences with incredible minds that expand your own. 

What was the hardest scene or moment for your character to act?

Rosalía: The lounge scenes with Zendaya. I can’t give you more tea for now, but… it goes down. 

Which of the Euphoria fragrances would your character wear? 

Rosalía: [Bold Elixir], big time.

If you could collaborate on a song with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be? 

Rosalía: My favourite artists mostly are dead, so those collabs will never happen, and I’m definitely not doing no posthumous collabs, fuck that. You’re not supposed to fuck with dead people. When I’m dead, I hope nobody tryna do no features with me neither [laughs].

Last year, you were reading I Love Dick by Chris Kraus. What is on your reading list this year? 

Rosalía: In my purse, I have a couple of books: One is La Novia Grulla de C.J Hauser and The Diaries of Anaïs Nin. It’s like reading an old blogger’s posts, era tremenda.

You’ve done fashion campaigns with Calvin Klein and are now working with them on fragrance. Why do you feel so creatively connected to the brand?  

Rosalía: It’s such an iconic brand, I think that’s something we all can agree on without doubt. Since their great work in the 90s up to this day, I admire so much what they have built as a brand and how it is enduring through time.  

How was the experience of filming the campaign? Do you have any standout memories from the day? 

Rosalía: Carlijn Jacobs is a beast! She’s fast AF, fresh, communicative, direct; she hypes you up as soon as she holds the camera. She’s literally like a sniper and has such a clear vision. I also have so much energy, sometimes too much [laughs]. Como un potro salvaje [like a wild colt], I need things to move fast and finish quickly. I think she picked up on that right away, and we flowed through it together. 

What do the Euphoria fragrances smell like to you? 

Rosalía: The yellow one [Solar Elixir] is your cousin making a mango crepe for you on a bad day. The purple one [Bold Elixir] is a note you had the balls to write and hand to someone you don’t know yet. The red one [Magnetic Elixir] is a kiss on a bridge that’s on fire. 

Is fragrance an important part of your self-expression? 

Rosalía: Absolutely, I don’t think I’ve found that one fragrance I’ll wear for the rest of my life yet, and honestly, I’m grateful for that because it keeps me curious, always searching, and excited to discover new scents for as long as I live! Identity is such a fractal thing anyway.

Is scent important to your creative process? Do you have different scents for when you are creating the music or when you are performing?  

Rosalía: I’ve never started a song from a scent or a specific smell, but actually, now thinking about it, I am not opposed to the idea… anything can be an excuse to start a song [laughs].

Calvin Klein Euphoria Elixirs are available now for purchase here.