Rosalía's LUX show is a transcendental celebration of the arts

Released last year to conceptual acclaim, LUX is Rosalía’s highly conceptual work that explores female saints, delving deep into medieval histories and even further back in time. Onstage at London’s O2 Arena, the album is translated gloriously - packed with easter eggs that reference the works of Goya and Da Vinci, Hellenistic sculptures and classical architecture.

Yet there are biographical elements to Rosalia’s own journey that also make the show feel so clever: take the smoking light installation that swings above her during "CUUUUuuuuuute", which nods to the Santiago de Compostela botafumeiro, a liturgical incense burner that dates back to the Middle Ages, which Rosalía herself would have seen on her teenage pilgrimage.

While on record, LUX requires an academic deep dive into the sources and citations to fully appreciate both the range of lyrics and the music - "Berghain" at once references Mike Tyson and German opera - the live show doesn’t need to be studied to be understood. There are moments of levity - the famous confessional booth before "La Perla" sees Lola Young tells of an accidentally-synced bluetooth speaker exposing a two-timing lover.

Her cover of Frankie Valli’s "Can’t Take My Eyes Off You" - which she sings in frame as a throwback to the Mona Lisa - is probably the weaker moment of such an intellectually stimulating set, and a song choice that doesn’t totally integrate into the flow of the show. She also appears to dumb down her English during crowd banter - listen to her interview with Zane Lowe just six months ago and she elaborately explains how the Qur'anic verse by a Sufi saint inspired "La Yugular" - so these jokes feel unnecessarily slapstick (perhaps done to promote her her heavily-accented Euphoria character?). This is a woman who is known for her deftness in languages far more complicated than our own, after all.

Yet in general,LUX is a thrilling live experience, where tracks like "Divinize", "Magnolias" and "La Yugular" soar to ethereal heights onstage, demonstrating the sheer skill of Rosalia’s vocal range and ingenuity of the classical compositions of each song. Motomami tracks also make a welcome appearance - "La Combi Versace" is moody and atmospheric, "Saoko" injects the crowd with a momentous pulse of energy. El Mal Querer is sadly absent from the set - surely there would have been an opportunity for a little bit of "Malamente"?

There is an urgency to watching this show at this time - beyond the now overblown Chalamet quote on appreciation of opera and ballet - but about global culture and arts outside of the Anglo-speaking world that continues to dominate discourse on pop culture. None of Rosalía’s saints are English - they are Spanish, German, Greek, Arabic, Indian - and the languages that pepper this performance and metaphorical cues present across the songs are a journey into these root cultures shown with respect and admiration.

The team behind this tour is also a reflection of this wider appreciation of global arts and the cultural richness of Rosalía’s expansive world: Greek director Dimitris Papaioannou was tasked with artistic direction, Marseille outfit La Horde are behind the contemporary ballet choreographies, Spanish flamenco consultant José Maya steers the live exploration of her root genre, while Cuban conductor Yudania Gómez Heredia has proved an audience favourite.

LUX proves that Rosalia is on a different level to any other pop star, able to defiantly return to her classical, European roots to break all precedent in pop. She’s not cosplaying a Latina here like so many other Spanish artists do (and she herself has done previously), nor is she trying to follow the trends set by the Los Angeles industry machine. Onstage at the LUX world tour, she is an artist from Spain, who once walked the Santiago de Compostela, in keeping with the traditions of her country. Gracias a Dios.