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Rosalía Returns To Her Roots With 'Juro Que'

Today, Rosalía is back with her first release of 2020. After putting out a quarterly stream of pop radio-facing singles in 2019 — "Con Altura," "Aute Cuture," "Milionària," "A Palé" and "Yo x Ti, Tu x Mi" — "Juro Que" re-centers her flamenco roots.

It feels silly to say that an artist who's only been active for a few years has returned to form, but this strategy helped to elevate her profile from surprise critical darling to unmitigated global superstar. (Her well-received sophomore album, El Mal Querer, put her on Western media's radar at the end of 2018.) In the process, Barcelona's biggest name dropped the genre-shifting, flamenco-fusion sound that made everyone sit up and pay attention in the first place.

"Juro Que" favors acoustic guitar over trap-inflected pop production, reassuring that Rosalía's artistry is still rooted in the Andalusia region of Spain — although discussion of whether her music should be folded under the umbrella of Latin music is still hotly debated. This is also her first video to feature English subtitles — a savvy move that recognizes her success in the U.S. market.

Rosalía will perform this Sunday, Jan. 26, at the 2020 Grammy Awards — a ceremony that has been beleaguered with controversy over the last week.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Corrected: February 19, 2020 at 12:00 AM EST
A previous version of this story described Rosalía's music as rooted in the Catalonia region of Spain. In fact, her work is rooted in the music of Andalusia, and borrows from Romani culture.
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