With LUX, Rosalía makes an ambitious turn toward the sacred: orchestral colors, choral textures, and a dense web of Catholic and mystical references. In Spanish-language press and broadcast interviews, she frames the album around feminine mysticism, multilingual homage to historic women, and a personal quest for the divine. This feature synthesizes those interviews and critical coverage to explain what LUX is doing musically, visually, and spiritually—and why it matters for European pop now.
What LUX Sets Out to Do
Rosalía describes LUX as emerging from years of reading lives of saints and exploring how different cultures conceive sanctity. In a press conference covered by El País (México), she said the record is “inspired by the feminine mystic,” pairing classical and experimental forms with lyrics that wrestle with the earthly and the divine. Spain’s public broadcaster echoes that framing, calling the album “a symphony for the mass of the future” in its launch guide: RTVE’s explainer underlines themes of transformation, faith and posterity.
International coverage is consistent: Le Monde frames LUX as a deeply spiritual, structurally “oratorio-like” project, with orchestras and choirs, and songs delivered in multiple languages.
Religious Imagery and Feminine Mysticism—In Rosalía’s Own Words
“The feminine mystic is the guide”
Across Spanish interviews, Rosalía ties each language and song to a female spiritual figure or a tradition. In Latin American press, she details how tracks reference saints and mystics beyond Catholicism—an approach also noted by Spanish music media. For instance, a pre-release conversation highlighted that the album materials even cite Rabia al-Adawiyya and Simone Weil; see Jenesaispop’s interview/Popcast preview. This interfaith lens is central: not a single creed, but a comparative journey through sanctity as a human possibility.
“Earthly imperfection vs. divine perfection”
Rosalía repeatedly contrasts human work (imperfect, finite) with the idea of the divine (perfect, unreachable). The tension animates songs that touch grief, devotion and doubt, and it’s a useful key for hearing LUX as an album about striving rather than certainty.
Humor and provocation inside devotion
Her play with perspective in Dios es un stalker is intentionally tongue-in-cheek—writing “in the first person of God” as an absurd, poetic device. A Colombian interview captures this tone crisply; see El Tiempo’s Q&A, which also records her view that listeners will interpret “who God is in LUX” in their own way.
The Visual Theology of LUX
The white habit seen in billboards and launch visuals is not meant as cheap provocation, Rosalía has stressed, but as a symbol of commitment—channeling the language of vows toward her craft. That symbolism was front and center at the Madrid and New York unveilings and in Spanish media’s launch-day explanations (El País video analysis).
Structure and Sound: How the Music Carries the Sacred
- Orchestral/choral palette: Reviews point to large-scale arrangements with symphony and choir—liturgical colors set inside modern pop forms (see RTVE’s guide).
- Multilingual devotion: A core conceit of LUX is singing in many languages, each chosen for the woman or tradition evoked (Joán of Arc; St. Olga of Kyiv; Sufi and other lines—see El País (México) and Jenesaispop).
- Texts that pray and play: Lyric readings published in Spain unpack the double registers—sacred and secular—running through tracks like De madrugá and Dios es un stalker; a clear example is Europa FM’s song-by-song explainer.
Primary Interviews in Spanish (Video & Radio)
Below are some of the Spanish-language appearances that illuminate the spiritual scaffolding of the album. The first four were shared by our reader:
What Changes—From Motomami to LUX
Where Motomami played with pop spectacle and fragmentation, LUX substitutes stamina, ceremony and comparative spirituality. The risks are clear—less obvious hooks, more rarefied textures—but the payoff is a pop work that asks to be listened to as a rite. Spanish coverage notes this pivot explicitly: see HuffPost España’s review.
Why It Matters (for Europe’s Cultural Conversation)
In European context, LUX lands at the intersection of memory and modernity: a secular public square wrestling (again) with religious language. By reframing sacred symbols through a female lens and contemporary composition, Rosalía shows that pop can convene a plural conversation about devotion, doubt and identity without collapsing into catechism or parody. For a broader view on how popular music engages belief, see our earlier feature on music and religion (The European Times).
