If you’re looking for evidence that the music industry moves in mysterious ways, consider what’s just happened to British-Canadian singer-songwriter Matt Maltese.
Speaking to The Guardian, Maltese tells the tale of how a song that he co-wrote with some friends a few years ago has ended up on Lux, the much-talked-about new album from Rosaliá, without him really knowing how.
Maltese explains that the song in question, Magnolias, in which he imagines his own funeral, was written about three years ago. “I didn’t think anything of it, and then two years later, we heard some quite bizarre whispers that Rosalía had somehow heard it,” he says.
Then, six months ago, Maltese received a demo of Rosaliá’s version, but there was still no confirmation that it would be released. His hopes were raised when the Spanish star began teasing Lux with a blurred-out tracklisting that appeared to include the word ‘Magnolias’, but he found out for sure at the same time as everyone else: when he got to hear the song on the day the album was released.
“It’s exquisite,” he says. “It’s a gift from someone, somewhere, that it fell into her lap.”
Indeed it is, and hopefully a welcome payday for Maltese, who began his career in 2015 by posting songs on SoundCloud and would later be signed and then dropped by Atlantic Records. He got a boost in 2021 when a 2017 single, As The World Caves In, blew up on TikTok, and has gone on to write with the likes of Joy Crookes and Celeste.
Rosaliá, meanwhile, is currently riding very high indeed. Lux has received rave reviews and operatic lead single Berghain, which features Björk and Yves Tumor, has given her an unlikely hit.
