How do you stage an album like Motomami? Released in March, it put the pedal to the metal on Rosalia’s ride to international stardom. Her third record was a syncretic triumph: a mercurial combination of reggaeton, bachata, salsa, flamenco, hip-hop, electro-pop, Latin-pop, pop-pop – all bundled up in a padded leather motorcycle jacket. It swept the Latin Grammys earlier this year. But all those influences: how would they coalesce in a cavernous arena? Remarkably, it turns out.
Rosalia arrives on stage at Lisbon’s Campo Pequeno in fitting fashion, her presence preceded by the thunderous sound of an engine starting. The crowd follows suit, roaring to life. Rosalia emerges out of a makeshift vehicle; it’s a cohort of dancers, dressed in slinky mesh tops and light-up helmets, who move as one. At another point in the show, they contort themselves into a motorcycle that Rosalia straddles. Think Transformers but sexy. The set opens as the album does, with “Saoko”. It’s a skull-rattling introduction, the avant-jazz interlude, distorted piano and synth bassline spotlighting the mutability of her music and of Rosalia herself. “I’m very much me; I transform,” she declares. “I’m everything; I transform.”
