Earlier this year, Spanish singer Rosalía shocked the world with “Motomami,” an album that includes sounds from flamenco to new pereo. A few months later, the dates for the MOTOMAMI WORLD TOUR were announced, and Boston became the first U.S. city to experience the show.
A large group of people, dressed in latex, red, white and black leather and matching boots, stood on the floor waiting for the lights to go out. Suddenly, a white screen flashed, and the picture of a butterfly and the words “Yuanjian” appeared. The countdown has begun, and at 9:30 pm, the time is up.
The lights flicker.strong devout Filled the room like a Charli XCX song. Rosalía and her dancers then entered the room, making robotic sounds as they walked, body facing the floor, arms loose, and helmets decorated with white “M”s. They stopped center stage, and Rosalía stood up, showing off a blue custom Dion Lee motorcycle-inspired outfit she’d be wearing all night. Behind her, three large screens displayed the Motomami logo, and Rosalía took off her helmet.
The first song is “SAOKO,” an ode to Wisin and the Yankee Dad’s old-school reggae “Saoko.” But aside from being danceable, its heavy industrial sound makes it edgy. Immediately afterwards, the slow and sweet reggae-bop “CANDY” begins, and every broken heart in the room can shout “PERO DE OLVIARTE YO YA HICE UN ARTE…” [but I already mastered forgetting you]. This is a great start to Wonbo’s world tour, as both songs have a very strong melody and are recognized by the public.
However, we are not ready for the third track “BIZCOCHITO”.
On one of the original Motomami shows, Rosalía made a funny gesture and body pose at the beginning of the song, which was eventually copied as a meme on social media. After that performance, no doubt every fan wanted to watch (or record) that iconic moment. Like “Abcdefg,” it’s a one-minute solo piece of the Rosalia alphabet that users of the internet are reinventing their way through.
It’s safe to say that Boston rocked the night, as Rosalía’s hits like “CHICKEN TERIYAKI”, “Con Altura” and the highly anticipated “BIZCOCHITO” were very energetic and danceable tracks! Of course, the dancers on stage largely contributed to the show’s blend of human movements and heavy electronic sounds.
The setup is just the dance troupe moving on a static stage with a blank background and two screens projecting what was recorded by the photographers on stage. And that’s where the magic happens. After playing with the public, the camera follows Rosa slowly to the back of the stage. Suddenly, “MOTOMAMI” started playing and people were hyped because it was time for dancers to make human motorcycles.
To this end, the photographer depicts the sensuality of the dancer in a mid-panoramic angle. Then Rosalia gets on a motorcycle looking like a badass rider with wind in her hair. The screen behind her lights up, making it look like she’s riding in the desert. Getting the audience to play with optics makes technology an essential part of the show.
Time to talk technology, because when Rosa sings “La Noche de Anoche,” she’s been known to walk off stage and record people singing with a device that looks like an iPhone (actually!). Super protective selfie stick and phone case. Also, in “CHICKEN TERIYAKI”, the dance team rode scooters all over the stage while holding phones as if they were recording themselves and fooling around.
When I say technology – or, indeed, media – is crucial to this concert, I mean Rosalía playing the piano on stage, with the iconic Windows XP background behind her, camera recording her as An iPhone! It all makes her feel like she’s just a dude recording herself for YouTube or any other social media.
After a lot of dancing and gorgeous visuals, it was time for Rosalía to show off her powerful voice. My personal favorites are “BULERÍAS,” a strong new flamenco track that includes great dance performances; “G3 N15”, a gospel ballad where Rosa talks about being estranged from her family due to quarantine ; and “DELIRIO DE GRANDEZA”, an arrangement of the Bolero-Cuban singer Justo Betancourt’s song of the same name. She ended up doing a cover of the famous old-school reggae song “Perdoname,” and even playing guitar and reciting the lovely “Dolerme” after paying homage to the Berklee College of Music students, which she emphasizes hearing all along while studying in Catalonia.
However, the real masterpiece – as the most anticipated and controversial song – is the art pop piano ballad “HENTAI (<3)".
It’s a very controversial song because Rosalía sings: “Te quiero Ride como a mi bike, hazme un tape modo peak” [I wanna ride you like my bike, make me a tape like Spike (Jones)] While playing sweet piano music. The song appears to depict a transition from innocence to maturity, including themes like “purity” and “virginity” and wanting to evolve into adulthood: real sex, no fantasy. “HENTAI” is popular because the sound of the piano and Rosalía is Great, in addition, she includes gunshots and very Arca-type sounds to make the song even more beautiful. This is a masterpiece.
Finally, Rosalia recited her “Abcdefg,” saying that the “B” now stands for Boston. She then performed two of my personal favorites: “LA COMBI VERSACE,” a mix of neo-perreo (futuristic reggae, damn), and ended the show with “CUUUUuuuuute,” a song deconstructed through the mix Club, heavy music to transcend the music wall repertoire samba, and even piano ballad moments. iconic.
From her subversive music production, cyberpunk style, and minimalist performance ideas, Rosalía has shown the world that she is edgy, or at this point, just art itself.
I will definitely be reviewing the full album soon!