In November 2025, Rosalía, the GRAMMY® Award-winning singer, songwriter, and producer, released LUX, an immersive and innovative body of work that stretched creativity into new worlds. The rollout stunned and engaged fans all over the world. Now, after her recent performance on Saturday Night Live at the conclusion of her world tour, LUX and Rosalía continue to turn heads with music that will leave a cultural impact on the industry for years to come.
LUX, which means light in Latin, embodies Rosalía’s decades of training in flamenco, classical sounds, and opera references. She sings in 14 different languages, including Spanish, Catalan, English, German, Latin, Italian, Ukrainian, Japanese, Arabic, Sicilian, Mandarin, Hebrew, Portuguese, and French, turning the album into a true piece of art. Over the year, it has received critical acclaim from major music publications, including a 5-star review from Rolling Stone.
What isn’t talked about as much is how meticulous and prescriptive Rosalía was with the history behind each song. When asked in interviews how she’d describe the album, she called it the “emotional arc of feminine mystique, transformation, and transcendence.”
LUX was written through the inspiration of female saints seen across cultural history. I did some research to truly understand the story behind each song, and Instagram user @a1234music published a fantastic series on the history of some of the saints mentioned throughout the album, highlighted below.
“Berghain,” the lead single featuring Björk, pairs the darker edges of goth-pop and electronic music with the sweep of operatic and baroque arrangements. Its inspiration was Hildegard von Bingen, a 12th-century German composer, abbess, and visionary best known for her divine visions. She described one as “Heaven was opening and fiery light of exceeding brilliance came and permeated my whole brain and inflamed my whole heart.” Rosalía used this quote to transform the turmoil of her own emotional journey and loss of identity into German lyrics representing her realization and rebirth. She performed “Berghain” at the 2026 Brit Awards, a historic performance that turned a lot of heads and sparked conversations within the classical and opera worlds.
“Reliquia,” which translates to relic, was inspired by Santa Rosa de Lima, a 16th–17th-century Peruvian saint from a noble family. She used the money from her own embroidery work to feed the poor and nurse the sick, always putting others ahead of herself. After her passing, her relics were split up around the world. In the song, Rosalía takes a piece of her own heart and turns it into a relic for her lover to carry wherever they go. Her SNL performance continued to showcase the thought behind each song, with Rosalía singing en pointe, as she did on tour.
Other female saints appear throughout the album. Saint Olga of Kyiv, featured in “De Madrugada,” became ruler of the region when her husband was murdered, and avenged his death. Rosalía’s lyrics mention Olga’s revenge, and how it seeks her rather than the other way around.
“La Yugular,” sung in Arabic, highlights Rabia Basri, one of the earliest Sufi mystics and a leading religious figure in Iraq, expressing the idea that we are all one soul. “Sauvignon Blanc” features Saint Teresa of Ávila, as Rosalía renounces material possessions, echoing the saint’s decision to let go of worldly things before following another path. Hidden in the physical album is “Jeanne,” inspired by none other than Joan of Arc and sung in French.
“Magnolia,” the second song performed on SNL and the final song on the album, was inspired by the Hindu mystic Anandamayi Ma, known as the embodiment of devotion and love. Her teachings broke through religious barriers, drawing Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, and more from around the world to hear her speak. When she passed, flowers were placed at her funeral, bringing peace and the joy of celebrating life. This led Rosalía to wonder what her own burial would be like, seeing it as a similar celebration. A goosebump-inducing, chilling ending to a true masterpiece.
This is just scratching the surface of the rich history of female saints that inspired Rosalía throughout the album. The more you come back to it, the more layers you find. Call it a classical album, a pop album, or avant-pop, but Rosalía has raised the bar, and I’m excited to see how LUX takes shape at the 2027 GRAMMY Awards.
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