Having become the greatest musical phenomenon of her generation, Rosalía is officially back and more in shape than ever. The Catalan singer has just introduced to the world her latest track, Berghain, which is the lead single from her upcoming album, Lux, set to be released on November 7. The result? An unexpected, chaotic, dramatic and orchestral song that has left us speechless and is accompanied by an enigmatic music video that is already making social media boil with theories and rumors about its hidden meanings.
Berghain, whose music video is shot in Warsaw under the direction of Nicolás Méndez, is accompanied by the prestigious London Symphony Orchestra and features the collaboration of singer-songwriter Björk and American experimental musician Yves Tumor. It is not the first time Rosalía has worked with the Icelandic artist, as the two released their joint track Oral in 2023, as part of a campaign to combat cage farming in open-net fish farms in Iceland.
The title of this track, which has millions of plays in its first hours of life, nods to one of the most famous clubs in Berlin and a pilgrimage site for lovers of experimental electronic music, where entry is very difficult. But in contrast to this idea, throughout the song there are predominantly string arrangements and the presence of a chorus that reinforce the mystical tone of the composition, in which a Rosalía dressed as Snow White sings in German with a soprano range.
The Theories Surrounding the Berghain Music Video
In the video, of an extremely surreal nature, Rosalía appears first surrounded by orchestra musicians and then by a motley collection of animals as she moves from her apartment to a crowded bus, a jewelry store, and a doctor’s appointment. Columbia, her record label, describes the track as “the grand central orchestral piece of an operatic journey through languages and emotions” that “expands from gentle introspection to overwhelming cinematic power.”
The introduction of the song presents Rosalía in a new light: singing opera in German alongside an orchestra. Next, the classical music dramatically wanes, leaving space for lyrics such as: “I know very well what I am / Sweetness for coffee / I am only a sugar cube / I know I melt in the heat / I disappear / When you come, that is when I go.”
Visually, the music video follows Rosalía through her day: drinking coffee, making the bed, ironing, and riding a bus. Toward the end of the video, she enters a Snow White-inspired universe as Björk, in bird form, sings in German and English. A few sequences that blend the real and the dreamlike have already been interpreted in very different ways, although social networks have agreed to credit the interpretation by user @Hisoka85, who has gone viral for finding a logic to this seemingly incongruous story.
Her theory is that Rosalía “portrays a woman with a broken heart,” represented by a jewel, “to which doctors (the jeweler) do not give any hope of recovery.” The orchestra following her everywhere “are her intrusive thoughts of despair.” When she returns home “after the bad news, she feels like Snow White in the woods, lost, and the sugar cube is her life burning away quickly.” The final bars of the song “are also those of her heart, until it fails and her soul rises like a dove.”
Sister Rosalía and Her Striking Nun Image
Days before the official release of Rosalía’s new track, the author of El Mal Querer made an impact on her networks with an image dressed as a nun to announce her new album. “We have an album,” she wrote alongside the striking photograph which, of course, has also given rise to a torrent of interpretations. A giant poster of the novitiate Rosalía appeared at the same time in New York, right in Times Square. Certainly, a departure from her Motomami era.
The singer, dressed as a nun on the cover of her new album.
Some theories revolve around the interpretation of religiosity and spirituality in the modern era by the Barcelonan, while some even suggest that the habit could actually be a straitjacket, representing the tension between calm, faith and the inner struggle of a character. Others point out that the album could be an introspective project, relying on religious iconography and quotes from mystics and philosophers such as Rabia al-Adawiyya and Simone Weil.
Not surprisingly, and as indicated on her website, in this work the music superstar will explore themes such as “the feminine mysticism, transformation and spirituality” tracing the arc between illusion and loss, faith and individuality. That idea is also reflected on the back cover of Lux, where she is shown nude with her body on a cross.
