“They love you, we love you.” The beginning couldn’t have been clearer. Even though we had to wait until almost 1 a.m. (12:48 a.m., exactly, since it opened on Monday), New York time, to be able to see the highly anticipated Rosalía on Jimmy Fallon’s late-night show on NBC, the singer’s 20 minutes in show They were worth it. In them Fallon paid tribute to the author of Lux. The Catalan singer was the main guest Tonight’s showwhich this Sunday created a special program on the occasion of a national football championship match. Dressed in white, with her usual halo in her hair, long and loose, Rosalía remained with the speech, the presenter and the audience. Furthermore, the artist also performed singing The pearlone of the main songs of their album.
First, Fallon announced his presence during an earlier commercial break for the network (which, in addition to the game, featured news, as if midnight wasn’t enough). Already at the announcement we could hear the crazy screams of the audience. And then, finally, he spoke to her. «Welcome back», greeted her Fallon, who had already interviewed her in 2022, after declaring his love for her, and then congratulating her on her “record” album, “number four on Billboard”, referring to her good position in the list that predominates when it comes to making calculations for artists in the United States, and in whose top 5 the Spaniard places herself for the first time, enthusiastic about the result. Fallon also read her a bunch of very positive reviews about the newest launch, making her blush.
The presenter was surprised by the fact that Rosalía used “so many classical references”. “Yes, there are many,” he said. «I had the idea, I was sure of it, it took me three years, but yes», acknowledging that she gets nervous not so much when she records it or in the studio, but when she shows it to the public. She also said that she played some instruments herself, but that although she played the guitar as a child and started playing the piano at 16, her “main instrument is the voice”.
The host also highlighted the singer’s ability to play claps with ease, which surprised her. Although he tried to produce a certain sound with his hands – at which he could not help laughing, and then commented: “Well, we won’t judge anyone” – she taught him to play the rhythms with the palms of his hands or on the table, which he, with little art, tried to imitate, obviously without much success. “In Jerez, in Jerez de la Frontera they do it great, beautiful. You have to go,” he told her in English. And he was happy to offer to come.
“You sing in 13 languages. 13 languages! How many languages do you speak?” he asked. “I speak Catalan, which is my mother’s language, Spanish and a little English,” the artist said, actually in English. So why try them all? “Because I love learning,” he acknowledged. “I wanted to learn different languages. I practice with Duolingo. And I want to do more, so while I was deciding what the concept was, I was learning about cultures, spiritualities… from all over the world,” she said, explaining how she studied hagiographies and “a lot of women from all over the world” and placed them on a map. “Depending on the story I wanted to tell, I did it in one language or another. I used Google Translate a lot!”, he confessed to each other, laughing. “And then I wrote 20 different verse options, sent them to a suitable translator, brought them back, changed things, recorded them, sent them to have the pronunciation corrected…” he rattled off.
“But you sing authentically. I don’t know how you do it. You’re a phenomenon. With this, you broke it,” Fallon praised her on set, graciously thanking the singer. “What’s the secret?” She replied, “Do you want to learn? There are songs that are harder than others, but I can teach you.” Rosalía forced the presenter to get up and come closer, because “posture is important”. “You need to be loose, your body needs to be loose, and now we’re going to warm up,” she advised him. Then she started going up the stairs with him and warming herself with her lips.
The ease with which Rosalía sang, raising and lowering the keys, as if it were simple and natural, seemed harder on Fallon’s mouth. And what’s more, he made it sing The Pearlone of the main successes of Lux. In Spanish, previously it was enough to pronounce it; then sing it. “Okay, but you have to be loose,” he said, laughing. He made him repeat the chorus three times, the last time with a microphone and as the audience approached the set. They had recorded it at a more decent hour, around four in the afternoon.
“Your breath smells like garlic.”
The surgery lasted about 15 minutes, divided into two parts. The first was more about interviewing and singing together. In it, Fallon also asked him about his role in the series Euphoriain whose third season, which is finishing filming, she participated as an actress. Of course, she didn’t reveal what her role is: “No, we can’t say yet,” said the singer, inserting a few sentences in Spanish: “I had to split my head in two,” she commented on the difficulty of combining the two projects, stating that it was “a good challenge.”
In the second, the shortest segment, they cheered themselves up with a game from the program: “Seduction, insult or nonsense.” She would choose a card, with a phrase in Spanish, and he would decide which one it was. The first, for example, was: “I think you’re wearing your wig backwards.” She read it in a seductive voice. He, of course, had no idea what it was about; so much so that he asked him to repeat it. The audience’s laughter made it clear where the shots were going. Instead he said: “I think it’s seductive.” Mistake. The next one was “I want to eat your mouth”. She yelled it at him and, of course, he said, “It’s not seductive mouthfrom my mouth.” Failed. The next was: “Take a nice scooter and go after the cactus.” There, thanks to gestures, he saw how not seductive a scooter was.
“Your breath smells like garlic,” she told him, sexy. “Willy?“, he said, because “it stinks”.“E under?”, he tried to ask. “You look seductive… but it wasn’t. “It’s an insult!” he guessed. “Give me peanut butter, I want to dance,” he continued. “Seductive? Again?” Once again I fail. And the last one: “You’re like a cloud of toasted candy, warm and inviting, but I’m afraid of burning myself.” Too long for Fallon’s basic level of Spanish. The audience couldn’t hold back their laughter and she tried to silence them, without even managing to hold back her smile. “Nonsense!”. Error again.
Finally, and after another interview with musician DJ Khaled, the performance came. It was almost half past one in the morning. Dressed, again, in white, with a satin and tulle dress, first lying down and then sitting, she interpreted The Pearl. As often happens on American television and radio, when an insult is heard it is usually covered up, which is why the word “bastard” was eliminated with a whistle.
Rosalía, perched on half a dozen mattresses, like a pea princess (from underneath, in fact, she pulled out a large pearl, as in the classic story), was accompanied by twenty musicians and choristers. “And that’s how it’s done!” concluded a surrendered Fallon. “Rosalia! ¡Lux It’s on sale now!
