Madonna’s New Favorite Album Mirrors the Masterpiece That Became Her Greatest Album of All Time
Everyone knows Madonna. The influential “Queen of Pop” has been making headlines since her career took off in the eighties, generating hits like “Material Girl,” “Vogue,” and “Hung Up.” The artist, born Madonna Louise Ciccone, has also formed relationships with countless fellow music icons, from collaborations with the likes of Ricky Martin and Britney Spears to feuds with Drake and Elton John. But the bond garnering the most attention these days is Ciccone’s open admiration for Rosalía, who just released her third album, Lux.
Lux has been hailed as a groundbreaking, generation-defining work of art by fans and critics alike, garnering rave reviews from outlets like Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, and Slant. The impressive oeuvre is a stylistic departure for Rosalía, defying the norms of pop music by incorporating religious themes, classical music, and lyrics in 13 different languages. Through both its use of Catholic imagery and its iconoclastic style, Lux bears much similarity to Madonna’s early work—particularly “Like a Virgin” and “Like a Prayer,” which drew from similar sources of inspiration and had a lasting impact on popular music.
Madonna Is a Longtime Fan of Rosalía
Rosalia Vila Tobella, known simply as Rosalía, spent decades honing her musicianship before she became the global sensation she is today. In particular, she studied Spanish flamenco for several years, incorporating the distinctive style into her baccalaureate project when she graduated from the Catalonia College of Music. The self-funded project told the story of The Romance of Flamenca, an anonymous 13th century Occitanian novel, through an album that incorporated flamenco, pop, and urban sounds. Entitled El Mal Querer, the album became a success worldwide and opened opportunities for Rosalía to work with Latino talents like J. Balvin, Bad Bunny, and Ozuna, as well as American stars like Travis Scott and James Blake.
Even at this early stage in Rosalía’s career, Madonna was an outspoken fan. In an interview with Los 40 Principales, the singer admitted that she’d tried to book Rosalía for her birthday party in Morocco well before the Spanish artist went mainstream. She said, “At that time, nobody knew who she was, and I thought I had discovered someone.” Although the gig never panned out, Ciccone remained insistent that Rosalía was a once-in-a-generation talent, gushing, “I admire her because, in a world full of pop stars that sound the same and look the same, I feel that she is truly unique and true to herself. I like it. There is something special about her.”
Now, amid Rosalía’s Lux era, Madonna remains a staunch fan. Two days before the album dropped on November 7, the icon had the opportunity to give it an early listen. On an Instagram story, she posted Lux’s album cover, which features an image of Rosalía in a nun habit, her arms wrapped around herself beneath a white shirt. Ciccone wrote, “Thank you @Rosalia. I can’t stop listening! You are a true visionary!!!”
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Madonna and Rosalía Share More than Just Mutual Admiration
Rosalía has drawn from a number of influences throughout her career, from Frank Ocean‘s mournful ballads to Giacomo Puccini‘s tragic opera, Tosca. In writing Lux, in particular, features artists as diverse as Björk, Carminho, and Yahritza y su Esencia, each of whom make an audible impact on the album’s style. That said, it’s difficult not to see the similarities between Lux and the early work of Madonna, particularly in light of the latter’s recent praise.
Madonna first leaned into religious themes with her second studio album, Like a Virgin. The 1984 release immediately attracted both praise and controversy. While critics pointed out its lyrical vulnerability and cohesive production quality, religious and conservative listeners condemned the juxtaposition of religious and sexual themes prevalent in the album’s eponymous first single. Later in the same decade, Madonna continued to weave her Catholic upbringing into her thematically edgy work, perhaps most memorably in the 1989 release “Like a Prayer,” whose music video features burning crosses (in order to call out the racist practices of the Ku Klux Klan), Madonna kissing a saint, and scenes of the artist crooning amid a church choir. The video was so controversial that Pop John Paul II called for a Madonna boycott.
Whether or not Madonna directly influenced Rosalía, she undoubtedly paved the way for work such as Lux, and the spiritual imagery used in both artists’ work bears striking similarities. Furthermore, like Lux, Madonna’s work weaved seemingly disparate genres into contemporary music, challenging the public perception of what pop can be. Madonna’s gospel choir in “Like a Prayer,” like Rosalía’s full orchestra in “Berghain,” opens a world of possibilities of how pop music can sound, and both songs bring comparatively niche genres into the forefront of the musical zeitgeist.
Madonna has made an indelible impact on music by defying genre expectations and pushing the cultural envelope, and it’s clear that Rosalía is doing the same. With so many similarities between the two’s work, it’s no wonder Madonna has so consistently cheered the Spanish singer on. Both artists have found a way to weave grand, spiritual narratives with personal vulnerability, paving the way for the artists of tomorrow.
