The Spanish visionary kicked off a two-night run at Madison Square Garden, staging a set that was part opera, part ballet, part pop extravaganza — and entirely her own

When Rosalía released her album Lux last year, one of the best parts of listening for the first time was discovering the baroque, spiritually divine world she’d created and letting it unfold like a magical, moveable book. But to hear it is one thing; to get a full look into the expansive, ambitious imagination behind the record is something different — and that’s exactly what happens when you see Rosalía perform the music live.

On Tuesday, the radical, shape-shifting Spanish visionary brought the album to Madison Square Garden in all its grandiose glory, staging a show that was crushingly beautiful, intensely artistic, and somehow also exhilaratingly fun and full of whimsy, too. The performance was part of a two-night run at the 19,000-person arena — both shows got postponed twice because of the Knicks’ NBA Finals run — and fans arrived expecting a religious experience, decked in celestial whites, lots of halos and headbands, and the occasional robe. But the second the Heritage Orchestra walked onstage, it was clear this wouldn’t be your regular Sunday service: The U.K. ensemble that has served as Rosalía’s backing band on this tour sauntered to the pit while Jimi Hendrix’s “Angel” blasted through the loudspeakers.

A few swelling chords signaled the start of the show, as crew members dressed in all black roamed around onstage, arranging set pieces. They pushed a giant white crate to the center and slowly pulled down each side, revealing Rosalía inside wearing a white tutu and pointe shoes, like a jewelry-box ballerina, as the crowd roared. Those first steps kicked off two hours of breathtaking choreography and staging, courtesy of her work with Dimitris Papaioanno, who also directed the 2004 Olympic Games opening ceremonies. Rosalía’s voice filled the arena with the cascading lines of “Sexo, Violencia y Llantas,” the striking album opener that quickly set the tone for the theatrical experience to come.

The performance is split into four parts, and the first two acts, in particular, pack one knockout moment after another. A lot of the show’s most orchestral arrangements  — and maybe some of the most insane vocal acrobatics we’ve ever heard from Rosalía —  happen here: There’s beauty and buoyancy in “Reliquia,” and deep mysticism and ego death in “Divinize.” The jaw-dropping operatic drama of “Mio Cristo Piange Diamanti” is a truly impressive testament to her conservatory-trained vocal power and just how exceptional she is as a performer, while the thundering mix of choir chants and electronic bursts on “Berghain” add darkness and edge before her dancers launch into frenetic moves that dial the volume up all the way.

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If you’ve been watching Rosalía a long time, you’ll know this is a step up from the kinetic modernity of her El Mal Querer tour and the raw, stripped-back cinema of her Motomami chapter. The choreography is a huge change: The ballet she does across this section has gotten some flack on social media from real ballerinas who say they’re mortified by her form and terrified for her ankles, yet the larger point is the world-building Rosalía is doing onstage in real time. She’s creating an opulent, old-world experience, saluting highly disciplined art forms and showcasing the commitment and rigor that has brought her this far. 

But maybe the most surprising element is just how much joy and playfulness Rosalía puts onstage. Through a certain lens, Lux can land as a pedantic and even pretentious project, with its dozen languages and nods to spiritual saints and divine texts. Yet the live experience softens the edges, adding splashes of pop and sexiness and mischief to a profoundly transformative set — and it’s a balance no artist strikes quite as well as Rosalía, who seemed ecstatic to be in New York. “I remember the first show that I did here, there was like, no te exagero, 20 people,” she said, recalling her first time playing in the city. “And tonight, I’m playing Madison Square fucking Garden!” For fans of the more upbeat parts of her discography, there were also reworked versions of hits like “Saoko” and “Despecha.” A lot of the thrill was seeing how quickly she delivered tear-inducing moments of beauty one second, and a Betty Boop wink the next.

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A touch of camp came in her tradition of bringing a celebrity friend onstage for a revealing confessional. Rosalía has welcomed everyone from Lola Young to Bad Gyal and had them tell eyebrow-raising stories of misadventures in sex and romance. On Tuesday, she shocked everyone by bringing out Maggie Rogers. The singer-songwriter had a truly wild story about a date with a New York Times journalist who, she said, took her to his office conference room for a make-out session at 1 a.m. — only for her to learn later that he had a girlfriend. We could have done without the artists’ assertions that journalists “make stuff up” and that you can’t trust them (freedom of the press is more under threat than ever, girls, come on), but Rogers’ confession is far and away the juiciest one from the tour yet. It also set up “La Perla,” a stinging rebuke of a male chauvinist done in waltz time, which comes with cheeky, Crazy Horse Paris cabaret choreo to complement the song’s sassiness. 

But the best example of Rosalía’s ability to pull off ambition, skill, and levity may have been “Foc’Rainni,” the closing song before her encore. On the extended cut of the album, this is one of her most gut-wrenching tracks, evoking heartbreak, a failed engagement, and a love story that never was. And yet for all its sadness, there’s so much carefree abandon in the live performance: Rosalía races around with her ballerinas, belting out lines about her own independence: “I will be mine/And of my freedom.” You’re with Rosalía as she ends the show by free-falling off the stage, ready for where life takes her next. She came back out for “Magnolias,” a delicate elegy that recasts death as a peaceful farewell, and sang about departing this world to transcend back into the stars. By then, she’d already left us with so much, and the audience was more than a little transformed, too.

Rosalía Lux Tour Set List

OVERTURE

“Overture”

ACTO 1

“Sexo, Violencia y Llantas”
“Porcelana”
“Divinize”
“Mio Cristo Piange Diamante”

ACTO 2

“El Redentor”
“Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” / “Confessional Engagement”
“La Perla”
“Sauvignon Blanc”
“La Yugular”

INTERMEZZO

“Dios Es Un Stalker”
“Rumba del Perdón”
“CUUUUuuuuuute”

ACTO 4

“BIZCOCHITO”
“DESPECHÁ”
“Focu? Ranni”

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ENCORE

“Magnolias”