Rosalía’s ‘Lux’ tour is a work of art. That’s a message the Spanish artist conveys even before she takes the stage – in place of a support act, classical music plays over the PA, while the stage is covered by what looks like the back of a painter’s canvas. It gives the impression that, while the audience waits for the show to begin, a masterpiece is being prepared on the other side.
Once things do kick off, it’s hard to argue: Largely dedicated to the songs from Rosalía’s astonishing and artful 2025 album ‘Lux’, which found her singing in 13 languages and mixing cool with classical, tonight’s (May 5) show practically turns The O2 into a museum.
When the two sides of the canvas split to show what’s hiding behind, we’re greeted by blocks draped with dust covers. Dancers pull a sheet off one box, lift its lid and dismantle its sides to reveal tonight’s architect in tutu and ballet shoes, poised on a plinth. It’s from here Rosalía delivers the first few songs of the night – ‘Sexo, Violencia y Llantas’, ‘Reliquia’ and half of ‘Porcelana’ – gradually loosening up like a sculpture coming to life. As she begins to move around the stage, graceful ballet transitions into powerful modern dance, dust (or an effect made to look like it) fluttering around her.
This is a breathtaking show through and through. The Heritage Orchestra guides the songs from the centre of the arena floor, but that doesn’t stop the intense bass and beats on songs like ‘Divinize’ from thumping through your chest. Each track is given the treatment it needs to really land – ‘Mio Cristo Piange Diamanti’ has Rosalía on stage alone, shrouded in a white robe, the diamond tears she sings of twinkling in her eyes; ‘Berghain’ begins with her in a pile of bodies, moving as one, before an industrial dance break outro turns this faux-museum into a club. A cover of Frankie Valli’s ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off You’ seems slightly random on Setlist.fm, but the 33-year-old uses it to position herself as the art, standing in a picture frame to perform it as a group of “tourists” gawps.
As poignant and powerful as this performance is, there is also plenty of levity. Before ‘Sauvignon Blanc’, Rosalía sits on top of a grand piano and asks the audience to teach her how to do an English accent. When she accidentally chooses a fan from Rome who wants to teach her Italian instead, she rolls with it, then downs the contents of a large wine glass. Moments earlier, she invites Lola Young on stage to join her in a confession booth. When the British musician dishes about finding out the man she was sleeping with was married with kids, Rosalía’s reactions are gold – shocked facial expressions delivered to camera as if she’s in her own episode of The Office.
Although tonight is largely focused on ‘Lux’, a few songs from the rest of Rosalía’s discography sneak into the setlist too, to make this a slightly broader retrospective. The Spanish guitars of ‘Los Angeles’’ ‘El redentor’ get a rocky makeover, its creator’s vocals storming over the top. ‘CUUUUuuuuuute’ closes out a section where she performs from among the orchestra, a speaker adorned with flashing lights and billowing with smoke swinging over her head as the experimental, club-ready song takes the set into brasher territory.
The final two-song act takes the beauty of the night, if possible, even higher. In ‘Focu ‘Ranni’, she matches lyrics about maintaining your freedom (“I will not be your other half / Never your property”) with dashing dancers, liberated and uncontrolled. As it reaches its end, she climbs to the top of a block of stairs, and still wearing white angel wings, falls off the back into nothingness. Moments later, she reappears for a gorgeous, concluding ‘Magnolias’, backing into a bright white light that adds a holy touch. A true masterpiece.
Rosalía played:
‘Sexo, Violencia y Llantas’
‘Reliquia’
‘Porcelana’
‘Divinize’
‘Mio Cristo Piange Diamanti’
‘Saoko’
‘La Fama’
‘La Combi Versace’
‘De Madrugá’
‘El redentor’
‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off You’
‘La Perla’
‘Sauvignon Blanc’
‘La Yugular’
‘Dios Es Un Stalker’
‘La Rumba Del Perdón’
‘CUUUUuuuuuute’
‘Bizcochito’
‘Despechá’
‘Focu ‘Ranni’
‘Magnolias’