Answer in brief
Rosalía carries no single genre label across her catalogue: only "Bulerías" has a palo in its title, a "Traditional" credit among its music writers and eight palmas, nudillos and jaleo performers in the credits; "Malamente" carries flamenco mainly in the singing style; "Con Altura" references it in the artist's own words without flamenco performers in the credits; and "Saoko" and "Berghain" move into industrial and orchestral art pop.
Rosalía's Discography as Five Points on One Scale
Across four studio albums — Los Ángeles (2017, a duo with guitarist Raül Refree), El Mal Querer (2018), Motomami (2022) and Lux (2025) — Rosalía has never stayed in one genre long enough for a single label to stick. The five 2018-2025 recordings below are compared against verifiable credits — a palo marked "Traditional", palmas, nudillos and jaleo performer roles listed as such, the producer lineup — rather than by overall impression of the sound. Separately, even critics reviewing the same 2025 album, Lux, disagree on its genre, and that disagreement is a documented fact, not a gap in this analysis.
So the question "flamenco or pop" has no single answer across the whole catalogue: a given recording either uses credit-verifiable flamenco markers or it uses none of them, in which case its link to flamenco survives only in the singing style or in a reviewer's genre tag. Below are five recordings at different points on that scale, with what in the credits and reviews backs up their place: who wrote and produced the track, what roles the credits list, and how specialist reviews — not just the album's info box — describe the genre.
"Malamente": Flamenco Vocals and Claps Inside Pop Production
The single came out on 30 May 2018 as the first episode of El Mal Querer. The words and music are credited to Rosalía, Pablo Díaz-Reixa (El Guincho) and Antón Álvarez (C. Tangana); per the album credits, the track's producers are Rosalía and El Guincho together. The beat's foundation is claps — recorded by Rosalía herself and El Guincho — over an herreño drum (a traditional drum from the Canary Islands, the producer's home region), a Roland TR-808 drum machine and synthesizers. Pitchfork, whose review the track's own page cites for the "flamenco pop" genre tag, wrote on 3 July 2018 that the track "blends flamenco with pop, reggaeton and R&B", and critic Dani Blum called Rosalía's voice "liquid velvet". In autumn 2020, Billboard put it more precisely: the track "fuses Rosalía's flamenco vocals with loops, beats and rapping" — flamenco is audible here mainly in the singing style, not in a sampled recording or in a compás rhythmic cycle. The album does include a sample of an actual flamenco cante — "Mi Cante por Bulerías" by La Paquera de Jerez — but not on "Malamente"; it appears on another track from the same album, "Que no salga la luna" (more in the FAQ). Rosalía defended the album as her bachelor's thesis at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya (ESMUC), whose cante performance track admits one student a year; its concept is built on the anonymous 13th-century Occitan romance "Flamenca".
The cultural-appropriation debate began before the album's release and continued after it. On 18 September 2018, six weeks before the release, Rodrigo Terrasa asked in the headline of Spain's El Mundo whether "Rosalía's success" is "a theft from the Roma", noting that the artist is from Catalonia, not Andalusia — flamenco's home region; the same piece quotes Rosalía saying that "flamenco does not belong to the Roma". On 18 December 2018, after the release, Paula Ibieta wrote in the US outlet Phoenix New Times that "there's perhaps some truth to the questionable nature of Rosalía's aesthetic and her use of Andalusian slang". Per the album's own article, Rosalía herself called the debate positive and said flamenco elements would remain in her music.
"Bulerías": The Only Track With Palmeros and a "Traditional" Credit
Bulerías is a flamenco palo (form): a twelve-beat rhythmic cycle (compás), a tempo of roughly 195-240 beats per minute, the "por medio" mode (Phrygian with a raised third), and origins among 19th-century Roma (Calé) from Jerez. The track by that name on Motomami (2022) is the only one of the five recordings examined here where the music-writing credits carry a "Traditional" tag alongside named writers: Rosalía, José Miguel Vizcaya Sánchez, Noah Goldstein, Dylan Wiggins and David Rodríguez; the words are credited to Rosalía and Kaydy Cain, and the producers are Goldstein, Rosalía and Dylan Wiggins (credited as Patrice). Eight performers appear in palmas, nudillos and jaleo (supportive shouted cues) roles — among them brothers Macario and José Álvaro Ibáñez Díaz, and Juan José Jaén Arroyo, separately credited also as a bailaor (dancer). The Los Angeles Times wrote on 17 March 2022 that "Bulerías" is "the one [Motomami] track unmistakably rooted in flamenco"; per the LA Times's description, the song is about the hard work behind the glamour of fame. José Miguel Vizcaya, known as "El Chiqui de la Línea", is a notable figure on Catalonia's flamenco scene; he advised Rosalía to pursue a formal music education and then spent eight years as her cante teacher while she studied at ESMUC (more in the FAQ).
"Con Altura": The Reggaeton Track Where Rolling Stone Heard "de ida y vuelta"
The single with J Balvin came out on 28 March 2019. Per the credits, the words and music are credited to Rosalía, J Balvin, Aury "Mariachi Budda" Pineda, El Guincho, Frank Dukes, Teo Halm and Sky Rompiendo; the producers are El Guincho, Frank Dukes, Teo Halm, Sky Rompiendo and Rosalía, while J Balvin and Aury Pineda are credited as writers only (J Balvin also as a performer). The available credits list no palmas, nudillos or jaleo performer, and no palo is named at all. Yet Rolling Stone wrote on 28 March 2019 that the song is "a modern take on what the artist herself calls 'de ida y vuelta'", referring to a historical category of flamenco palos shaped by Afro-Caribbean influence on music that made a round trip to Latin America and back to Spain. The track topped the charts in six countries and won a Latin Grammy for Best Urban Song — the success of a reggaeton hit with no flamenco performers in the credits, but with a reference to the genre in Rosalía's own words, not a total absence of any link to it.
"Saoko": Industrial Reggaeton With No Flamenco Markers in the Credits
Released on 4 February 2022 as one of the singles from Motomami. The track interpolates Wisin & Daddy Yankee's "Saoco"; the producers include Noah Goldstein, Dylan Wiggins, Michael Uzowuru and others. Sources describe the genre as alternative reggaeton with industrial and avant-garde jazz elements. In a November 2021 Rolling Stone interview, Rosalía herself named Nine Inch Nails' "The Downward Spiral" (1994) and Kanye West's "Yeezus" (2013) among her influences for the album — her own reference point, not a critic's retrospective comparison. Per Tidal, claps are again in the credits — recorded by Rosalía herself — but there is no compás, no palo and no guest palmeros here.
"Berghain": The LSO Orchestra and No Flamenco Performer in the Credits
The lead single from the album Lux came out on 27 October 2025 featuring Björk and Yves Tumor. Per the credits, the writers are Rosalía herself, Björk, Noah Goldstein, Dylan Wiggins and Jake Miller; the producers are Rosalía, Goldstein, Wiggins (credited as Sir Dylan) and Jake Miller, while Björk is credited as a co-writer and performer but not a producer. The track was recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra, with lyrics in German, Spanish and English. Its Wikipedia page tags the genre as "art pop", "avant-garde" and a nod to baroque musical aesthetics — a reference to the European classical tradition, not to a Latin American or Spanish one. Pitchfork's Walden Green wrote on 28 October 2025 that "Rosalía has never so overtly flaunted her classically trained voice", calling her delivery coloratura and comparing the part to Vivaldi's "Winter" and Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring". There is no compás, no palmas and no flamenco-specialist performer in this track's credits.
Five Recordings Side by Side: What the Direct Comparison Shows
Placed side by side, the five recordings differ along three lines: which flamenco elements they use, who handled the production and how publications themselves label the genre of each track.
Palo, "Traditional" and Palmas — Versus Plain Claps
The word "compás" appears in none of the five tracks' credits — it's a performance technique, not a credit-list entry. The verifiable marker is different: is a specific palo named among the music writers with a "Traditional" tag, and are any performers credited with "palmas", "nudillos" or "jaleo" roles — rather than just "claps"? "Bulerías" has this: eight performers are credited with exactly these roles. "Malamente" and "Saoko" also list claps in their credits, but as ordinary claps by Rosalía herself (and, on "Malamente", El Guincho too) — not guest palmeros, and without a "Traditional" tag. "Con Altura" and "Berghain" list neither claps nor palmas in their available credits.
Who Sits at the Production Desk
Per the album credits, "El Mal Querer" was produced by Rosalía and El Guincho together; the Wikipedia article on Díaz-Reixa himself calls him the sole producer without citing the record's own credits — a discrepancy we resolve in favor of the record's credits (more in the FAQ). He describes his own style as "space-age exotica" and works mainly on a Roland SP-404 sampler, with a background in Afrobeat and dub. Apart from Rosalía herself, only "Bulerías" among the five tracks credits her cante teacher, José Miguel Vizcaya Sánchez, as a music co-writer; Motomami's overall producer roster is wider — Goldstein, Wiggins, Williams, Tainy and others — but without a separate cante-performer role. Lux's orchestra was conducted by Daníel Bjarnason, with arrangements written by, among others, Caroline Shaw and Angélica Negrón.
How Outlets and Wikipedia Info Boxes Name the Genre
The genre tags in the info boxes — "flamenco pop" for "Malamente", citing Pitchfork's review; "reggaeton" for "Con Altura"; "alternative reggaeton" for "Saoko"; "art pop" and a baroque aesthetic for "Berghain" — are an encyclopedia's categorization, not a single industry position. Critics' own wording diverges even more: Rolling Stone heard a nod to "de ida y vuelta" in "Con Altura"; the Los Angeles Times called "Bulerías" the one Motomami track "unmistakably rooted in flamenco"; Lux's Wikipedia info box is tagged "orchestral pop", "art pop", "classical" and "avant-pop", while Pitchfork's own review separately called it "avant-garde classical pop" (more on critics' disagreement in the next section). None of the five tracks is tagged simply as flamenco in its Wikipedia info box.
The Genre Debate Around Lux: Even Critics Don't Agree
Even critics reviewing the same album disagree on the label: Aureliano Tonet in Le Monde, Anamaria Sayre at NPR and Will Hodgkinson in The Times call Lux a classical-music album outright, while Maria Sherman of the Associated Press, Kaelen Bell at Exclaim! and Joe Coscarelli with Jon Caramanica at The New York Times describe a pop, art-pop or avant-pop album with classical influences; Alexis Petridis in the Guardian put it more bluntly on 3 November 2025 — the album "definitely sounds nearer to classical music than to anything else in the charts". The album itself is not entirely free of flamenco, unlike the lead single "Berghain": per the credits, Estrella Morente, the Flamenco Ladies Choir and the Flamenco Gentlemen Choir all appear on the record, and the Makarines collective is credited with palmas on several tracks; the Guardian separately notes "flamenco hand-claps" on the track "Porcelana". So within one 2025 album there is both a point of total absence of flamenco markers in the credits ("Berghain") and points where they are documented right alongside the orchestra. If specialists disagree on one record, the answer to "is Rosalía flamenco or pop" at the scale of a career cannot be shorter than an examination of the specific recording. Across the five verified tracks, one thing is clear: flamenco in Rosalía's work is neither dissolved into everything nor reducible to background "Spanish-language sound" — it is a credit-verifiable set of markers, fully documented in some recordings, present only in vocal style or a reviewer's genre tag in others, and entirely absent in a third group.
Practical checklist
- Is a palo (flamenco form) named in the track's title, is there a "Traditional" tag among the music writers, and are palmas, nudillos or jaleo roles listed in the credits — all three together, not just one.
- Is anyone in the lineup credited with a distinct role — palmero, nudillos performer or jaleo performer — rather than only listed among the writers of "claps".
- Does a co-writer or performer work within the cante tradition, rather than being only a pop-scene producer.
- Is an actual flamenco recording sampled, and is the sample's source credited on this specific track, not just somewhere on the album.
- How do specialist reviews and outlets' info boxes name the genre — not just the video's or cover's visual style.
Questions and answers
Does "Malamente" sample a flamenco recording?
No. Per the album's credits, the recording by La Paquera de Jerez appears inside a different song on the record — "Que no salga la luna". An early version of Pitchfork's review of "Malamente" itself even mentioned castanets — the outlet later corrected that inaccuracy.
Who is José Miguel Vizcaya, "El Chiqui de la Línea"?
He is a respected figure on Catalonia's flamenco scene: he suggested Rosalía pursue formal music training and then spent eight years teaching her cante while she was a student at ESMUC. He is also credited as a music co-writer on Motomami's "Bulerías".
Does flamenco appear anywhere on Lux besides "Berghain"?
Yes. The album's credits list Estrella Morente, two choirs with "flamenco" in their names, and the Makarines collective, responsible for palmas on part of the record — just not on "Berghain". The Guardian separately points to flamenco hand-claps on the song "Porcelana".
Was El Guincho the sole producer of "El Mal Querer" or not?
No: the record credits two names under "producer" — Rosalía's own and El Guincho's. The phrase "sole producer" appears only in a separate article about Díaz-Reixa himself, without citing the record's credits; this is a discrepancy between two secondary sources, and the text above relies on the more direct one.
What awards did "El Mal Querer" and "Malamente" win?
"El Mal Querer" won Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative Album at the 62nd Grammy Awards (January 2020), and Album of the Year at the 20th Latin Grammy Awards (November 2019); at that same Latin Grammy ceremony, the single "Malamente" separately won Best Alternative Song and Best Urban Fusion/Performance.