Motomami is the third
studio album by Spanish singer
Rosalía. It was released on 18 March 2022 through
Columbia Records. Rosalía enlisted producers
Noah Goldstein,
Michael Uzowuru, Dylan Wiggins and
Pharrell Williams as well as longtime colleague
El Guincho to create a
concept album about her feelings during the past three years, including troubled times with fame,
homesickness and isolation in the form of a collage of the singer's musical influences, especially in
Latin music.[1][2] Separated in two parts, it features guest vocals from
the Weeknd and
Tokischa, and is presented as Rosalía's "most personal and confessional album so far."[3]
The album's release was preceded by three singles along with "
Hentai" as a promotional single. "
La Fama" was released on 11 November 2021 as the album's
lead single, attaining both critical and commercial success.[4] The song peaked at number two on the US
Hot Latin Songs chart and reached the top ten in
France,
El Salvador,
Spain and
Panama. "
Saoko" and "
Chicken Teriyaki" were released as the second and third singles, respectively, both reaching the top twenty in Spain. Other promotional initiatives included a Grand Theft Auto Online radio station and a performance on Saturday Night Live, becoming the first Spanish solo act to serve as the show's musical guest.[5][6] Rosalía embarked on the
Motomami World Tour from July to December 2022, traveling around Europe and the Americas.[7] A
deluxe edition of the album, titled Motomami +, was released on 9 September featuring five additional tracks, including the hit single "
Despechá".[8]
Upon its release, Motomami received universal acclaim from
music critics, many of whom praised the experimentation and genre-bending sounds. It later became the best reviewed and most discussed album of 2022 on
Metacritic.[9] Commercially, the album entered twenty-two charts in nineteen countries and reached the top ten in seven countries. Motomami entered major market charts, reaching the top forty in both on the
UK Albums Chart and the
Billboard 200. In Spain, it peaked atop the
PROMUSICAE chart for six consecutive weeks. It also became the second most-streamed female album of the year worldwide.
Recording sessions for the singer's next project began in
Los Angeles as early as 2019.[15][16] While
on tour that year, Rosalía released a collection of singles. In March, the first of eight, "
Con Altura", featuring
J Balvin and
el Guincho, was released on digital platforms.[17] It topped the charts in Argentina, Venezuela, Spain and Colombia among others and was the second most-watched music video released in 2019 on
YouTube as well as the most-watched female music video that year.[18] May saw the release of "
Aute Cuture" whereas "
Milionària" and "
Dios Nos Libre del Dinero" were released in July. In August, a collaboration with
Ozuna, "
Yo x Ti, Tu x Mi", was released to great commercial success.[19] The singer continued releasing standalone singles such as "
A Palé", "
Dolerme" and "
Juro Que" throughout 2019 and 2020.[20] Rosalía also collaborated twice with
Travis Scott; first on the remix of his track "
Highest in the Room" alongside
Lil Baby and then on "
TKN", the latter of which became her first entry on the
Billboard Hot 100.[21][22]
When Dutch radio station 3voor12 asked the singer through a
Zoom press conference about a possible single
compilation or
box set, Rosalía expressed total rejection to the idea explaining that "I don't really enjoy records that are just a collection of singles. I usually enjoy records that tell a story and that are alive and involve a lot of thinking."[23] She also revealed that she was "trying really hard to release a new project in 2020" but all of the independent singles released so far wouldn't be included. She continued by saying that "as a musician I feel the responsibility to release a cohesive album, one that makes sense; one in where the songs are linked and share an essence". Rosalía was later seen in the recording studio with
Michael Uzowuru,
Mike Dean and
the Neptunes among others.[24][25]
During 2021, Rosalía released more standalone singles such as "
Lo Vas a Olvidar" and "
Linda" alongside
Billie Eilish and
Tokischa, respectively.[26][27] In May, talent manager Rebecca León confirmed that Rosalía wouldn't release an album in 2021.[28] In August, the singer revealed to
Santiago Matías that the album "was already taking shape" yet the number of songs was still unknown.[29] In October, the singer teased on
TikTok that the project would be released "soon" and premiered 30 seconds of the album's lead single.[30] During a fan meet and greet in Mexico in partnership with
Exa FM, Rosalía revealed that her new album would be "very different" from its predecessor and that the lead single would be released in November.[31]
Motomami was officially announced on 2 November 2021, the third anniversary of El Mal Querer, along with a 15-second trailer directed by
Daniel Sannwald which contained a snippet of the title track as well as a tentative 2022 release date.[32] Sannwald also pictured the album cover, which was revealed on social media on 31 January 2022.[33] On 8 November 2021, Rosalía announced the album's lead single, "
La Fama" featuring
the Weeknd. It was released on 11 November.[34]
Recording
Rosalía began work on Motomami in January 2019 and finished in August 2021. However, during the first year of production, she was still promoting her sophomore album on
El Mal Querer Tour and was still figuring out the direction she wanted to go in. Rosalía had begun thinking of several ideas for the album before El Mal Querer was released in November 2018. The confection of the album went through many stages as Rosalía was once convinced of making "four projects at the same time" differencing a
flamenco record, a
piano ballad one, a dark pop one, and an
alternative reggaeton record.[35] The singer ended up "finding a purport within chaos", committing to a color palette at the sound level.[36] The production on Motomami distinguishes six elements that get used in almost every track: "aggressive" drums, filters that "make the music seem distant", a nude voice (no use of
vocal harmonies or
reverbs), the use of
vocal chops, and a repeated minimalist production.[37] During the album's creation, Rosalía drew influences from artists of all disciplines such as
Héctor Lavoe,
Nina Simone,
Patti Smith,
Bach,
Michèle Lamy,
Ocean Vuong,
Yayoi Kusama,
Ricardo Bofill and
Andrei Tarkovsky.[38] On 25 April 2022, she shared a seven-hour
Spotify playlist of music that she was inspired by, dubbed "Inspo$ Motomami", which included artists such as
Daddy Yankee,
Madonna,
David Bowie,
Björk,
Snoop Dogg,
Manuel Molina,
Carla Bruni, etc.[39]
The majority of the album was recorded between 2020 and 2021. The process was registered on the singer's private
Instagram account 'holamotomami', which she made public in December 2021. During tour season in 2019, Rosalía suffered from
writer's block as she was constantly releasing new material and performing live, with
isolation during the
COVID-19 pandemic and partly moving with
Frank Ocean to
New York City helping the process flow despite being
homesick.[40][3] Rosalía didn't leave the United States until June 2021 due to fear that she could not go back due to travel restrictions during the pandemic. During her time in the States, she had "twelve-to-sixteen hour long" sessions almost every day, whether at her rented home in
Miami (dubbed as Motomami House) or at recording studios in
Hollywood and
Manhattan, where she recorded upwards of nearly 30 songs for the album.[41] Rosalía had troubled time with deadlines, pushing the album's release a couple times.[42] The mixing and mastering process of Motomami took nine months, being completed on 15 April 2021. "
Saoko" was the last song Rosalía wrote for the album and "La Combi Versace" the most modified as she "changed the arrangement completely right before she was going to turn in the album" as well as the featured artist, which was originally
Tego Calderón.
I love thinking every project should be different than the one before. I'm not interested at all in any formula, or some shit like that. MOTOMAMI is built on letting things that happen affect my songs and the way I write—the travels, all of that, letting that affect it sonically, visually. I would love to express what is happening in these three years, so when I'm 70 or 80 and look back and listen to this album, I really can feel and see what was happening in that moment. I don't have the time to keep a diary, and I didn't like that. With this album, I created an excuse to actually write about what was really happening. I tried to convey the ambivalence, if that makes sense—a place or context can be really exciting, but at the same time it can be very hostile.
The Weeknd (left) and
Tokischa (right) provide vocals on "La Fama" and "La Combi Versace" respectively.
Motomami begins with "
Saoko", an alternative reggaeton and experimental track with
industrial and
avant-jazz elements.[48] The song features heavy
synthesizers,
distorted pianos and traditional reggaeton drums; while its lyrics celebrate transformation and change.[49] The reggaeton sounds continue into its "slow-building" second track "
Candy", where Rosalía sings about a broken relationship over "shimmering" synthesizers.[50] Its third track, "La Fama" featuring Canadian singer-songwriter the Weeknd, is a
midtempo bachata influenced by
electropop that details the downsides of fame.[51][52] Rosalía returns to her flamenco background in the fourth track "Bulerías", which sees her defending her position as a celebrity over communal chants.[53]
The fifth track "
Chicken Teriyaki" has been described as a "TikTok dance-ready" reggaeton track where Rosalía
raps about a trip to New York City. The song is highlighted for its use of "ironic" and humorous lyricism.[54][55] The sixth track "
Hentai" is a "delicate" piano
ballad with pulsing
electronicbeats that explores the pleasures of
sexual intercourse and female sexuality.[56][57] The seventh track "
Bizcochito" is a
chiptune track that's "so playful it sounds like an ice cream truck rolling through the neighborhood."[58] Rosalía sings about isolation and homesickness during her time in the United States within the pandemic in "G3 N15" as she also delivers a pessimist point of view of Los Angeles in between piano melodies. It features a
voice message of her maternal grandmother in
Catalan.[59] Followed up by the title track, "Motomami" serves as an
interlude. The tenth track, "Diablo", lays Rosalía's pitch-shifted vocals over ominous
electronica and an off-kilter reggaeton beat.[60] It features uncredited guest vocals by Leyvan and
James Blake.[61]
The eleventh track "Delirio de Grandeza" reimagines
Justo Betancourt's 1968 track of the same name, adding a sample from
Soulja Boy's remix of "Delirious" by
Vistoso Bosses.[62] The twelfth track "Cuuuuuuuuuute" is a clattering
cyberpunk and
deconstructed club song that suddenly switches to piano balladry and back again.[60] It draws inspiration from
Kate Bush's "
Wuthering Heights".[63] The thirteenth "Como Un G" is a piano ballad about an unrequited, ephemeral love.[64] The following track "Abcdefg" serves as an interlude. It features a voicenote in which Rosalía recites an
acrostic poem based on the alphabet.[65] Rosalía and featured artist Tokischa describe having fun dressed in
Versace in "La Combi Versace", a
minimalist dembow/
neoperreo track.[66] The sixteenth track "Sakura" is an "emotionally authoritative" closing track that sounds like it was recorded live in an
arena as it features audience cheers recorded during the
El Mal Querer Tour.[67] In "Sakura", Rosalía compares her time as a pop star to the brief life of a
cherry blossom.[68]
Concept
During an interview with
Zane Lowe for
Apple Music 1, Rosalía described Motomami as a loose concept album that paints a self-portrait. She also revealed that the album is more playful than her previous albums, explaining: "I feel like I haven't done that in the other albums. Also, they were much more serious if that makes sense. And I think that in this one, I was like, 'I really want to find a way to allow my sense of humor to be present.'"[69]
About the title, Rosalía has stated that she chose to name it Motomami in honor of her mother, Pilar Tobella, who used to ride Rosalía around town on a motorcycle. The singer also told Brut that the 'Motomami' noun was indeed by her friend Maite back in high school, who used it in her
Hotmail address. It also references the company her mother runs, Motomami S.L., which she created in 2018 to administer activities around artist representation.[70] Rosalía shared that she chose the name Motomami because it's "structured in binaries, two types of contrasting energy." The album is separated into two parts; Moto is the divine, experimental, frictional and the strongest part of the album, while Mami is the genuine, personal, confessional and vulnerable one. Rosalía also stated that "
feminism is implicit in the intention. It is very much present in some songs, and maybe not some much in some others, because in the end, it's all the emotional journey of the ups and downs an artist can take. There's a lot of my day-to-day life that's why this vindication of women and
femininity are implicit."[71][72] Rosalía hopes Motomami "provides a feminist counterbalance to
misogyny in music".[73]
Release and promotion
The album was issued on 18 March 2022, by
Columbia Records, Rosalía's first to be released under the label. The standard edition was released on CD, vinyl, digital download and streaming. The vinyl was released on a red coloured vinyl. A premium boxset containing a red 12" vinyl, a
zine photographic shot by
Carlota Guerrero in
Mallorca and thank you note from Rosalía was sent to selected fans, personal friends and celebrities.
The deluxe edition of the album, Motomami +, was released on streaming platforms on 9 September 2022. It contains five additional tracks, a remix of "
Candy" featuring
Chencho Corleone, a thank you voice message and a live version of "
La Fama" recorded at
Palau Sant Jordi, in
Barcelona on 24 July 2022 during the
Motomami World Tour.
Singles and music videos
Rosalía's executive team chose "
La Fama" as the album's
lead single, released on 11 November 2021. The song, which features vocals by Canadian singer
the Weeknd, was met with great critical reception for its neo form of classical bachata, and achieved commercial success in Europe and Latin America. It became the singer's eighth number one single in Spain as well as her best performing song in France, peaking at five. Columbia released the accompanying music video, directed by
Director X, on the same day. Inspired in From Dusk till Dawn (1996), it takes place in a
cabaret and features a cameo appearance from actor
Danny Trejo.[74] "
Saoko" was released as the second single on 4 February 2022 to universal critical acclaim. Valentin Petit directed its music video, which premiered the afternoon of the single release, and showcases a motorcycle-flipping spectacle around
Kyiv. Petit and co-editor Jon Echeveste would go on to win the
MTV Video Music Award for Best Editing for their work. "
Chicken Teriyaki" was released as the album's third single twenty days later, featuring a music video directed by
Tanu Muino and mixed reviews from music critics.
Two days ahead of Motomami's scheduled release, Rosalía released "
Hentai" as a
promotional single. "Hentai" had already been teased via
TikTok in January, sparking negative backlash due to its sexual content and "plain, explicit, vulgar" lyrics. Nevertheless, once released, it received positive comments from the general public. "
Candy" was accompanied with a music video on release day, directed by Stillz and heavily inspired in the 2003 film Lost in Translation.[75] Despite the lack of radio promotion, it became the singer's ninth number one single in Spain, while also entering the charts in Argentina, Portugal and Switzerland and reaching the top seventy on the
Billboard Global 200. A music video for "Motomami", directed by
Daniel Sannwald, premiered on
YouTube on 18 April 2022 to promote the album's
accompanying tour.[76] A music video for "Delirio de Grandeza", directed by Mitch Ryan, also premiered on YouTube on 11 May 2022 after it was announced on social media one day prior.[77]
Marketing
Promotional strategies for the Motomamirollout started in November 2021, with the album's announcement and the release of its lead single. Catalogued as "brilliant", the marketing campaign behind this third album mixed physical promotional banners, radio singles, magazine features, social media interaction and an extensive use of
TikTok to tease future content.[78] Rosalía first teased the lead single "
La Fama" on the platform in October and formally announced its release on 8 November. The singer would continue teasing her new material through TikTok, later advancing "
Saoko", "
Hentai" and "
Chicken Teriyaki". With the lead single impacting radio stations and with the album's title and tentative '2022' date revealed, Rosalía covered the December edition of Rolling Stone en Español with an article written by Diego Ortiz narrating the recording process of Motomami.[79] The singer would later grace the cover of GQ,
El País, Vogue Italia and I-D.[80][81] The recording process of Motomami was also shared through a private
Instagram page, 'holamotomami', which she made public in January 2022. This action created
engagement with fans and consumers and showed "the best of both worlds" while creating a musical body.[82]
During
Art Basel week in December 2021, various promotional graffitis of Motomami started to appear in the streets of
Miami Beach.[83] This kind of banners were later exported to other cities including
Barcelona,
Buenos Aires,
New York City,
Madrid,
Mexico City,
Milan,
Seoul and
Tokyo.[84][85] These ones included unreleased lyrics of upcoming songs. Light in the dark Spotify-sponsored billboards were placed in central public spaces in Madrid, Mexico City and Milan upon the album's release.[86]
Starting 27 February, Rosalía posted daily on
Twitter about the characteristics of the 'motomami', the fictional concept she adopted for the album, transforming it into an identity. The twenty-tweet series was completed on release day. The technique was popularized within her
fanbase and the general public. Several brands and associations (mainly in Spain), such as
AliExpress and
FC Barcelona, referenced it.[87] In March 2023, due to their partnership with
Spotify and to celebrate one year since the album's release, FC Barcelona release a limited edition 'Motomami' shirt, which players wore during two matches against
Real Madrid.[88] Rosalía embraced the mixed reviews and
backlash she received for her "
kitsch" lyrics after teasing "Hentai" and "Chicken Teriyaki" on TikTok, reversing the initial negative idea through
self-referential and
self-deprecating humor.[89][90][91]
On 15 December 2021, a new
radio station in Grand Theft Auto Online, Motomami Los Santos, premiered as a result of a partnership between the singer and
Rockstar Games.[97] Curated by Rosalía and
Arca, it includes personal favorite songs of both artists as well as songs from their own catalogue.[98][99] It includes tracks from
Camarón de la Isla,
Daddy Yankee,
Caroline Polachek and
Aventura among others as well as an unreleased track by
Bad Gyal.[100]Kaydy Cain and Rosalía's older sister Pilar also make speaking cameos. Coinciding with the release of the radio station,
Los Santos' Eclipse Boulevard displayed many
billboards promoting Rosalía's upcoming studio album.[101]
In October 2021, in the mark of the BIME Pro music conference, tour manager Agustín Boffi revealed that Rosalía will embark on a "world tour in 2022" that has been being prepared "for over a year". Boffi also revealed that the tour crew will be expanded to "over 150 people" compared to the 40 people that were working on
her previous concert cycle.[105] On 18 April 2022, the tour dates were revealed. The forty-six-date long concert series began on 6 July in
Almería and ended on 18 December, in
Paris.[106][107][108] It met great commercial reception, selling over 440,000 tickets and grossing $30.4 million from 45 shows.[109]
Motomami was met with widespread acclaim from music critics, who often commended the album's experimentation and genre-bending sounds.[121] At
Metacritic, which assigns a
normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an
average score of 94 based on 17 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim", making it the site's highest-rated album of 2022 and placing it as their 17th best album of all time.[111][122][123] Aggregator
AnyDecentMusic? gave it 8.5 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.[110]
In a five-star review, Diego Ortiz of Rolling Stone en Español wrote that Motomami "redefines the concept of the mainstream with its
abstract sound exploration, where borders and genres are completely blurred. Undoubtedly, it is one of the boldest and most daring productions of recent years and which in turn paves a new path of almost infinite possibilities."[124] Brittany Spanos of the same outlet's American edition characterized its sounds as "innovative" and "daring".[125] Mark Richardson of The Wall Street Journal agrees, writing, "...for Rosalía, this future-forward strain of pop is swirled together with rap, the
Caribbean style reggaetón,
dance, and, of course, flamenco—here,
folk guitars collide with otherworldly digital processing. She's a visionary in the mode of
M.I.A. or Madonna, one who uses her mainstream perch to push music in new directions."[126] Thom Jurek of
AllMusic described the record as "provocative and risky as it is creative. It showcases Rosalía as a master, twisting together the contradictory strands of
Latin and Anglo pop with traditional and vanguard forms and fresh sounds into a gloriously articulated radical approach that makes for obsessive listening."[112] Nathan Evans of The Quietus wrote that Motomami "darts away from the angelic image of Rosalía's previous work, stirring the cauldron to create an outlandish, genre-hopping revision of herself."[127]
Pitchfork crowned Motomami with its "Best New Music" honor, with Julianne Escobedo Shepherd writing, "It feels rare to hear an album that's so experimental, that aspires to stretch itself out across genres and play with form, and that attains exactly what it sets out to achieve. Rosalía was already a formidable singer, but here she also sounds like she learned that with global superstardom comes the freedom to set her own agenda."[66]
In the United States, Motomami debuted at number 33 on
Billboard 200 with 17,000 equivalent album units sold in its first week.[160] It achieved the largest opening week for a
Latin pop album in 2022. The album also opened at number one on
Top Latin Pop Albums, becoming her second album to reach the top spot.[161]
Track listing
Credits adapted from Rosalia's official website.[162]
"Saoko" contains a portion of "Saoco", written by
Juan Luis Morera, Juan Iván Orengo and Urbani Mota Cedeño.
"Candy" samples "Archangel", performed by
Burial; which itself contains a sample of "
One Wish", performed by
Ray J.
"Delirio de Grandeza" contains samples from "Delirio de Grandeza", written by Carlos Querol and performed by
Justo Betancourt; and contains samples from "Delirious", written by James W. Manning and performed by
Vistoso Bosses featuring
Soulja Boy Tell 'Em.
"Cuuuuuuuuuute" contains a sample of "Counting to 28", written by So Y Tiet.
"La Kilié" contains a sample of "Passinho do Volante" performed by MC Federado e os Leleks.
Personnel
Credits adapted from Rosalia's official website.[162]
^In the deluxe version, the background is red and the shield is down, showing a plus sign.
^The New York Times released three year-end album rankings by three of their music critics. Motomami was one of only two albums, alongside Beyoncé's Renaissance, to be ranked on all three lists, placing third on Lindsey Zoladz's list in addition to second on both Caramanica's and Pareles'.[150]
^Ortiz, Diego (17 November 2021).
"The Reinvention of Rosalía". Rolling Stone.
Archived from the original on 19 November 2021. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
^Arena, Bárbara.
"Carta de disculpa a Rosalía". ctxt.es | Contexto y Acción (in Spanish).
Archived from the original on 22 March 2022. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
^Bucksbaum, Sydney; Greenblatt, Leah; Lamphier, Jason; Myers, Owen; December 8, Allaire Nuss; EST, 2022 at 07:25 PM.
"The 10 best albums of 2022". EW.com.
Archived from the original on 12 December 2022. Retrieved 1 January 2023.{{
cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (
link)
^"The best albums of 2022". The Independent. 14 December 2022.
Archived from the original on 27 December 2022. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
^Wood, Mikael (4 December 2022).
"The 20 best albums of 2022". Los Angeles Times.
Archived from the original on 4 December 2022. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
^Aswad, Chris Willman,Jem; Willman, Chris; Aswad, Jem (9 December 2022).
"The Best Albums of 2022". Variety.
Archived from the original on 9 December 2022. Retrieved 1 January 2023.{{
cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
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^"Czech Albums – Top 100".
ČNS IFPI. Note: On the chart page, select 12.Týden 2022 on the field besides the words "CZ – ALBUMS – TOP 100" to retrieve the correct chart. Retrieved 28 March 2022.