There was a constant steady hand felt as Rosalía balanced her catalog’s fun, party vibes with her more stripped-down, solo material. After telling the audience “I fucking love Washington Heights” and calling New York “one of the greatest cities in the world,” she rolled up the sleeves of her stylish black-and-white biker jacket, strapped on a guitar, and steered into her 2020 acoustic single, “Dolerme.” The rippling number gave way to earth-shaking choreography in a mash-up of songs from MOTOMAMI and 2018’s El Mal Querer, followed by one of the night’s most epic spectacles on her latest album’s title track, in which her motopapis formed a motorcycle with their bodies that Rosalía then mounted and continued performing.
With most songs barely pushing three minutes, the set never lingered on any setup for too long. The motopapis disengaged from their formation and lifted the singer in a Christ-like pose to a platform to deliver the gripping emotional ballad, “G3 N15.” In one minute, she was bounding around the stage for the colorful Tokischa collab “Linda,” or jumping into the crowd and getting kissed by fans for her Bad Bunny feature “LA NOCHE DE ANOCHE,” and in the next, she was stoic on a barber’s chair, chopping off her own braid during “DIABLO.” The show found a bit of sanctuary in the singalong “so, so good” hook of “HENTAI,” in which the white background opened up to bright hillside slowly fading into sunset. [Consequence]
Rosalía is in the midst of the North American leg of her massive world tour, and on Sunday night (9/18) she played the first of two sold out nights at Radio City Music Hall. These are her first NYC dates since her 2019 Webster Hall underplays, and she and her troop of dancers effortlessly filled the big stage, playing a set that ran through the many high points of her fantastic 2022 album Motomami, along with a few older songs. The feverish crowd hung onto her every word, and at one point she came down off the stage and walked up an aisle, singing and taking selfies with people.