Nuevo Culture

Rosalía Is Ready to Let Loose and Hit the Dance Floor on ‘Despechá’

Never one to back away from the spotlight, Rosalía surprised fans by dropping an official recording of “Despechá” — a track she recently debuted during the kickoff of her highly anticipated Motomami World Tour. Building upon the themes of female empowerment and liberation that permeated her critically acclaimed album Motomami, the sultry, club-primed banger is a strong contender to become the Song of the Summer.

“Baby, no me llames/Que yo estoy ocupá’ olvidando tus males,” she coos on the track’s opening verse, backed by a sprightly piano riff. “Ya decidí que esta noche se sale/Con todas mis Motomamis/Con todas mis yales.” (“Baby, don’t call me up/’Cause I’m busy forgetting all your wrongs/I’ve already decided I’m going out tonight/With all my Motomamis/With all my girls.”)

Echoing the explicit anti-work sentiments of this summer’s other high-profile dance anthem — Beyoncé’s “Break My Soul,” which finds Queen Bey proclaiming, “I just fell in love, and I just quit my job” — Rosalía also celebrates the joys of leaving the stresses of the world behind on a wild night out. “Hoy no trabaja, еsta morena,” she says, using the Spanish word for dark-haired women. “Fuck la fama, fuck la faena.” (“This morena isn’t working today/Fuck fame, fuck chores”)


“There are many ways to be Despechá,” the “Saoko” hitmaker said in a translated statement. “In this theme, it is from the freeness or the craziness, moving without reservations or regrets. This is the place from where I make music — from where I did it when I first started and where I will continue to until God says so.” She added: “I’m grateful for having been able to travel in recent years and have learned from music from other places — including the [Dominican Republic], where artists like Fefita La Grande, Juan Luis Guerra and Omega have inspired me and without them this song would not exist.”

Rosalía is currently touring Europe and will bring her Motomami World Tour stateside in September, kicking off September 15 in Boston and wrapping October 22 in Miami.