When Timothy Chalamet made headlines earlier this year for his bizarrely uncultured denouncement of opera and ballet as forms that “no one cares about anymore”, he clearly hadn’t seen Rosalia’s current Lux tour. Landing at London’s O2 Arena for the first of two nights, the live manifestation of the Spanish superstar’s tour-de-force 2025 LP is not only a breathtaking showcase for both of these mediums (alongside Latin pop, multilingual vocal prowess, and a thousand other things), but proof that, to fully entertain 20,000 people every night, you can set the bar as high as you like and bring people up to it with you. Take note, Chalamet.
It is hard to think of a major label, commercial artist who has ever attempted a show quite like this. From the moment that a 22-piece orchestra walks out and takes their place on a second stage in the centre of the crowd, the scale of intention is clear. But the sheer virtuosic skill that Rosalia demonstrates throughout is on a whole other plane to her peers. Transported onto the stage in a white box that breaks down to reveal the singer in a pink tutu, by second song Reliquia she’s already on pointe, moving across the space like a professional ballerina.
Playing all but one of Lux’s grand scale offering, she chats to the crowd in perfectly good English despite her own protestations (“Bear with me!”) but sings variously in Catalan, Spanish, Arabic, English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Portuguese, Sicilian, and Ukrainian. Her ability to power through an ass-shaking dancefloor filler is unrivalled, but on Mio Cristo Piange Diamanti she hits its epic orchestral crescendo like an Italian soprano. It’s a jaw-dropping display of talent.
However it’s not just Rosalia’s confident wrangling of so many of her own skills that makes tonight soar, but the presentation that she wraps it all in. The reference points here are not just pop but high art: devilish tableaus that nod to a Goya painting; a cheeky reframing of the Mona Lisa; a stunningly lit interpretation of a pivotal image from Black Swan. Even when she’s indulging in classic arena show behaviour by engaging the audience with a roving crowd cam, their instruction is to copy the pose of a famous artwork shown on the screen. It’s smart but fun; though the show frequently aims to bring the ‘high art’ world to The O2, it never feels lofty or inaccessible.
There are plenty of moments where we’re then transported fully to the club, too - albeit an iconoclastically conceptual one. Walking through the crowd to reach the orchestra, the lights change and the second stage is revealed as a giant neon cross. Above it, a huge smoke-emitting light box swings back and forth over the audience like a giant Catholic thurible as the singer turns the heavy beats of MOTOMAMI banger CUUUUuuuuute into a massive religious rave.
Earlier in the set, Lola Young pops up not to sing but to deliver a frank and hilarious anecdote about accidentally dating a married man from Rosalia’s on-stage confessional booth. It’s ostensibly there to set up La Perla - a sarcastic title, she explains, used as slang for shitty men - but Young has a bigger point to make. “This is one of the best shows I’ve ever seen in my life,” she declares before addressing Rosalia: “You’re incredible, do you understand that?”
Tonight, there’s not a person in The O2 that would disagree. There’s an exciting cultural wave happening right now where the big band sensibilities of RAYE or Laufey’s old school jazz can all sell out arenas. Rosalia’s fusion of classic art with a modern mindset is at the absolute pinnacle of this resurgence. No one cares about opera or ballet? Try telling that to the 20,000 people who’ve just witnessed it get truly remodelled for 2026.
