With the rising price of concert tickets, artists must work overtime to make a show worth the trip for many fans. How an artist does that varies, but Rosalía has a foolproof tactic — putting on one of the best live shows of the last few years.
Inglewood’s Kia Forum was outfitted to look more like audience members were going to the ballet rather than a pop concert. It’s fitting because when the Spanish singer-songwriter took the stage at the Kia Forum in Inglewood on Wednesday (July 1) around 9 p.m., she was every bit the ballerina the setting called for.
Rosalía emerged from a crate brought downstage by “stagehands,” backup performers, to stand center stage as if she was in the middle of a music box. She kicked off the show with “Sexo, violencia y llantas” from her most recent album and the tour’s namesake Lux.
The album has been widely considered the singer’s best work to-date, featuring over a dozen different languages and recorded in the studio with the London Symphony Orchestra. Wednesday’s show also featured a live orchestra, which played out of an orchestra pit in the middle of the floor. Rosalía joined the musicians on the floor during one of the show’s later segments.
The show, unsurprisingly, had no shortage of celebrity inclusions or call outs. Rosalía, who starred in Euphoria season three, called out her fellow co-star and best friend, Alexa Demie, and dedicated her song “Mio Cristo Piange Diamanti” to the actress after a heartwarming speech.
Each tour stop, there’s a confessional skit, where the singer invites someone to confess — the pair are shown on separate screens to give the full effect. Rosalía invited out Marty Supreme actress Odessa A’zion to confess. The actress opted to confess on behalf of a friend. She wove a tale of her friend’s boyfriend, that she was warned about, heading off to Europe to find himself, only to be on a romantic getaway with another woman.
The confessional wasn’t the only standout moment of the night. Just before that moment, Rosalía took the stage, which had been transformed to resemble a museum, and planted herself in front of a gold frame. A flock of fans, who she later interacts with up close and personal, look on as if she’s a work of art as she belted a cover of Frankie Valli’s “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.”
The show wasn’t all slow songs and grand moments, although those standout. There were also plenty of moments that got the crowd on their feet and grooving along. “L.A., I know you didn’t come to this show just to cry, OK?” the singer asked the crowd after she finished a performance of her groundbreaking single “Berghain.” The crowd responded with a resounding cheer.
“I’m sure you came to shake some ass too,” she continued before demanding that they “turn this shit up” and leading into her 2022 song “Saoko.”
One of the most impressive and innovative designs of the entire tour can be found above the stage. An LED screen contentiously filtered through the English lyrics to each song, flashing which language was being performed before the song began.
Between Rosalía’s undeniably chic outfits, her stunning live vocals and the show’s immersive production design, the Lux tour is a can’t miss event.
Rosalía heads to San Diego Friday (July 3) and Oakland on July 6 before kicking the South American leg of the tour in Bogotá, Columbia. She’ll wrap the tour in September with two nights at Miami’s Kaseya Center.
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