I was thinking of Rosalía. The NYT is promoting her as "the one good pop star," which is pretty ridiculous. She began in Flamenco, wasn't especially popular within that subculture, went to Latin Pop, triumphed in the Latin Grammys, now is promoting an album where she sings with Bjork and uses 13 languages, including Ukrainian. A clear bid for global pop status. Lavish production and attention to image and spectacle.
Her "Mal querer" was college project, the equivalent of a M.A. thesis. It's intellectually somewhat unusual to use a medieval Occitan narrative poem as the basis of a pop or flamenco album. Traditionally, flamenco was not learned in school, but it looks like she's covering the academic / intellectual base too, making her perfect for promotion in the TIMES.
I'm not being cynical here. I think she is talented and her projects are interesting. But what is interesting is how the package is being created and marketed.
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