Rosalía appears less than vexed by the “emotional terrorist” and “peace thief” she penned a scathing kiss-off to in her new music video for “La Perla.”
The track, featuring American urban sierreño trio Yahritza y su Esencia, is a ballad that’s relatively simple in arrangement when compared to the ambitious, symphony-led instrumentals featured elsewhere on the Spanish avant-pop phenom’s new album Lux. Like her vocal delivery, the music video’s visuals are confident and carefree, as Rosalía sports armored uniforms for fencing, hockey, and even a dog-training bite suit. In between those scenes, she casually lights up a cigarette while cruising in a Lamborghini Huracan Spyder.
As Pitchfork points out, “La Perla” has received a big promotional push since Lux‘s release, inclduing a Princess and the Pea–inspired performance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last month. Soon after that, Rosalía announced a massive tour of North America and Europe. Following Lux‘s release on November 7, “La Perla” was officially released as the album’s second single on December 5 and went on to enter the the top 100 of several charts, peaking at No. 1 in Argentina, El Salvador, and Spain, No. 82 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, and No. 3 on Billboard’s U.S. Hot Latin Songs.
Commercially, Lux is a runaway hit, being Rosalía’s first to break into the Billboard 200’s top 10 in its debut week at No. 4. More impressively, she became the first artist in history to secure five No. 1 debuts across Billboard charts: the Top Latin Albums, Top Latin Pop Albums, Classical Albums, Classical Crossover, and World Albums. This also made her the first Spanish-speaking solo woman to reach No. 1 on the World Albums Chart and first Spanish-born woman to top the Classic Albums and Classical Crossover Albums charts since 1993. And if year-end “best music” lists are any indication, Rosalía is doing just as well with professional music critics. NPR Music not only named Lux the “No. 1 Album of 2025,” it compared the record to jazz saxophonist John Coltrane’s classic album A Love Supreme. And that’s a lot to blow your horn about. Watch the music video for “La Perla” below.
