Rosalía sells out O2 Arena in London, jokes about Royal Albert Hall dream

Rosalía told fans at London's O2 Arena that she always dreamed of singing at the Royal Albert Hall while studying music in Barcelona. "When I was studying music in Barcelona, I always dreamt of singing in one very specific place," she said, before adding with comic timing: "And that place is the Royal Albert Hall." She repeated, "I would say it constantly to myself: The Royal Albert Hall, the Royal Albert Hall, the Royal Albert Hall. And I never did it. But now I've sold out the O2 twice. God bless London!"

The comment came during a massive show that highlighted her rise as a global pop star. The Barcelona-born artist drew on her flamenco training to build a career blending opera, classical music, hip-hop and mamba across multiple languages and styles.

She has found unusual success in the UK, where fans have long resisted non-English music. In February, she won the Brit Award for best international artist. This week, she performed for 40,000 fans over two nights at the O2, a venue four times the size of the Albert Hall.

Fans arrived wearing lace mantillas and carrying votive candles on Tube trains filled with Spanish slang. Rosalía opened with breathtaking vocals and set pieces drawing on religious and secular iconography.

She appeared as the Mona Lisa and an Edgar Degas ballerina. She asked the audience to teach her an English accent, danced freely and played with ideas of devotion, fame and idol worship. The show drew from her fourth album, Motomami, an exploration of the human condition that questions the divide between earthly and holy realms.

The 33-year-old shifted between pure and devilish personas. "I fit in the world / And the world fits into me," she sang on La Yugular. "I contradict myself / I transform," she added during a powerful version of Saoko from her second album, Motomami.

The performance began with Rosalía as a music box ballerina, her movements limited as dancers carried her onstage. She gained freedom, dancing en pointe on Porcelana and delivering emotional vocals on the operatic Mio Cristo Piange Diamante.

In the third act, she drank wine before Sauvignon Blanc, a ballad about giving up worldly goods for love, then led a rave on Cuuuuuuuuuute with an incense burner, smoke and strobe lights.

Halfway through, she sang Frankie Valli's Can't Take My Eyes Off You as the Mona Lisa to fans invited onstage. She then brought out pop star Lola Young to a confessional booth.

Young shared a story about her ex-boyfriend's phone ringing during sex. He left to take the call, unaware it stayed connected to the Bluetooth speaker. "And I heard his wife asking him to bring back nappies for his kids," Young said.

"What did you do?" Rosalía asked. "I lost the plot," Young replied. "And then I thought, 'I'll go back to [dating] women.'"

Rosalía transitioned to La Perla, reportedly about her former fiancé Rauw Alejandro, with lyrics on an "emotional terrorist" proud of his bra collection. Dancers transformed her into the Venus de Milo, a bride and an angel. The track from Motomami sparked a big sing-along, with English translations on screens. A teleprompter at the back helped her navigate 14 languages and dialects.