Today, The Winsors and The Grandma have visited Soho, one of the most popular neighbourhoods in London's West End. The family has had breakfast with Rosalía,who is working here on the arrangements of her new musical project, and they have talked about cultural fusion and Nubiancommunity.
Before this wonderful and exciting meeting, the family has studied some English grammar with Adverbs of Manner and RelativePronouns.
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster in the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century.
The area was developed from farmland by Henry VIII in 1536, when it became a royal park. It became a parish in its own right in the late 17th century, when buildings started to be developed for the upper class, including the laying out of Soho Square in the 1680s.
St Anne's Church was established during the late 17th century, and remains a significant local landmark; other churches are the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory and St Patrick's Church in Soho Square. The aristocracy had mostly moved away by the mid-19th century, when Soho was particularly badly hit by an outbreak of cholera in 1854.
For much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation as a base for the sex industry in addition to its night life and its location for the headquarters of leading film companies. Since the 1980s, the area has undergone considerable gentrification. It is now predominantly a fashionable district of upmarket restaurants and media offices, with only a small remnant of sex industry venues. London's most prominent gay village is centred on Old Compton Street in Soho.
Soho's reputation as a major entertainment district of London stems from theatres such as the Windmill Theatre on Great Windmill Street and the Raymond Revuebar owned by entrepreneur Paul Raymond, and music clubs such as the 2i's Coffee Bar and the Marquee Club. Trident Studios was based in Soho, and the nearby Denmark Street has hosted numerous music publishing houses and instrument shops from the 20th century onwards.
The independent British film industry is centred around Soho, including the British headquarters of Twentieth Century Fox and the British Board of Film Classification offices. The area has been popular for restaurants since the 19th century, including the long-standing Kettner's which was visited by numerous celebrities. Near to Soho is London's Chinatown, centred on Gerrard Street and containing several restaurants and shops.
The name Soho first appears in the 17th century. The name is derived from a former hunting cry. James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, used soho as a rallying call for his men at the Battle of Sedgemoor on 6 July 1685, half a century after the name was first used for this area of London.
Soho has never been an administrative unit with formally defined boundaries; it is about 2.6 km2 in area, and is usually considered to be bounded by Shaftesbury Avenue to the south, Oxford Street to the north, Regent Street to the west, and Charing Cross Road to the east. Apart from Oxford Street, all of these roads are 19th-century metropolitan improvements. The area to the west is known as Mayfair, to the north Fitzrovia, to the east St Giles and Covent Garden, and to the south St James's. Soho is part of the West End electoral ward which elects three councillors to Westminster City Council.
The nearest London Underground stations are Oxford Circus, Piccadilly Circus, Tottenham Court Road, Leicester Square and Covent Garden.
In fiction, Robert Louis Stevenson had Dr. Henry Jekyll set up a home for Edward Hyde in Soho in his novel, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Charles Dickens referred to Soho in several of his works; in A Tale of Two Cities, Lucie Manette and her father Dr. Alexandre Manette live on Soho Square, while Golden Square is mentioned in Nicholas Nickleby, in which Ralph Nickleby has a house on the square, and the George II statue in the centre is described as mournful. Joseph Conrad used Soho as the home for The Secret Agent, a French immigrant who ran a pornography shop. Dan Kavanagh (Julian Barnes)'s 1980 novel Duffy is set in Soho.
Soho has got to be at its centre. It's got such a history for rock, pop, poetry, jazz, writers, all those things, and I think it should be valued as such, and protected as this centre for bohemia.
Today, The Newtons & TheGrandma have arrived to New York City. They are going to spend some weeks in this amazing city, enoying its people, history and places.
They have arrived with enough time to assist to the Met Gala, where they were some of the main guests. They have arrived with another compatriot, Rosalia, and they have spent a wonderful night together discovering the last tendencies infashion and design.
During their travel by plane from Barcelona to New York City, they have been studying some English grammar. They have started with the ABC, the numbers and the articles.
The Met Gala, or Met Ball, formally called the Costume Institute Gala or the Costume Institute Benefit, is an annual fundraising gala held for the benefit of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute in New York City.
It is popularly regarded as the world's most prestigious fashion event, and an invitation is highly sought after. Celebrities from various professional spheres, such as fashion, film, television, theater, music, business, sports, social media, and politics, are invited to the gala, organized by American fashion magazine Vogue.
The gala is held annually on the first Monday of May. It marks the opening of the Costume Institute's annual fashion exhibit on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Many of the attendees are depicted on the covers and pages of Vogue. Each year's event celebrates the specific theme of that year's Costume Institute exhibition, which sets the tone for the formal attire of the night. Guests are expected to curate their fashion to match the theme of the exhibit, which is generally haute couture. American journalist Anna Wintour, who is the editor-in-chief of Vogue, has chaired or co-chaired the Met Gala since 1995.
The Met Gala was established in 1948 by fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert as a fundraiser for the newly founded Costume Institute to mark the opening of its annual exhibit. The first gala was a dinner and tickets were fifty dollars each.
Over the first few decades of its existence, the Gala was simply one of many annual benefits held for New York charitable institutions. Accordingly, the attendees of the early galas were almost entirely members of New York high society or the city's fashion industry. From 1948 to 1971, the event was held at venues including the Waldorf Astoria, Central Park, and the Rainbow Room.
When
Diana Vreeland became consultant to the Costume Institute in 1972, the
Gala began to evolve into a more global and glamorous affair, although
one that was still aimed at the societal set.
The event started to become higher profile celebrity-oriented with attendees like Elizabeth Taylor, Andy Warhol, Bianca Jagger, Diana Ross, Elton John, Liza Minnelli, Madonna, and Cher intermixing with the city's elite. It was during the Vreeland years that the Gala was first held at the Met and that Gala themes were introduced.
The Gala is widely regarded as among the most prominent and most exclusive social events in the world. It is also one of the biggest fundraising nights in New York City, with US$9 million raised in 2013 and a record of $12 million the following year.
The Met Gala is one of the most notable sources of funding for the Institute, with total contributions surpassing $200 million for the first time after the 2019 event. Anna Wintour, the chairperson of the event, assumed the chairmanship of the Institute in 1995. Also, The Met Gala is held on the first Monday in May, according to Wintour. Her guest list grew to include celebrities globally from the worlds of fashion, entertainment, business, sports, and politics who would eventually grace the pages of Vogue.
Since 1948, the Met Gala has occurred consecutively each year, except in 2000 and 2002.
The 2020, the Met Gala was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Gala resumed in 2021, but was held in September rather than in May that year.
In 2022, the Gala returned to holding its traditional May ceremony.
Today, The Grandma has decided to stay at home listening to some music. She has chosen one of the best artists of the last decade, Rosalía, the Catalan singer and songwriter who was born on a day like today in 1992.
Rosalía Vila Tobella (born 25 September 1992), known mononymously as Rosalía, is a Catalansinger and songwriter from SantEsteve Sesrovires, Barcelona.
After discovering Spanish folkloric music at an early age, Rosalía graduated from Superior School of Music of Catalonia(ESMUC) with honors by virtue of her collaborative cover record with Raül Refree, Los Ángeles (2017) and the baccalaureate project El Mal Querer (Sony, 2018), which was co-produced by El Guincho on a low budget and contained modern interpretations of flamenco mixed with pop and urban.
The album, which would later win the Latin Grammy Award for Album of the Year and be listed in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2020, was released to critical acclaim and started the ascent of Rosalía into the international music scene.
Her first hit single came in 2019, when she collaborated with J Balvin on Con Altura, a reggaeton-inspired track that marked Rosalía's journey to urban music. Selling over seven million copies, it was named one of the best songs of the year by Billboard and Pitchfork and Best Urban Song by the Latin Recording Academy.
It also spawned her signature lyric and nickname La Rosalía. She later collaborated with other musicians such as Billie Eilish, Bad Bunny, Ozuna, Arca and Travis Scott, achieving multiple accolades and breaking many records.
Throughout her career, Rosalía has won a Grammy Award, eight Latin Grammy Awards, three MTV Video Music Awards, an MTV Europe Music Award, two UK Music Video Awards and two consecutive Premio Ruido for both of her studio albums, among others. In 2019, Billboard gave her the Rising Star Award for changing the sound of today's mainstream music with her fresh flamenco-influenced pop.
Rosalía was born on 25 September 1993 at the General Hospital of Catalonia in Sant Cugat del Vallès, and was raised in Sant Esteve Sesrovires, a small town in northern Barcelona.
She is the youngest daughter of Pilar Tobella, a businesswoman who has been running the family company for decades, as well as managing Motomami S.L., her own artist representation agency since late 2018. The company was created specially to manage her daughter's image, management, financial state and patrimony. Rosalía's father is José Manuel Vila, who was born in Cudillero, Asturias. She has a big sister, Pilar Vila, who works with Rosalía as her stylist.
She began her professional musical education at the age of 16 at the Taller de Músics. She did a six-year course at the academy. She began attending class at the Raval school but due to her high grades and multiple recommendations she transferred to the Superior School of Music of Catalonia (ESMUC)in order to finish her studies.
In 2012 she became the vocalist of Kejaleo, a flamenco music group featuring Jordi Franco, Roger Blavia, Cristo Fontecilla, Diego Cortés and Xavi Turull.
They released an album, Alaire, in 2013. That same year, Rosalía worked as a duo with Juan Chicuelo Gómez at the 2013 Panama International Film Festival and at the Festival Grec de Barcelona for the contemporary dance work De Carmen.
In 2013, she participated in the Association of Performing Arts Professionals (APAP) Conference in New York, and was the lead voice in the culmination of the Any Espriu 2014 at the Palau de la Música.
In 2015 she collaborated with La
Fura dels Baus on a show that premiered in Singapore. She was the
opening act for Catalan flamenco artist Miguel Poveda, accompanied by
Alfredo Lagos, at the International Music Festival of Cadaqués, and also
at the 2016 Jerez Jazz Festival. She worked with Rocío Márquez on the
presentation of her album El Niño, produced by Raül Refree, at Primavera
Sound 2015. In 2015, she also worked with clothing brand Desigual and
sang the single for their campaign jingle Last Night Was Eternal.
That same year, she released Un Millón de Veces. The song was part of the benefit album Tres Guitarras Para el Autismo. All proceeds benefited studies on autism. Through her teenage years and early twenties, she performed in musical bars and weddings. At 20, she worked as a flamenco teacher and vocal coach.
In 2016, she collaborated with Spanish rapper C. Tangana on Antes de Morirme. The song was a sleeper hit and entered the Spanish Singles Chart in 2018, after the success of Rosalía'sother work. The collaboration received international attention when it was featured on the soundtrack of the first season of Spanish Netflix show Élite (2018).
In 2016, Rosalía performed to a crowd of a hundred people at the Tablao del Carmen, a flamenco specialized venue at the Poble Espanyol, in Barcelona. In the audience was Raül Refree, whom she invited to the show.
They began working on two albums together. Rosalía signed with Universal Music later in 2016, and she relocated to California. She went on to only release Los Ángeles. The album talks about death in a dark way with aggressive guitar chords by Refree. It presents reworks of flamenco classics receiving several accolades.
She was nominated for Best New
Artist at the 18th Latin Grammy Awards. The album was released on 10
February 2017 through Universal Music and spawned two singles, Catalina, released in October 2016, and De Plata, released in August
2017. The album was very well received by critics.
Rosalía and Raül Refree embarked on a concert tour, Los Ángeles Tour, supporting their first studio album together. The tour began on 11 February 2017 in Granada and ended on 1 March 2018 at the Palau de la Música in Barcelona.
During the tour, in 2018, Spanish singer Bebe attended one of their concerts alongside Juanes, who became immediately obsessed with Rosalía and asked his manager Rebeca León to work with her. She agreed to manage her as she felt like she was a once in fifty years kind of artist.
The recording cycle for Rosalía's second studio album, El Mal Querer, began in early 2017 as her baccalaureate project, graduating from the Superior School of Music of Catalonia (ESMUC). She personally chose to work alongside Spanish musician El Guincho and spawned its concept alongside friend Ferran Echegaray, who bet on the Romance of Flamenca to follow the album's storyline. Thus, every song on the album would be a chapter of the story narrated in the anonymous Occitan novel.
Despite having no budget to produce
the record as she was an independent artist working on a university
project, Rosalía invested a lot of her own money, to the point of almost
going bankrupt. However, she continued working on it, stating that my
goal was to find a way to explain this tradition that I'm obsessed with
in the most personal way without fear and with risk. Before releasing
the album I was in debt and had no guarantees that this would work but I
had the hope that, since I was making it from my heart, whether it was a
few or many, that those people that liked it, would like it for real.
The album was almost completely
recorded at El Guincho's apartment in Barcelona with a computer, a
microphone and a sound table. It would mix traditional flamenco with
today's pop and urban music.
Later, she released the album's lead single, Malamente. Due to its intense promotion and novel sound, it caught the attention of international personalities and music critics, who all praised the track to the point that, in August, Rosalía was booked to perform at Madonna's 60th birthday bash but cancelled the gig after many logistic conflicts.
Personalities such as Kourtney Kardashian and Dua Lipa also showed their appreciation for Rosalía'snewsong, sharing it on social media. Malamente was promoted at several award shows like the 2018 MTV Europe Music Awards as well as the Latin Grammys. Its music video, directed by Canada, went viral on the Internet and was named Video of the Year by Pitchfork.
The song was nominated for five Latin Grammys, out of which Rosalía won two, for Best Alternative Song and for Best Urban Fusion/Performance. Malamente is certified five times platinum in Spain for selling over 200,000 copies and is also platinum in the US. The album's second single, Pienso en tu Mirá, was released on 24 July 2018 through Sony Music. Its music video also went viral on social media, with praise for its aesthetics and poetic symbolism.
El Mal Querer was released on 2 November 2018 and debuted at number two on the PROMUSICAE chart. It is presented as experimental and conceptual, revolving around a toxic heterosexual relationship, inspired by the anonymous 13th-century Occitan novel Flamenca.
Rosalía revealed that she had already presented the project and that she had finally earned her degree in music, with a mention in flamenco, with honors. The album also entered the charts in Belgium, Switzerland, Portugal, the Netherlands and the United States, where the album debuted at the top of the US Latin Pop Albums chart.
El Mal Querer was universally acclaimed by music critics. Writing for The Guardian, head critic Alexis Petridis highly commended the album, giving it the highest rating and describing it as the calling card of a unique new talent. He praised Rosalía's vocals for giving the album a head-turning freshness, noting that her singing style is audibly rooted in a different musical tradition to the usual styles in which pop vocalists perform.
It ended up winning all Latin Grammy awards it got nominated for: Album of the Year, Best Contemporary Pop Vocal Album, Best Engineered Album and Best Recording Package. Therefore, Rosalía became the first female recipient of the Latin Grammy Award for Album of the Year since Shakira in 2006.
Later, she released the single
Fucking Money Man, which includes two money-themed tracks: Milionària"(which she sang in Catalan) and Dios Nos Libre del Dinero. It was well
received by linguists, who praised Rosalía for singing in Catalan for showing the world her roots because, with her, the Catalan language
is able to cross borders.
On 26 January 2020 she performed at the 62nd Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, and she ended up winning the Grammy Award for Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative Album.
After Rosalía's increase in popularity with the release of Malamente in spring 2018, her music was described as a heavily exciting fusion of flamenco and modern arts. American magazine Pitchfork called the singer's voice a soft liquid velvet and wrote that Malamente consumes the listener with drums and soft synthesizers that drag you to their world completely. After releasing El Mal Querer in November 2018, The Guardian scored it with 5/5 stars and said: the Catalan singer's potent, smart second album is more complex than any Latin pop currently in the charts.
Rosalía has been accused of cultural appropriation by some Romani people because she adapts Romani customs into her style, and she draws from the flamenco music tradition, which is often thought to be from Romani people in Andalusia. However, the origin of flamenco music is not known precisely, and it probably fused musical practices from three sources: Moorish, Jewish and Romani cultures. Responding to this criticism, Rosalía said, flamenco does not belong to the Gypsies.
Rosalía has cited Camarón de la Isla, James Blake and La Niña de los Peines as her major musical influences.
When she was asked about her biggest fashion influence, she cited Lola Flores. In an interview with Billboard she said: I love her. I love the attitude and the strength she had. She also mentioned Carmen Amaya; she used to wear masculine clothes in a moment that any woman was dancing in typically-man clothing.
She is of paternal Asturian and maternal Catalan heritage. Her paternal grandparents were of Galician and Andalusian origin. Her great-grandfather was Cuban. She is fluent in Catalan, Spanish and English.
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