Amaia Romero’s fourth album will be especially important, as it will be her first release after signing with Sony Music. With Universal he published his first three albums, as a result of his link with ‘Operación Triunfo’, and now begins a new stage in a company that, like Universal, has experience working with Spanish artists who have managed to transcend our borders.
The signing of Amaia by Sony Music is generating conversation around one possibility: that they try to internationalize her. It is not confirmed that this is the objective, but it would not be unreasonable to think so. After her time on Tiny Desk, Amaia has received more international attention than ever. It has also been rumored that he would have signed Rosalía’s former manager, Rebeca León, although this is not confirmed either.
In any case, it is not necessary to go to Rosalía to see that Spanish pop is experiencing a particularly interesting moment. For some time now, proposals such as those of Rusowsky, Guitarricadelafuente, Judeline, Ralphie Choo or Amaia herself seem to be innovating more than much of Anglo pop, too often trapped in continuous revival. A curious fact: Bb trickz is not the first Spanish artist to work closely with Benny Blanco; Ralphie Choo already did it a long time ago, although we still do not know the result of that collaboration.
The creative moment is so good that artists like Ravyn Lenae have worked with Rusowsky or Judeline appears on Karol G’s new album as a guest artist and composer. And the interesting thing is that none of them have had to assimilate to international pop to arouse interest outside. They have not had to give up their uniqueness nor, much less, stop taking risks. Precisely these characteristics seem to be arousing curiosity.
Rosalía and C. Tangana already demonstrated that it was possible to internationalize Spanish pop without hiding its origin. But both had codes that were relatively easy to identify outside: flamenco, copla, Latin music, the Spanish imagination… Rosalía also went through reggaeton and urban codes that already had a global language. Amaia is hardly going to do that. And it wouldn’t make much sense either.
Amaia’s internationalization of course does not have to go through the United States or singing in English. Latin America could be a much more natural path, starting with a market that shares a language and where artists like Julieta Venegas or Natalia Lafourcade have built enormous careers. The Latin Grammys and that whole circuit could be a good path for Amaia without needing to turn her into another artist.
Because Amaia is a very Spanish artist, but not in a traditional or folkloric sense. She is closely linked to indie and a scene that includes names like Amore or Rebe – who has just been interviewed on NPR – and above all she has a personality marked by a naturalness that is difficult to manufacture. We recently saw her live again, starring in another of those endearing and hilarious moments that only seem possible with Amaia.
“It’s not that that’s the second part, you don’t know it either” pf no one like her male pic.twitter.com/mRE9usBm8x
— andrea ོ☼ (@xqueapareciste) August 9, 2026
Amaia’s naturalness may be one of the things that most makes her Spanish and, at the same time, one of the most difficult to translate abroad. Rosalía could bring flamenco to the world, but Amaia would have to bring something much less concrete, her way of being, of singing, of writing and even of making mistakes.
That is why it is so interesting to think about a possible internationalization of Amaia. It never occurs to anyone to think that they need to become more urban, more Latin or more “global” to achieve this. If it works, it will have to be precisely for the opposite, because outside the somewhat naïve, strange, natural and deeply singular Amaia that we already know here will also be of interest.
It may be more difficult to sell than Rosalía’s flamenco or C. Tangana’s imagery, but it would also be a much more interesting test of how far Spanish pop can go right now. The question is not so much if Sony can make Amaia international, but if it can get people outside of Spain to want to meet her without Amaia ceasing to be Amaia.
