Rosalía – Malamente – Cultural Appropriation or Inspiration?

Rosalía’s new song, Malamente, has outraged certain sectors of the gypsy community – and the Andalusian community – to include symbols typical of the calé imagery, in an exercise that offenders describe as “cultural appropriation”. The critics are basing on the fact that the artist uses aesthetic elements of oppressed people from a position of privilege, without having to internalize with them, without respecting their roots. The gypsy activist Noelia Cortés believes that Rosalia “uses the gypsies as something cool to incorporate into her disguise, but we do not care socially.”