The patron saint Rosalia of Palermo was a preteen Sicilian girl from a well-to-do family in the 1100s who, facing an arranged marriage, renounced her wealth and cloistered herself in nearby mountain caves to pray for the rest of her life. Catalonia’s premier pop star, Rosalía, invokes her namesake’s defiantly shaven head in her new single, “Reliquia.” Following a broken engagement with the Puerto Rican singer-songwriter Rauw Alejandro in 2023, Rosalía compares her incremental loss of innocence to a crumbling religious figurine losing hands, eyes, and more to time and travel. Her heart, the second verse advises, has never been her own, and her fate is to give endlessly of herself. Is Rosalía singing about desire, fame, or faith? Was this song for Rauw, for us ear-hustlers, or for God?

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