Billie Eilish sings in Spanish on new single featuring Rosalía

PROBABLY the most world-famous Spanish music artist of the moment, Rosalía, has teamed up with another new-ish global sensation in a duet that fans of either or both had been secretly dreaming about.

Irish-American alternative-electropop vocalist Billie Eilish – instantly recognisable in person for her black hair with lime-green roots – sings in Spanish for the first time with ¿Lo Vas a Olvidar?, which translates literally as, “Are you going to forget it?” but which, in the English-language lines, comes out as, “Can you let it go?”

Rosalía, despite being born and bred in the province of Barcelona, is primarily a flamenco singer – a traditional style native to the southern region of Andalucía – and, in fact, her first commercial studio album as a solo artist was her graduation-year project for her university degree in Flamenco Studies.

Her unique style has been described as 'flamenco-hip hop', and the lyrics of ¿Lo Vas a Olvidar? Are sung in the regional accent of Andalucía, which is famous for the elision of final syllables that start with a 'd', and with the 's' and the 'r' on the end of others.

Billie is currently best known for her haunting-but-catchy hit Bad Guy, although she has produced dozens of songs and her début EP, Don't Smile at Me, came out in 2017, followed up two years later by her first album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?

She is also the first 21st-century artist to have openly admitted to having Tourette's Syndrome.

Her Dido-esque singing voice and style, very similar to those of renowned Belgian late-'90s singer Axelle Red, turns out to be a perfect complement for Rosalía's own – although, despite the new single being in Rosalía's language, Billie is the 'main' artist and the 26-year-old Spaniard is the 'featured' vocalist. 

'Haunting' is likely to be a much-used adjective for ¿Lo Vas a Olvidar? Once it gets into heavy rotation on the world's radio stations, more so than Bad Guy, since the less-conventional nature of the latter is made more 'accessible' by the background electronic dance beats.

¿Lo Vas a Olvidar? Is fairly dark, and is also the soundtrack for the second season of the cult HBO series Euphoria, starring the burgeoning household name Zendaya.

Although music-lovers who are familiar with the work of both Billie Eilish and Rosalía have long fantasised about a duet between them, many were not aware that their dream artist combination had already been in the pipeline for some time – Rosalía had been preparing their joint release as far back as 2019 and, whilst far from top-secret, the pairing-up had not been shouted to the four winds and is recent news even to avid devotees of both young women's music.

The single has just been released, and there is speculation that the collaboration could later turn out to be a 'before-and-after' moment in Rosalía's career.

She is already well-known across the pond, having won an MTV award and a Latin Grammy nomination, been contacted by Alicia Keys to help with her Spanish pronunciation on a forthcoming single, and British actor James Corden has said he wants her on his US-based The Late Late Show.

Last year alone, she made the cover of Elle, modelled for M.A.C. cosmetics launching her own charity lipstick and, at home in Spain, released her own clothing collection through Inditex's budget streetwear chain Pull&Bear.

The above photograph of Rosalía (left) and Billie Eilish (right) comes from the official video for their new single, directed by Nabil Elderkin, who has previously worked with Frank Ocean, Kendrick Lamar and Kanye West.