Spotify Will Show You the Translated Lyrics for Rosalía’s New LUX Album

Spanish singer Rosalía released LUX, her fourth album, on November 7, and aside from hearing how often people talk about many of the songs just being flat-out bangers, it’s been the topic on the tip of people’s tongues for another reason: she sings in 13 languages on LUX.

Aside from her native Catalan and Spanish, she sings in Japanese, Ukrainian, Arabic, Latin, Sicilian, and others. And people want to know: what does it all mean?

Seems like the perfect album on which Spotify could quietly test a new lyric translation tool.

a quiet release

People streaming LUX on Spotify noticed a new option almost right away: an option to have the various lyrics translated into English. Not everybody saw the option, though. It seemed to be tied to certain countries. The US was one. Rosalía’s native Spain was another.

Spotify has remained mum on the subject of Rosalía’s LUX album lyrics being available for translation in the US. No press release, no official post on Spotify’s blog. For at least two years, Spotify has been rumored to be testing an automatic translation tool for song lyrics.

Back in September 2023, it talked about introducing such a tool for podcasters, but there hasn’t been much said about it moving to the musical side of Spotify lately. LUX’s release brought it to the forefront of the industry’s mind once again.

Speaking to TechRadar, a Spotify spokesperson told them that “Rosalía’s album is among the first to feature lyrics translations in 13 different languages through Spotify’s expanded MusixMatch partnership.

“With the integration now live in key markets like the US and Spain (as of November 7), listeners worldwide can instantly understand her lyrics, bridging the gap between her sound and global audience.”

Who knows when, or even if, we’ll see the tool rolled out for a similar album. But then again, when was the last time you heard of an album with 13 languages on it?