The Ministry of Culture announced the decision in Madrid on 7 October 2026. Rosalía received Spain's National Award for Current Music, officially titled Premio Nacional de las Músicas Actuales, for LUX. INAEM administers the prize, which includes €30,000.
The award puts a hard-to-classify record at the centre of Spain's official recognition of current music. It also shows how far LUX moved beyond the usual pop album format.
The ministry called LUX an ambitious and new musical proposal, describing it as transformative and as a work that expands creative limits. Its assessment also pointed to recognition from critics and the public. The jury's decision so covered both the album's experimentation and its reach.
LUX is split into four acts, with Rosalía singing in 13 languages. That structure sets it apart from a standard album and gives the record the scale of a composed work rather than a set of unrelated songs.
The album brings together Sílvia Pérez Cruz and Carminho, with Björk and Estrella Morente also contributing. Rosalía also made it with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Londres. The orchestra adds another layer to a project built around several languages and contrasting musical traditions. The jury also highlighted Rosalía's contribution to promoting Spanish music internationally and her ability to bring different performers together in making her music.
A year of carefully sustained promotion came before the release. Rosalía turned a presentation in central Madrid into a major public event, then filled the internet with clues and speculation before LUX came out on 5 November.
The campaign matched music that resisted easy labels. Rosalía did not follow one dominant style or copy the most visible stars of the moment. Instead, she used the album to build a wider artistic language.
The jury linked LUX to an international career shaped by research and risk, as Rosalía searched for a personal sound across genres and styles while drawing on different eras. RTVE described the award as recognition of the album's artistic significance and transformative ambition.
The honour also ties LUX to an earlier winner. Sílvia Pérez Cruz, who appears on the album, received the same National Award for Current Music in 2022.
The honour followed the release of LUX in 2025 and came after Rosalía's world concert cycle. Spanish press reports put that tour between March and September 2026. The wider context of Rosalía's award was reported earlier while attention focused on the album's place in Spain's music scene.
Spain's Ministry of Culture has now singled out a record spanning four acts and 13 languages, with international collaborators working alongside orchestral production. EFE reported that the jury saw LUX as an ambitious and new project recognized by critics and the public.
