A single lyric line hid a Spanish word that didn't actually exist — not even in the dictionary. That was Rosalía's first reaction when she got Bono's text.
On the October 7 episode of "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," Rosalía told host Jimmy Fallon about this strange exchange. She and U2 frontman Bono have never actually met face-to-face — their entire relationship has played out over text messages. It all started when Bono was writing a song called "The Mirror Maker (Rosalía)," track four on U2's new album "Carnaval De Luz."
"I don't know him in person, but he texted me and told me he was working on a new project, a song called 'The Mirror Maker,'" Rosalía told Fallon. Bono then asked her whether a few lines of Spanish lyrics he'd written actually made sense. Rosalía recalled one particular word threw her completely — "I had never heard this word before" — and after checking, she discovered it simply didn't exist in standard Spanish.
Her advice to Bono was blunt: "I don't know, but you could just invent your own language."
Rosalía called the whole thing "unbelievable," and mentioned she grew up listening to U2, even humming a few bars of "With Or Without You." "Bono is a legend," she said. "This is insane."
Bono had already spilled the backstory on the song last month, calling Rosalía an "extraordinary artist." "We usually write songs about people who are in jail or dead," he joked at the time, "this one's purely to celebrate someone, just because she's an extraordinary artist." He said he was particularly fixated on Rosalía's 2025 album "Lux," whose themes of spirituality and "re-enchantment" happened to overlap with ideas U2 was exploring on "Carnaval De Luz." "She got there before we did, which is both annoying and inspiring," Bono said.
The song's origins actually go way back — The Edge wrote an early demo around 2017 called "Kuti Rocker," inspired by Fela Kuti. Producer Jacknife Lee revealed the version that finally made the album was the 196th revision. Bono also mentioned he got so nervous about reaching out directly to Rosalía for permission to use her name — worried it would seem too forward — that he called a mutual friend, Penélope Cruz, for help: "I called Penélope and said, 'What do I do?' I said, 'I feel like a stalker.'"
By comparison, Rosalía's collaboration with another Irish band was much more straightforward. She lends her voice to Fontaines D.C.'s upcoming fifth album "Dopamine Chamber," on the track "Where Is Gone?" The album drops October 16 via XL Recordings. Before that, Rosalía will serve as the musical guest on "Saturday Night Live" this weekend, with the October 10 episode hosted by Shane Gillis. As for U2's "Carnaval De Luz," it's slated for release on November 13, with closing track "Torn" featuring one of Dolly Parton's final recorded vocals before her death.
