During the Billboard Women in Music Awards 2023, held at the YouTube Theater in Los Angeles, Rosalía broke barriers and became the first woman to earn the Producer of the Year award. The Canadian record producer, WondaGurl, presented the award after expressing great admiration for the Catalan artist.
“Thank you so much, I want to say things in the order that my grandmother taught me, cause she recently learned how to use YouTube. I think that at some point she’s going to see this video,” joked Rosalía while giving her epic and heartfelt speech.
“The order is: First God, I’m going to thank God, second I want to thank my family that is here with me tonight, and third I want to thank my team… and all the people that I love that are in my life and that without your existence I wouldn’t be here tonight.”
Rosalía also added a bit of humor and pointed out: “This is the first time I’ve gained a chain as an award,” referring to the diamond necklace that winners receive. She said: “When I started in music, I had no idea what producing was, I had no idea what it meant to be a producer honestly.”
Continuing, she explains: “A producer’s job is a job in the shadows, only the producers know what the producers have done… It’s like 15 hours a day, non-stop … working on a sound… it comes from love, it comes from obsession… and that’s why you stay in that smallest room with no windows.”
The Spanish star admitted: “To me, it feels really special tonight… This means a lot, because I make my own music and I produce my own songs and I write my own songs. Thank you so much.. I would like to dedicate the award to all the women that are going to be producers, because I’m definitely not the first one and I’m definitely not going to be the last one.”
Rosalía ended her speech giving a shout out to Lana Del Rey: “Lana Del Rey, te quiero!” who in return replied: “To Rose, staggeringly amazing. Well, well, well deserved on being Woman of the Year.”
Watch the full speech here:
