As revealed in Rolling Stone‘s recent U2 cover story, Bono is a huge Rosalía fan — so huge that he wrote a song about her, “The Mirror Maker (Rosalía),” for U2’s upcoming album, Carnaval De Luz, and texted to ask her for permission. In a new interview on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Rosalía told her side of the story. “I don’t know Bono,” she told Jimmy Fallon. “But he texted me. And he told me that he had this new project, this new song. ‘The Mirror Maker,’ I think it’s called.”
“He was asking me if certain words made sense,” she said, including one word that sounded something like “mamole.” “I was like, ‘I never heard this word. I don’t know what that means.’ I did some research, and it didn’t exist in standard Spanish. So I just told him, ‘You know, I don’t know, but feel free to invent your own language!'”
She called the whole thing “insane” and “mind-blowing,” noting that she grew up with U2’s music. “When I was a kid, I used to hear his songs,” she said, singing a bit of “With or Without You.” “He’s great. He’s a legend.”
“The Mirror Maker (Rosalía)” is the fourth track on Carnaval De Luz, U2’s first album of new material in nine years, out Nov. 13. Bono told Rolling Stone that the song was a departure for the band. “We normally just write songs about people in jail or dead people,” he said. “You know, dead heroes, or trying to get them out of jail. This is just celebrating somebody just because they’re an extraordinary artist.” He also mentioned that her 2025 instant-classic Lux hit some of the same themes he was trying to include on U2’s new album: “She’s arrived at the same point just before us, which is annoying and also really inspiring.”
Bono called a mutual friend, Penélope Cruz, for advice about on how to get in touch. “I called Penélope: ‘What am I gonna do?'” he said. “‘Just call her’ … I’m like, ‘I look like a stalker.'” He said Rosalía has “been really encouraging, and made me laugh a lot,” and that the two have bonded over their shared love of the poet Federico García Lorca.
During her Tonight Show interview, Rosalía also talked about El Confesionario, the viral segment on her sold-out, just-concluded Lux tour where guests including Chappell Roan, Karol G, and Marcello Hernández joined her onstage to make confessions before the song “La Perla.” “So many people came throughout the whole tour, and it was really amazing to hear them,” she said. “I just love listening to other people’s stories, and it seemed like people were excited to share.”
Rosalía is the musical guest on Saturday Night Live this weekend.
