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Devout ABBA fans may know the name, but not every pop connoisseur will know the relevance to the group of the character “Rosalita.” But it’s part of the story behind the song that launched the Voulez-Vous album and was released by the Swedish quartet on January 16, 1979, “Chiquitita.”

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Writing and recording sessions

The song, credited to ABBA’s Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, had several working titles, most notably “In The Arms Of Rosalita.” But while that phrase was a good fit for the metre of the melody, and the group recorded a version with a full, original lyric on that theme, something wasn’t feeling right. They reworked the number extensively, keeping some of the original lyrical references as the song assumed the title “Chiquitita,” which means “little girl” in Spanish.

Browse ABBA’s music on limited edition vinyl and CDs here.

Completed at the end of 1978 at their Polar Music Studios, the track soon emerged as the favorite to be the first single from Voulez-Vous. With a sensitive lead vocal by Agnetha Fältskog, it got the nod ahead of the much more upbeat “Does Your Mother Know,” which duly became the follow-up. That decision was vindicated as “Chiquitita” turned into a massive single, topping the charts in Belgium, Finland, Ireland, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Rhodesia, South Africa, Spain, and Switzerland.

Release and reception

In the UK, ABBA had by now achieved no fewer than seven No.1 singles, but were in a run of releases that fell short of that benchmark. Indeed, it would be the summer of 1980 before they reclaimed the British chart summit, with “The Winner Takes It All.” After debuting at No.8, “Chiquitita” nearly made the top, spending two weeks at No.2 behind Blondie’s “Heart Of Glass.” In the US, where ABBA’s singles form was always somewhat patchy, it peaked at No.29.

Listen to the best of ABBA on Apple Music and Spotify.

The song received a huge global launch when ABBA performed it on January 9, a week before its release, at the Music For UNICEF charity concert, which also featured the Bee Gees, Rod Stewart, Donna Summer, and other stars. ABBA went on to donate half of all royalties from the single’s sales to UNICEF.

Spanish language version

The group also recorded a version phonetically in Spanish, which sold half a million copies in Argentina alone. That features on the Spanish language version of the multi-platinum ABBA Gold compilation, now titled Oro: Grandes Éxitos, and which has been reissued on 180g heavyweight black vinyl.

Shop ABBA’s music on limited edition vinyl and CDs here.

Having taken a five-year hiatus following 2008’s Folie a Deux, Fall Out Boy came back strongly with 2013’s chart-topping Save Rock N Roll. That record, however, was only the start of the band’s renaissance – and it continued apace when January 2015’s American Beauty/American Psycho again hit No. 1 on the U.S. charts.

The group hadn’t intended to record such a swift follow-up, but fresh inspiration struck when they went on a U.S. tour with Paramore during the summer of 2014. “Patrick [Stump] kind of came up with the idea for this song ‘Centuries,’” bassist Pete Wentz revealed in an interview with Alternative Press. “He explained to me that he wanted to fit this sample from (Suzanne Vega’s 1987 hit) “Tom’s Diner” into this kind of anthem he’d written. It didn’t seem to make sense, but when I heard it, I realized it just fits together really well.”

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The sample fit seamlessly into the song’s angst-y, guitar-driven backdrop and Fall Out Boy rush-released it as a single in the fall of 2014. Repaying the band’s faith, “Centuries” soon became a radio hit and rose to No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. Its success also suggested a new direction for the band’s next album, though they needed to recruit a new producer, Jake Sinclair, before they could fully realize the songs for American Beauty/American Psycho.

“Jake’s helped us get a little more breathing room [in our songs],” Wentz said of the producer who also helmed albums by 5 Seconds Of Summer and Panic! At The Disco. “He’s helped us understand [that] contemporary music is made a lot more piecemeal and that we can record parts that are essentially for demos on our laptop that can make it to the final product. It’s kind of like showing cavemen how to use an espresso machine!”

With Sinclair on board and the team using “Centuries” as a template of sorts, the songs for American Beauty/American Psycho came together during the fall of 2014. As Wentz later told Associated Press, Fall Out Boy wanted the record to sound “contemporary…so you can hear it on the radio” and many of its best songs achieved that aim: not least the brass-driven “Irresistible,” the quirky, XTC-esque titular song, and the brilliantly infectious “Uma Thurman,” which put a sample of the theme from the much-loved 60s sitcom The Munsters to ingenious use.

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Indeed, with “Uma Thurman” (the actress having personally given the band permission to use her name) cracking the Top 30 of the Billboard singles chart, American Beauty/American Psycho was well-placed to take the charts by storm. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and within a year went platinum. “The thing about this record, it’s challenging in the way our band needs to fight on two fronts,” Pete Wentz said in a 2015 Billboard interview. “We need to be relevant to pop culture, which means you need to be played on the radio. But we also need to care about our legacy and we want to play big shows, so we can show kids in the crowd that you can be a currently relevant rock band, but you can also sell out arenas. That’s the statement we’re making with this record.”

Buy Fall Out Boy’s American Beauty/American Psycho on vinyl here.

In the summer of 1969 while the astronauts of Apollo 11 were preparing to walk on the moon, Puerto Rican bongo player Roberto Roena was putting together a band that would take off like a rocket.

The collective excitement about the American space mission fueled by global television coverage was reaching its climax as Roena and a group of the island’s finest, heavy on the horn section, gathered for rehearsals at a restaurant called La Rue in Puerto Nuevo, outside of San Juan. By the time Neil Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface, on July 20th, the band had been opportunely christened Roberto Roena Y Su Apollo Sound and was preparing to make its debut playing the lounge at San Juan’s San Gerónimo Hilton (later renamed the Condado Plaza Hilton). Mambo king Tito Rodríguez was moving on from his gig at the hotel and recommended Roena, who would later recall in an interview published on the website Herencia Latina that the band played at midnight from Tuesday to Sunday for six months.

Browse our latin collection featuring limited edition vinyl and CDs here.

“Every day there were lines to get in,” Roena remembered. “It was an incredible show!” In the crowd were the Puerto Rican composer “Tite” Curet Alonso and the Argentine record exec Charlie Tarrab, charged with scouting talent in Puerto Rico for the groundbreaking New York label Fania. By the fall, Roberto Roena Y Su Apollo Sound was recording its debut album, the first production released on the Fania International imprint.

The Apollo Sound’s unbounded music was in sync with that euphoric summer mood generated by the space landing, a symbol of possibility during a period of tumultuous social changes. Roberto Roena Y Su Apollo Sound soars seamlessly from salsa and Afro-Cuban rumba and bolero to funk and soul. Tite Alonso, who would emerge as one of Puerto Rico’s most prolific composers of all time, signed on as musical director of the album. He also wrote “Tu Loco Loco, Y Yo Tranquilo,” the opening track, a quintessential salsa banger.

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Roena and his crew also made a salsa hit of the song “El Escapulario,” previously recorded as a dramatic copla by Pedrito Rico, a Spanish singer with a bullfighter’s air who had a fervent following in Latin America in the 1950s. The Apollo Sound lead singer Mantilla and conguero Celso Clemente give it a rumba treatment with a spare acoustic rhythm that’s pumped up to dance floor volume with a chorus of horns and voices.

“El Barrio Sin Guapo,” also by Tite Curet, namechecks the mozambique, a hyper funky Afro-Cuban style introduced by conga player Pello el Afrokán, in a song that pays tribute to Cuban music’s role as the musical cornerstone of the salsa movement. While most of the album gets down with a streetwise vibe, a cover of the beautiful Bobby Capo bolero “Soñando con Puerto Rico” plays it supper club straight.

Roena also covered a variety of English-language tracks like “Sing a Simple Song” by Sly and the Family Stone and Blood, Sweat and Tears’ “Spinning Wheel.” The album’s bilingualism comes off effortlessly thanks to the strength of a trio of Puerto Rican singers, the distinctive and under-recognized salsa singer Piro Mantilla and Félix Casiano Morales, known as Dino Guy, who drove the English songs, together with Frankie Calderon.

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Still, there was one thing lost in translation. Maybe it was Roena or someone in his band, or an employee at Fania who titled his accelerated cover of Otis Redding’s meditation “(Sittin’on) the Dock of the Bay” “El Pato de la Bahia,” instead of “El Muelle de la Bahia.” Whoever it was, they ensured that the song would forever be known to salsa fans, in Spanish, as “The Duck of the Bay.”

Shop our funk and soul collection featuring limited edition vinyl and CDs here.

Sienna Spiro is celebrating a few major milestones early in her career. The British singer-songwriter’s upcoming “The Visitor Tour” sold out within seconds, which led to the addition of new dates.

Marking Spiro’s first North American trek, it begins on March 3 at Los Angeles’ Troubadour and concludes on March 18 at New York’s Bowery Ballroom. From there, the singer heads to the UK and Europe for various dates in Dublin, London, Cologne, Paris, and more. The tour’s European legs wraps May 24.

Along with the sold-out “The Vistor Tour” news, Spiro’s “Die On This Hill” recently hit the Top 10 on the global Spotify Chart. The singer joins RAYE and Olivia Dean as the only other British artists in the global Top 10 and the only artist in that category who has yet to release her debut album. The viral ballad has scored over 173 million global streams to date, entered the Top 50 in 20 countries, and peaked at No. 9 on the UK Singles chart.

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The 20-year-old singer has built momentum with a steady run of live appearances, including a six-night opening slot on Sam Smith’s New York residency and joining Teddy Swims on a North American run. She’s also performed renditions of “Die On This Hill” on Later… with Jools Holland, The Today Show, and most recently on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

“‘Die On This Hill’ means a lot of things to me — but ultimately, whenever I hear it, I’m so reminded of myself. One thing I pride myself on is my loyalty. It takes a lot for me to let people in, but once I do, I’m locked in for that person, which is a blessing and a curse,” Spiro has said of writing the ballad. “I often find myself in situations where I’m losing myself to help others find who they are, and I think what I sometimes mask as stubbornness is really just a deep fear of only being a visitor to someone, and not meaning as much to them as they do to me. So in short, I think the phrase ‘Die On This Hill’ feels like loyalty to me — and also that what’s sometimes masked as stubbornness is really just a fear of being temporary to someone.”

Last month, Spiro was shortlisted for the BRIT Awards’ 2026 Critics’ Choice Award alongside Jacob Alon (whose In Limerence debut was also shortlisted for the 2025 Mercury Prize) and pop singer Rose Gray. The 2026 BRIT Awards will take place on February 28 in Manchester’s Co-Op Live Arena.

Listen to Sienna Spiro’s “Die on This Hill” now.

The man who once told you “I hope I’m old before I die” now finds himself 51 and wrapped up in legacy. In the decade since Robbie Williams’ last album, 2016’s ‘The Heavy Entertainment Show’, we’ve seen a tell-all Netflix doc (so intimate he’s rarely out of his bed or underwear) and divisive biopic Better Man (in which you got to see him on smack and getting wanked off as a monkey). The latter, he once told NME, was a watershed moment to kickstart the “third act” of his career. That too, will begin with Williams looking back.

• READ MORE: Robbie Williams on working with Tony Iommi, ‘BRITPOP’, Glastonbury and his bromance with Soft Play

“I set out to create the album that I wanted to write and release after I left Take That in 1995,” he said in a statement announcing 13th album ‘Britpop’. In the place of the indie-driven arena pop of his 1997 debut ‘Life Thru Lens’ – that birthed partystarter ‘Let Me Entertain You’ and Oasis-indebted wedding basic ‘Angels’ – we are to imagine that this takes us back to a halcyon era and analogue days of Cool Britannia.

Black Sabbath icon Tony Iommi joins in on the scuzzy pub rock belter opener ‘Rocket’, a daft but deft earworm that captures the album’s mantra of looking to the past but living for now: “What a time to be alive”. Then, ‘Spies’ is a Robbie-by-numbers lighters up pre-encore ballad, in the lineage of ‘Strong’ and ‘Come Undone’ but with a lot more guitar oomph.

The album’s pretty equally split between bravado and ballads. ‘Pretty Face’ bursts open with Elastica and Republica energy before a simple but oh-so-Robbie everyman chorus. If you thought he’d finished rapping with the career cringe torpedo of ‘Rudebox’, look away. Man’s spitting bars for better or worse on ‘Bite Your Tongue’ and ‘You’: two old-school Kasabian nonsense spitfires that bid you to “make Jared Leto out of Lego” and deploy Super Hans politics (“Wham bam, ain’t it a scam: Afghanistan and Vietnam”).

Supergrass legend Gaz Coombes lends a hand on ‘Cocky’, pumped by the glam-rock stomp of ‘Blockbuster’ by Sweet, while the Disneyfied orchestral sweep of ‘It’s OK Until The Drugs Stop Working’ is a ballsy Tony Christie meets Blur sing-along delivered with a little cheek and a self-knowing wink: “I have to smile when she offers me protection”.

Among the slower numbers, ‘All My Life’ trudges like a latter day Oasis or Liam G solo cut albeit with words by David Brent (“My life is based on a true story: one of dreams, chaos and audacity”), ‘Human’ is a countrified ode to letting it be, and ‘Morrissey’ (co-written by and featuring former Take That pal Gary Barlow) is a thoroughly silly electropop 2025 rework of ‘Stan’ told by the stalker of The Smiths misanthrope. Heaven knows it’s more fun than it sounds.

Closing with the bookend of the tender reprise ‘Pocket Rocket’, ‘Britpop’ ends with a little resolve: “I just wanna be your rock, yeah”. He’s standing firm. Rather than neck a BuzzBall on a Lime Bike and do his take on ‘Brat’, Robbie knows his game and has done a record for himself. An album to be remembered for? Probably not, but it’s bold, it’s a laugh, and he’s done it his way. That’s what makes him Robbie. For that alone, he’ll live forever.

Details

• Record label: Columbia
• Release date: January 16, 2026

The post Robbie Williams – ‘Britpop’ review: a love letter to the ’90s and bid to live forever appeared first on NME.