What Is Rosalía’s Song “Berghain” About? Lyrics, Context, & Themes

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Popular music critic and musician Chantal Nicole shares her opinions about the Spanish pop icon’s lush new single

Co-authored by Chantel Nicole and Luke Smith, MFA

Last Updated: January 21, 2026 Fact Checked

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• Lyrics & Translation
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• Lyrical Analysis
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• Background & Context
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• Video Meaning
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• About Björk & Yves Tumor
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• Video

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Rosalía has made tsunami-sized waves in the pop music scene with her orchestral single “Berghain,” which comes ahead of her hotly anticipated new album, Lux. The Spanish pop star is known for pushing the envelope, and she continues to as she sings in both German and Spanish on the single in a bold, operatic style. But what is “Berghain” about, and what is Rosalía saying? We’ll show you the translated lyrics and give you our full analysis of the single, as well as its music video and the song’s background, with help from popular music critic and musician Chantal Nicole.

What is “Berghain” about?

Popular music critic and musician Chantal Nicole says “Berghain” is a song about an all-consuming love where two people become very intertwined, and it isn’t sustainable. Rosalía sings about giving so much of herself that she loses herself. The song title is a reference to the Berlin nightclub Berghain.

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Section 1 of 5:

Berghain Lyrics and Translation

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   English lyrics On “Berghain,” Rosalía sings in both German and Spanish, with the featured artists, Björk and Yves Tumor, singing in English. The original lyrics are powerful on their own, but are also moving when translated into English:

   • Choir (German): His fear is my fear / His rage is my rage / His love is my love / His blood is my blood.
   • Rosalía (German): The flame penetrates my brain / Like a lead teddy bear / I keep many things in my heart / That's why my heart is so heavy
   • Choir (German): [Repeat]
   • Rosalía (Spanish): I know very well what I am / Tenderness for coffee / I'm just a sugar cube / I know that the heat melts me / I know how to disappear / When you come, that's when I leave
   • Choir (German): [Repeat]
   • Björk (English): The only way to save us is through divine intervention / The only way I will be saved (Is through) divine intervention
   • Yves Tumor (English): I'll f*ck you till you love me / I'll f*ck you till you love me / I'll f*ck you till you love me / Till you love me / Till you love me [Repeats]

   Meet the wikiHow Expert

   Chantel Nicole is a New York–based recording artist, songwriter, and pop music podcast host. Chantel has released music across a wide range of genres, including K-pop, Latin Pop, R&B, Alternative, and Pop.
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   Original lyrics Here are the original, untranslated lyrics:

   • Choir (German): Seine Angst ist meine Angst / Seine Wut ist meine Wut / Seine Liebe ist meine Liebe / Sein Blut ist mein Blut
   • Rosalía (German): Die Flamme dringt in mein Gehirn ein / Wie ein Blei-Teddybär / Ich bewahre viele Dinge in meinem Herzen auf / Deshalb ist mein Herz so schwer
   • Choir (German): [Repeat]
   • Rosalía (Spanish): Yo sé muy bien lo que soy / Ternura pa'l café / Solo soy un terrón de azúcar / Sé que me funde el calor / Sé desaparecer / Cuando tú vienes es cuando me voy
   • Choir (German): [Repeat]
   • Björk (English): The only way to save us is through divine intervention / The only way I will be saved (Is through) divine intervention
   • Yves Tumor (English): I'll f*ck you till you love me / I'll f*ck you till you love me / I'll f*ck you till you love me / Till you love me / Till you love me [Repeats]
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Section 2 of 5:

Berghain Lyrical Analysis

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   On “Berghain,” the chorus gives high drama to a passionate relationship. The chorus on Berghain is sung by a choir singing in German. They sing, “His fear is my fear / His rage is my rage / His love is my love / His blood is my blood.” It’s a bold, feverish, and overwhelming declaration of a powerful kind of love, one that makes the people involved inseparable, nearly the same person. What one feels, the other feels as well.

   • Nicole says Rosalía creates an avant-garde operatic spectacle, especially with the song’s dramatic lyrics and her vocal style, as well as having Björk on it. She says that recent pop music has been very loud and bright; in contrast, “Bergain” sounds deep and dark. “On top of that, you [need] translations to understand, but you feel something,” Nicole explains.
   • So many voices singing make the vibe epic and full of drama, elevating the song way past normal pop aesthetics.
   • Of course, when two people are so infatuated and devoted to each other, it can be a recipe for disaster, as we’ll see in the verses.
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   Rosalía’s verses reveal a one-sided relationship unraveling. Nicole says “Bergain” is about being in a relationship where you’re really interwoven with the other person. While the chorus sings of a powerful connection, Rosalía’s own words reveal another story. She sings in a grandiose, flamenco-inspired operatic style, saying that her heart is “like a lead teddy bear,” heavy and full of emotion, but also locked and repressed. In her next verse, she sings of fire and heat that melts her like a sugar cube in coffee, quickly disappearing, and that when the other person comes, “that’s when I leave.”

   • This suggests a one-sided relationship that’s passionate and fiery, but lopsided. The speaker feels suffocated or invisible while the other person is present and dominating, and the speaker takes a backseat and draws into themself while the other person blazes bright.
   • “It's like [Rosalía] says, ‘His fear is my fear, his anger is my anger, his love is my love, his blood is my blood.’ It's almost like you become one person” says Nicole.
   • “There’s something about not knowing where you begin and the other person ends that can happen, and we don't even realize there's a symbiosis going on,” Nicole states. “If it's a healthy love, it can go really well, it can flow in this nice cycle. But if it's toxic, it can become something very dangerous.”
   • Rosalía also suggests that she lives in service of the other person, comparing herself to a sugar cube in coffee, giving herself up to make their life sweeter and better, even while the speaker herself fades away.
   • This links back to the chorus. The speaker has dedicated herself so much to her love that she’s become her love, and also lost herself in the process.
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   Björk and Yves Tumor’s verses are desperate attempts to save the love. Björk’s voice cuts through the choir, singing that the only way to save the relationship is through “divine intervention,” suggesting that it’d take a miracle for things to improve. It’s a desperate plea that matches the grandeur of the choir behind her, as though begging God to step in and do something before the speaker fades away altogether.

   • Yves Tumor has a single, uncomfortable line that’s chopped and remixed: “I’ll f*ck you till you love me.” It serves as a final desperate plan to save the relationship through sex, as though if the speaker offers up enough of herself, things will be alright.
   • Tumor’s line is remixed and warped, suggesting that the idea isn’t exactly a viable one, but instead a twisted and misguided attempt to save a sinking ship.
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Section 3 of 5:

Berghain Background & Context

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1. 1
   Berghain is a famous nightclub in Berlin. The Berlin nightclub is notoriously difficult to get into and has a “no photos” policy. It’s a hotspot for Berlin nightlife, and has earned for itself quite the reputation in the electronic and dance music scenes. In an interview with The Guardian, Rosalía explained that “Berghain” literally means “mountain grove” and is a portmanteau of the names of the nightclub’s adjoining neighborhoods (Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain) reflecting the song’s own clashing, patchwork nature.

   • In the interview, she says, "We all have this forest of thoughts inside us where you could get lost,” she says. “I’m not glorifying evil, but darkness is present in life. It makes me think of a quote I really like: ‘The artist who walks beside the devil, putting a hand on his shoulder, can expand our understanding of wickedness.’"
   • Writing for Ara, Magda Polo Pujadas describes the club as “a temple of techno music…[which] serves as an opportunity for Rosalía to experience something that goes beyond metamorphosis, transfiguration and mutation (as she did with Motomami), as she seeks salvation from an irreparable wound in the heart.”
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   The song might be about Rosalía’s recently called-off engagement. During an interview with Le Magazine du Monde, Rosalía expressed admiration for Saint Rosalía, a hermit who canceled her wedding the day before, which Rosalía (the singer) said was an “incredible” coincidence, but didn’t say why. Fans speculate it’s because Rosalía may have also called off her wedding to Rauw Alejandro. Nobody knows the specifics (yet), but what has been confirmed is that the two of them are no longer together.

   • Nicole says there’s a new depth now that Rosalía has experienced a loss of love.
   • “Rosalía's lore as an artist is very interesting,” she says. “She’s had a lot of ebbs and flows in terms of tempo choices and sonic choices. Early Rosalía was very avant-garde pop. She was using elements of flamenco to make herself stand out.”
   • “And then Motomami was like this fun, fierce pop,” Nicole continues. Even songs like “Chicken Teriyaki” and “Hentai,” which weren’t particularly substantial, still had a lot of depth. She says the new song feels like a return to Rosalía’s more avant-garde roots.
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   The song is a part of Rosalía’s bigger project on her new album, Lux. The singer’s new album is super hyped at this point, and for good reason. Rosalía is an experimental artist determined to show us new horizons, and she’s aiming for just that with this album. She told NPR, “I've experienced different things through all these years of traveling and being exposed to other music and being exposed to other cultures. And all of that I think I carry with me with so much love, and I'm like, I want this to be part of this album.”

   • On the album, Rosalía sings in 13 different languages and borrows mystical motifs from many different religions and spiritual practices.
   • In the same interview, Rosalía indicated that the album would be anchored by the idea of “feminine mysticism” and ways women across time and space have “navigated love, lust, and mortality.”
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Section 4 of 5:

Berghain Music Video Meaning

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   The Berghain music video depicts how emotions can be overwhelming. In the music video, we see Rosalía enter an apartment wearing black, like she’s in mourning. She opens the curtain to reveal an orchestra that follows her and plays while she irons a skirt, scrubs a tub, makes a twin bed, and takes the bus to a doctor’s office and a jeweler’s.

   • The orchestra is thundering and loud, but still Rosalía pays it little attention as she tries to go about her day, crowded with people and noise.
   • The orchestra juxtaposed with everyday tasks can represent how emotions can haunt and follow you, even when you’re trying to live normally—especially emotions like heartbreak and romantic anxiety.
   • Nicole explains that Rosalía had a lot of momentum built up from Motomami, plus the lore surrounding her relationship, and a lot more eyes on her. “To release this [song] with the music video, and the chaos within it… it's very striking, very artistic,” she notes.
   • “People are looking for something that represents art,” Nicole says. “Something that represents an artist, but also gives something brand new to pop. No one else is really doing it on a mass scale like [Rosalía].”
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   Rosalía depicts herself as part of a modern fairy tale. When Rosalía returns to her apartment, it’s dark and transformed into a woodland scene. Rosalía herself wears a red bow, like Snow White, and animals come from the shadows to interact with her before they begin to shift and mutate into contorting dancers.

   • This might suggest that Rosalía’s fairy tale romance is falling apart. What was once cheerful and whimsical is now a nightmare.
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   The video is dripping with religious iconography. Near the start of the video, we see a rosary wrapped around Rosalía’s foot. An icon of the Sacred Heart of Jesus hangs on the wall, echoing the dented heart locket Rosalía tries to get fixed. At the tub, Rosalía kneels before a cross-shaped window, as if in prayer. The video is full of small references like these that hint at a more elevated, religious experience that the speaker in the song might be experiencing.

   • In her interview with NPR, Rosalía explained, “Mysticism is the inspiration. It's not trying to fit too much into specific codes, but more of what is my truth, what is my faith, and how can I explain this and put it into words, which is so hard?”
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Section 5 of 5:

Who are Björk & Yves Tumor?

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   Björk is a legendary experimental and electronic musician. Björk, born 1965, is an Icelandic pop artist known for pushing boundaries and trailblazing new sounds. She gained popularity in the band The Sugarcubes, then went on to release solo music, starting with her album Debut in 1993, which resulted in several hit singles. Björk is known for her fusion of genres like jazz, electronic, industrial, folk, and many, many more.

   • Speaking with the New York Times, Rosalía said, “[Björk] is my favorite woman and artist. I thought that she was the most fascinating human I’ve ever met because her train of thought was so different than I’ve ever seen before. It was just an instant crush of admiration.”
   • Rosalía went on to say, “We stayed in touch and I just felt like with this album, if this was such a strong, demanding musical exercise, if I was doing it good enough, maybe, I would send it to her, and if it was in the right level, maybe then she couldn’t say no.”
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   Yves Tumor is a bold and daring experimental pop artist. Tumor, whose real name is sometimes listed as Sean Bowie and other times as Rahel Ali, is an enigmatic figure in the music scene. They were raised in Tennessee and cut their teeth in LA’s experimental music scene. They blend elements of industrial and R&B to make a thoroughly strange, sometimes ugly, often beautiful music catalogue.

   • Tumor, while marking a dramatic tone shift for “Berghain,” also makes perfect sense, as their music, like Rosalía’s and Björk’s, is both intricate, trailblazing, and mystical.
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