Rosa María López Cortés (Peñuelas, Granada; 14 January 1981) is a Spanish singer of various musical genres.
She dabbled in music in her teens as the main vocalist for various groups in the province and city of Granada. In the 2000s, she gained fame as an artist by winning the first edition of Operación Triunfo, where she was given the nickname "Rosa de España." After that, she represented Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 2002, which was the most followed in the country since there are official audience statistics and in which she obtained the seventh position with the song "Europe's living a celebration". It was her first musical success and reached number one on the Los 40 radio tally.
In 2002, she recorded his debut album, Rosa, which reached number one on the Promusicae chart with record sales. The following year, she achieved the same position for two consecutive weeks with her second album Now and achieved another number one in Los 40 with the song "La esencia de tu voz". In addition, the songs "A solas con mi corazón" and "Don't stop the music, baby" reached sixth and second place, respectively, in physical sales by Promusicae and the latter the fifth in Los 40. For this reason, she received the Dial award to one of the most outstanding interpreters of 2003 in Spain. Three years later, she received the Antena de Oro award for her work in the world of music. In the following years, she continued to be active publishing a series of recordings that reached the top of the aforementioned list. In addition, she participated in various entertainment programs; in the third edition of Mira quién baila! It was proclaimed the winner, while in the fifth edition of Tu cara me suena, she finished second.
She was recognized by the Junta de Andalucía with two distinctions: the regional medal in 2002, and the Andalusian flag award in 2010. She received the Armilla gold medal. Throughout her career, she has sold more than a million copies and accumulates a total of seven platinum and four gold records.
Background
Rosa María López Cortés was born in Peñuelas, Láchar (Granada) on 14 January 1981 to Eduardo López and Francisca Cortés. She was raised in the town of Peñuelas with her parents and her three brothers.
Rosa started singing at weddings, baptisms, communions and celebrations for the people of Granada over the weekends with her younger brother at the piano and her father. She was a member of several orchestras, and later created the Trio Roxa.
In September 2001, Rosa auditioned for new reality-show Operación Triunfo and she was selected to enter the show's academy. On 22 October 2001, at the age of 20, she became one of the 16 contestants of the first season of Operación Triunfo. One of the prizes of the competition was to become the Spanish entrant at the Eurovision Song Contest 2002. Soon titled "Rosa de España" ("Rose of Spain"), she won the competition on 11 February 2002 with 26.6% of the votes, in a finale that achieved a record audience of 10,680,000 viewers and a share of 58.8%.
From 4 April to 1 June 2002, the 16 participants of Operación Triunfo toured 27 cities in Spain with 600,000 tickets sold, performing sold-out concerts at the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona and the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid. TVE 1 aired the Bernabéu Stadium concert, becoming the most watched concert in Spain, with 5,136,000 million viewers and a 39.5% share. The re-run of this concert on 9 July resulted in 3,174,000 million viewers and a 27.9% Share.