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At 20:49 on Saturday 18 September, Spanish time, Shakira stepped onto the stage of the Madrid stadium that bears her name. The setlist of 25 songs spread over two hours opened with ‘La fuerte’, her collaboration with Bizarrap from her latest album, and continued with ‘Girl like me’ and a medley of ‘Las de la intuición’ and ‘Estoy aquí’, her first international hit.
“Good evening, Madrid, I can’t believe I’m here”, the artist said after the first few songs, before referring, without mincing her words, to her private life: “You’ll be thinking, the face I left with and the face I’ve come back with.” She added that “there is nothing like a she-wolf being reunited with her pack“.
To the reggaeton beat of her latest work came ‘Te felicito’ and ‘TDG’, with Rauw Alejandro and Karol G respectively, as well as ‘Don’t Bother’ and ‘Can’t Remember to Forget You’, her collaboration with Rihanna.
Amid costume changes and images of water and fire projected onto the screen, the set also included ‘Copa vacía’, ‘La bicicleta’ and ‘La tortura’, along with ‘Hips don’t lie’ and ‘Chantaje’, the latter coinciding with the end of the concert’s first hour.
The second half opened with ‘Loca’ and a personal confession from the singer: “When a family breaks apart, as mine did, you feel as if you have lost your compass, until you realise that you can get through it and start to see single life as an opportunity.” Those words were followed by ‘Soltera’, performed beneath a giant S on stage.
Songs such as ‘Ojos así’, ‘Pies descalzos’ and ‘Antología’ revisited her earliest years as an artist. “The most important years of my life I lived here, in Spain. It was here that I became a mother. You saw me arrive, fall, get back up and return. Thank you for walking with me for more than 30 years”, she told the audience.
Near the end, ‘Waka, waka’ rang out, now also turned into an anthem for the 2026 World Cup, and the concert closed with ‘BZRP Music Sessions #53’, amid confetti and fireworks.
Macondo Park, a temporary city next to the concert
The concert venue, named Macondo Park in tribute to the town invented by Gabriel García Márquez in ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’, opened its doors this Friday at around 17:00, albeit with an hour and a half delay. The space, carpeted with coloured artificial grass, comprises eight pavilions dedicated to different facets of Hispano-American culture under the Es Latina project.
Before Shakira’s performance, Guitarricadelafuente played on one of the venue’s stages, alongside Maro, Virtual Diva and Santos Bravos, who all declared themselves admirers of the Colombian star.
The album that lends its name to the tour, ‘Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran’ (2024), is the singer’s twelfth studio record and, judging by its lyrics, deals with her break-up with former footballer Gerard Piqué. Macondo Park will close its doors on 11 October, after the last of the 12 concerts scheduled in Madrid.
