Shakira followers flip Copacabana Beach right into a dance ground as estimated two million watch free live performance | EUROtoday

Colombian music icon Shakira captivated an estimated two million followers on Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana Beach on Saturday evening, delivering a free live performance that remodeled one of many world’s most well-known waterfronts right into a colossal dance ground. The monumental efficiency echoes comparable free spectacles by Madonna earlier in 2024 and Lady Gaga final yr, each of which additionally drew immense crowds to the sprawling sands.

Shakira’s present was a key cease on her “Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran” (”Women No Longer Cry”) world tour, named after her critically acclaimed 2024 album. Kicking off round 11 pm, greater than an hour after its scheduled begin, the megastar was met with deafening screams and fervent applause. Overhead, skywriting drones illuminated the evening sky, spelling out ”I like you Brazil,” in Portuguese. During the occasion, Shakira fondly reminisced about her preliminary go to to the South American nation some three many years prior.

“I arrived here when I was 18 years old, dreaming about singing for you,” Shakira informed the group shortly after approaching stage. ”And now take a look at this. Life is magical.”

The much-loved pop star sang fan favorites resembling “Hips Don’t Lie,” ”La Tortura” and ”La Bicicleta.” She ended with ”BZRP Music Sessions 53/66,” which adopted her separation from Spanish soccer participant Gerard Piqué.

She additionally took the time to have a good time ladies’s resilience in the course of the present. “Us women, every time we fall, we get up a little wiser,” she mentioned.

Rio Mayor Eduardo Cavaliere mentioned on X that 2 million individuals attended the efficiency. ”The She-Wolf made historical past in Rio,” he posted, referring to Shakira’s 2009 hit.

When Shakira first carried out in Brazil within the Nineties, she established an incredible reference to the Brazilian public, based on Felipe Maia, an ethnomusicologist pursuing a doctoral diploma in common music and digital applied sciences at Paris Nanterre University.

That success in Brazil ”has lots to do with the truth that she comes from Colombia, a rustic whose tradition has many similarities with Brazil,” Maia mentioned, including that Saturday’s efficiency ”crowns the connection she has had with Brazil for a really very long time.”

Erica Monteiro, a 38-year-old accountant, mentioned she has listened to Shakira since childhood.

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”For me, she represents the power of our Latino group,” Monteiro mentioned forward of the live performance. ”We’re handled as if we have been inferior, however in truth we’ve got rather more power.”

Heading dwelling after Saturday’s present, Hellem Souza da Silva mentioned Shakira’s efficiency, like Bad Bunny’s concert events in Sao Paulo in February, helped consolidate Brazil’s Latino identification.

These artists ”are making it clear that Brazil, Puerto Rico, Colombia and different nations are a part of Latin America. And that America is just not the United States,” she mentioned.

Crowds began piling onto the seashore Saturday morning to nab a great place for the present. Street distributors bought candy corn and different Brazilian snacks, bottled water and caipirinhas, the favored Brazilian cocktail, but additionally rest room paper, deodorant and even luggage of sand for concertgoers to face on to get a greater view of the stage arrange reverse Copacabana Palace, a historic luxurious lodge.

Street vendor Simone Paula da Cunha arrived on the seashore on Friday night, hoping to promote all of the beer and water bottles she had purchased forward of the present and make about $100 in all.

Despite being drained, da Cunha was excited on the prospect of seeing Shakira stay. ”I keep in mind her from when she nonetheless had black hair,” she mentioned. ”I’m an enormous fan of hers.”

The free concert events are a part of City Hall’s try to spice up financial exercise after Carnival and New Year’s Eve festivities and earlier than the monthlong Saint John’s Day celebrations in June.

”For us, events are severe enterprise. Because events generate jobs, earnings, improvement, and identification for the town,” Cavaliere, the mayor, mentioned on Wednesday as he offered the town’s operational plan for the occasion. ”Our funding on this present will give us a monetary return 40 instances better,“ he mentioned.

Shakira’s efficiency might generate round 777 million reais (round $155 million), based on a examine by City Hall and Riotur, the municipality’s tourism firm, because of the inflow of vacationers and money spent in eating places, lodges and outlets.

More vacationers headed to Rio within the month of May within the years with exhibits — 2024 and 2025 — in comparison with 2023, based on City Hall information. In 2024, the expansion was 34.2% on May 1, simply forward of the concert events, in comparison with the earlier yr. In 2025, the rise was 90.5% in comparison with 2023.

Ahead of Shakira’s efficiency, Airbnb mentioned in an April 22 assertion that it was seeing a rise in company anticipated to journey from totally different components of Brazil, Latin America and even European capitals resembling Paris and London.

Wanderson Andrade, a 30-year-old architect, mentioned he flew in particularly for the present from the town of Goiana in central Brazil on Saturday and deliberate to fly again the next day.

“I tried to get tickets to see her in Brazil last year but I didn’t succeed,” mentioned Andrade, whose first tattoo is a wolf in honor of Shakira. “Today is a dream come true.”