Colombian celebrity Shakira held a free live performance on Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana Seashore on Saturday evening, an occasion that the town’s mayor stated drew 2 million individuals to one of many world’s most iconic waterfronts.
The efficiency adopted comparable reveals by Madonna in 2024 and Woman Gaga final yr, which additionally featured massive crowds dancing on huge expanses of sand. For Shakira, it was a part of her world tour “Las Mujeres Ya No Loran” (“Ladies Do not Cry Anymore”), named after her 2024 album.
Shakira’s set started round 11 p.m., greater than an hour later than her scheduled time slot, and followers screamed in pleasure and rapturous applause as skylighting drones flew overhead and spelled “I really like you Brazil” in Portuguese into the sky.
The celebrity spoke fondly of the time he first got here to Brazil almost 30 years in the past.
“Once I was 18 years outdated, I dreamed of coming right here and singing in entrance of you all,” Shakira informed the gang shortly after taking the stage. “And have a look at this. Life is magic.”
The favored pop star sang fan favorites similar to “Hips Do not Lie,” “La Tortura,” and “La Biscicleta.” She concluded with “BZRP Music Periods #53/66” after her separation from Spanish soccer participant Gerard Pique.
She additionally took time throughout the present to reward ladies’s resilience. “Each time we fall, we girls stand up a little bit wiser,” she stated.
One of many first locations Shakira discovered success
Rio Mayor Eduardo Cavaliere stated on the X program that 2 million individuals attended the efficiency. “Seawolf made historical past in Rio,” he wrote, referring to Shakira’s 2009 hit.
Felipe Maia, an ethnomusicologist pursuing a PhD in widespread music and digital know-how at Paris Nanterre College, stated Shakira solid an unimaginable reference to the Brazilian public when she first carried out there within the Nineties.
Her success in Brazil “has loads to do with the truth that she is from Colombia, which culturally has many similarities with Brazil,” Maia stated, including that Saturday’s efficiency “is a testomony to the connection she has had with Brazil for a really very long time.”
Erica Monteiro, a 38-year-old accountant, stated she has been listening to Shakira’s music since she was a baby.
“To me, she represents the energy of the Latinx neighborhood,” Monteiro stated forward of the live performance. “We’re handled as if we’re inferior, however in actuality we’re far more highly effective.”
Jerem Souza da Silva, who’s returning dwelling after Saturday’s present, stated Shakira’s efficiency, like Dangerous Bunny’s live performance in Sao Paulo in February, helped strengthen Brazil’s Latino identification.
These artists “reveal that Brazil, Puerto Rico, Colombia and different nations are a part of Latin America. And America is just not America,” she says.
Crowds started to collect on the seashore Saturday morning, hoping to get a great place for the present. Avenue distributors have been promoting candy corn and different Brazilian snacks, bottled water and Caipirinhas, Brazil’s widespread cocktail, in addition to bathroom paper, deodorant and even sand baggage for concertgoers to face on for a greater view of the stage arrange throughout the road from the historic Copacabana Palace resort.
Avenue vendor Simone Paula da Cunha arrived on the seashore Friday evening hoping to promote all of the beer and water bottles she purchased earlier than the present, making about $100 in complete.
Regardless of being drained, Da Cunha was excited concerning the prospect of seeing Shakira stay. “I bear in mind when she was nonetheless black,” she stated. “I am a giant fan of hers.”
Efforts to revitalize the town economic system after Carnival
The free live shows are a part of Metropolis Corridor’s try to spice up financial exercise after Carnival and New Yr’s Eve festivities, and earlier than the month-long St. John’s Day celebrations in June.
“For us, events are severe enterprise as a result of they create jobs, earnings, growth, and a metropolis’s identification,” Cavaliere stated Wednesday whereas saying the town’s administration plan for occasions. “Our funding on this present has a 40x financial return,” he stated.
Because of an inflow of vacationers and money spending at eating places, inns and outlets, Shakira’s efficiency may generate about 777 million reais (about $155 million), in response to a examine by Metropolis Corridor and the town’s tourism firm Riotour.
In keeping with metropolis corridor knowledge, extra vacationers visited Rio in Might than in 2023 in 2024 and 2025, when the present was held. In 2024, as of Might 1, simply earlier than the live performance, gross sales had elevated by 34.2% in comparison with the earlier yr. In 2025, it elevated by 90.5% in comparison with 2023.
Forward of Shakira’s efficiency, Airbnb stated in an announcement on April 22 that it anticipated a rise in vacationers from Japan. Brazil, all of Latin America, and even European capitals similar to Paris and London.
Wanderson Andrade, a 30-year-old architect, stated he had flown in from the town of Goiana in central Brazil on Saturday for the present and was scheduled to fly again the following day.
“I attempted to get tickets to see her in Brazil final yr, nevertheless it did not work out,” Andrade stated. Andrade’s first tattoo is a wolf in honor of Shakira. “At the moment was a dream come true.”
