Colombian singer Shakira returned to the Spanish stage after an eight-year absence with a large-scale series of 12 concerts in Madrid, turning the final leg of her world tour “Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran“ into one of the biggest music events in Europe this fall.
The 49-year-old singer chose the Spanish capital as the only European residency of her tour. By the last concert on October 11, over 600,000 spectators are expected to pass through the specially built temporary stadium in the south of Madrid. The capacity is around 50,000 people per night.
Shakira's decision not to tour individual European cities but to gather her audience in one place has made Madrid an international destination for her fans. RTVE defines the model as part of a new trend towards large-scale concert residencies, in which the event itself becomes a tourist experience.
Around the stadium, Macondo Park has been created, named after the fictional city in “One Hundred Years of Solitude“ by Colombian writer and Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez. The space includes music, gastronomy, literature, exhibitions, children's areas and an additional stage. Thus, Shakira's concerts expanded into a kind of festival of Latin American culture.
Shakira returned to Spain eight years later
The first concert marked the beginning of a spectacle of about 25 songs and two hours of music. Shakira opened the show with “La Fuerte“, her joint project with Argentine producer Bizarrap, and then went through different periods of her more than 30-year career with “Girl Like Me“, “Las de la Intuición“ and one of her early international hits “Estoy Aquí“.
“The most important years of my life were spent here, in Spain. I became a mother here. "You saw me arrive, fall, get up and come back," the singer told the Madrid crowd.
The words have a special context. Shakira lived in Barcelona for years during her relationship with former Spanish footballer Gerard Pique, with whom she has two sons. Their breakup became public in 2022, and the Colombian star subsequently moved to Miami.
It was this period that also became the creative basis for some of the most successful music in the latter stage of Shakira's career.
The album “Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran“, released in 2024, was her first studio album in seven years and included songs related to the breakup and subsequent personal transformation. In 2025, the record brought Shakira a “Grammy“ for best Latin pop album and the fourth “Grammy“ award of her career.
Among the key songs from this period is “Shakira: Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53“ with Bizarrap, from which the phrase "Women don't cry anymore, women make money" comes from. Another big success was "TQG" with Colombian singer Carol G, which reached number one on the Billboard Global 200.