Shakira is already in Spain. It may be news, but it is not new. Ahead of her big series of 12 concerts (what is usually called, translated from English, a residency) in Madrid, the Barranquilla native is already in the city, rehearsing, testing the immense stage, that Macondo Park of 30 hectares for 50,000 people that will open on September 18 in Villaverde, on the outskirts of the capital. It is her job, but it is also her life and part of her normality. Because although Shakira is from Colombia and lives in Miami, and despite what many may think about her relationship with Spain, it is not just cordial. It is intimate.
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She was not even 20 years old and was a budding young sensation in Latin America when Shakira began to drop by Spain. It was in 1996, on the set of that show called Sorpresa, Sorpresa, on Antena 3, when, as its name indicates, she surprised fans, with her dark hair and robotic movements, singing Estoy aquí, her first big hit. Her anonymity would not last long. In February 1997 she gave her first concerts, in the middle of a long and powerful tour that had already taken her to about fifty concerts (and would do as many more) around the world, from New York to Brasilia. Then she made stops in Madrid and Barcelona. It was just the beginning.
In that blink, three decades have passed in which Shakira’s relationship with Spain has tightened. Although she sang to Madrid, in 2001, that she was leaving it there, in her Servicio de lavandería, Shakira never left. Like any relationship, Shakira and Spain have had their bumps, but they have always understood each other. The singer has performed dozens of times in the country, although the last time was more than eight years ago. She has started world tours in A Coruña, has played in venues like Las Ventas and festivals like Rock in Rio, has asked for support for Madrid in the Olympic Games.
The professional was the beginning, and has always been the foundation. In Spain the artist found a group of professionals who understood and pampered her, who knew how to understand the broad vision and styles that her career proposed. People who helped her, as she herself says, “to build those dreams,” and who are now counted among her best friends: “Like [the director, photographer, and producer] Jaume de Laiguana, like [the choreographer] Maite Marcos, who is one of my best friends. And Alejandro [Sanz], who is a colleague, but more than a colleague, he is a brother.”
She told this herself in an exclusive interview with EL PAÍS in early March in Mexico City, in which she precisely announced this residency that now begins in Madrid. But then the question was obvious: Madrid? Spain? The events of recent years did not seem to favor that decision, clearly unexpected.
Two, in particular, affected her wallet and heart. The economic was her particular and prolonged struggle with the Tax Agency. A thorough inspection over years resulted in the singer having defrauded 14.5 million euros from the Spanish treasury between 2012 and 2014. Finally, in 2023 she reached an agreement with the Treasury in which she accepted three years in prison (without entering jail) and a fine of 7.3 million. In May, and referring to another case, the National Court concluded that the singer was not a tax resident in Spain in 2011, ruled in Shakira’s favor, and ordered that 60 million euros be returned to her. She celebrated it in style. “After more than eight years enduring brutal public targeting, orchestrated campaigns to destroy my reputation, and sleepless nights that ended up affecting my health and my family’s well-being, the National Court has finally put things in their place,” she wrote. “I have been treated as guilty […] and my name and public figure have been used to send a threatening message to the rest of the taxpayers.”
The personal was more painful. Her separation from Gerard Piqué after almost 12 years together and two children in common was a deep blow, especially after it became public, very public, that it was not precisely her who broke up the couple. But that led her to become the greatest phoenix of Latin music. Because, six months later, that breakup, a perfectly calculated collaboration, and an impeccable ability to turn her own narrative around brought with it a song, the Bzrp Music Sessions Vol. 53. A name as antagonistically boring as brilliant were its rhythm, its lyrics, and its catchiness. The song was, when it came out in January 2023, the most listened-to Spanish song in 24 hours on Spotify; and it gave her an already iconic phrase: “Women don’t cry anymore, women invoice.” That became the title of her next album, consummating total revenge, and then the name of her tour. And from those ashes, these concerts.
Precisely that ability to turn the narrative around, to move away from victimhood, and to know her audience very well have made the artist lean towards Madrid. During her year and a half of touring, more than 3.5 million people have seen her in Latin America, two million in Copacabana, and more than 1.2 million in Mexico, in addition to the 400,000 at the Zócalo, a historic record for the great Mexican capital square. Now, Madrid will become the epicenter of European shakirismo.
She never doubted it. “I have an indelible bond with Spain,” she said in that interview with this newspaper a few months ago. “Starting because my children are Spanish [laughs]. I think it will be a concert that my children will like to see,” she assured. “In Spain is where we are going to throw the house out the window. Because there will be a production never seen before.” That’s right: about twenty artists are expected, different stages, shops, food stalls… In other words, it will be more of a Shakifest than a usual concert.
Her circle emphasizes it, publicly and privately. “She adores Spain,” repeat everyone who knows the artist. She likes to spend time in the country, for her children to deeply know their roots. She even told it herself, in an exclusive letter to this newspaper. For her, not only Spain, but especially Madrid is in her sights, for its multiculturalism, for its large number of Latinos, of all origins and conditions. “And for that celebration I chose Madrid,” she said in that writing just a couple of weeks ago. “Because here something happens that the world deserves to see: Latin immigration is not tolerated, it is celebrated. Spain has embraced it, and that embrace has made it younger, more vigorous, more creative. […] We share language, memory, gestures, table talks. The Atlantic, between us, stopped being an ocean a long time ago. It is a bond. It is said of Madrid that those who are from nowhere are from here.” It’s not that Shakira has no place to be from: she has many. But for a few weeks, she will also be from Madrid.
