Shakira draws 165,000 to the first weekend of her Madrid concert residency

Shakira has opened her Madrid residency to about 165,000 people across three nights, and made it clear early that the twelve shows will not be twelve copies of each other. Consequence put the opening-weekend attendance at that figure on 21 September, with roughly 55,000 at the first night alone.

The run began on Friday 18 September at a purpose-built venue at Iberdrola Music that has been named Estadio Shakira for the occasion. Madrid is the only European stop on the Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour, which makes the residency the continent's whole share of the tour rather than one date among many.

The first night's surprise came out of her own back catalogue. She returned Te Dejo Madrid, from 2005's Fijacion Oral, Vol. 1, to the set for the city that gave the song its title, and told the crowd about arriving in Madrid at 19 and an early romance with a Madrileno. By Saturday the set had moved again, picking up Si Te Vas from 1998's Donde Estan los Ladrones? and Ultima from 2024's Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran.

Sunday brought the guest. Laura Pausini appeared unannounced to sing Antologia, the song from Shakira's 1995 breakthrough Pies Descalzos, in what Consequence reports was the first time the two singers had performed together.

The weekend was not trouble-free. Attendees complained on social media and to Spanish media about long and poorly marked queues into Macondo Park, the Latin culture space of food, fashion, literature and programming that opens hours before each show, along with waits at the bars, patchy mobile service and congestion on the way out. More seriously, some fans in the upper stands said they felt the temporary structure move during Friday's concert. Live Nation responded that all structures, the stands included, had been inspected and certified for safety and stability.

Nine performances remain, spread across the next three weekends and closing on 11 October. Shakira has said the Madrid run grew partly out of watching Latino communities live with persecution and fear, and wanting to answer that with a large public celebration of Latin culture, a framing she set out when the residency was announced and returned to again this month. Dates for the rest of the run sit on the tour guide, alongside our latin coverage.