'Women don't cry any more, they cash in': Shakira turns Madrid into a festival of empowerment

The Colombian pop star returns to Spain after eight years with a 12-show residency in Madrid, celebrating Latin culture and turning a chapter of her life into a spectacle of music, freedom and empowerment. There are little girls barely a metre off the ground. Women who could be their mothers and others old enough to be their grandmothers. There are Colombians, Venezuelans, Peruvians and Spaniards, but also Germans, Dutch and Danes. Some wear purple wigs. Others, coin skirts. Many, glitter. And when the howling starts, for a few hours they are all the same: she-wolves. Shakira did not want to come back to Spain with just a simple concert. No, she wanted to come back in style. Eight years after her last tour in the country, the Colombian star has chosen Madrid for the only European residency of 'Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour' (Women No Longer Cry): 12 shows, more than 600,000 tickets and a temporary stadium built for her and her fans in the south of the capital, that can welcome around 55,000 people a night. Shakiraworld And around the stage she has practically built a city. It is called Macondo Park, in tribute to the universe of Gabriel García Márquez, and it offers food, music, literature, children’s areas, exhibitions and a second stage. The gates open hours before Shakira appears. This is not meant to be just a concert: it is a festival celebrating Latin culture, built around an artist who has spent more than three decades exporting it around the world. And the choice of Madrid is no accident either. Shakira has explained that she chose the capital because here she found something she wanted to celebrate: a city with a huge Latin American community, where Latin culture is already part of everyday identity and openly celebrated. But it is hard to ignore another layer to this comeback. Madrid and Barcelona live out a historic rivalry that goes far beyond football. And Barcelona is not just any city in Shakira’s biography: it was her home for more than a decade, the city where she lived with her ex-partner, football star Gerard Piqué, where her children grew up and which she eventually left for Miami after a painful break-up. Now her only major European landing is in Madrid. The symbolic weight is impossible to avoid. The woman who walked away from Barcelona after one of the toughest periods of her life returns to Spain, taking over the rival city for four weekends. And she herself seems to relish that storyline. "Good evening, Madrid. I can’t believe I’m here," she says to tens of thousands of people. Then she recalls something someone told her before she came back: "With the face you left with, just look at the face you’ve come back with." She-wolves support The concert opened with 'La fuerte'. Then come 'Girl Like Me', 'Las de la intuición' and 'Estoy aquí'. In just a few minutes, the Shakira of the 90s, the global Latin pop star and the woman who in recent years turned a break-up into music all share the same space. A digital Shakira appears at the beginning, rebuilding her own body out of sand. Then the real one, flesh and blood, makes her way through the crowd with her pack before reaching the stage. "There is nothing like when a she-wolf is reunited with her pack," she says. And the pack answers back. They dance to 'La tortura'. They scream 'Te felicito'. They know every word of 'TQG'. They go back 20 years with 'Hips Don’t Lie'. They sing 'Waka Waka'. Song by song, an idea emerges that runs through the whole show: falling does not mean staying on the floor. In Madrid, Shakira acknowledged that the last few years "have not been easy" and described her return to Spain as "a gift". And then she starts dancing again. Women no longer cry There is something profoundly feminine about the night. Not because it is a party only for women, but because of the feeling that here they can take up all the space. Be loud. Sensual. Silly. Angry. Vulnerable. Strong. Put on a violet wig, shake their hips for two hours and dance with a stranger. During the show a line by the Chilean writer Isabel Allende appears on the screens that almost works as a manifesto: "Women on their own are vulnerable, but together we are invincible". And you only have to look around to understand why it is there. Mothers dancing with their daughters. Groups of friends hugging. Women of different ages, countries and languages singing the same songs. For Latin women, there is something especially familiar in a show that does not tone down or hide its identity: pop, reggaeton, salsa, batucada, percussion and hips. Barranquilla is present even though we are in Madrid. The line that ended up defining this era was not trying to be subtle either: "Women no longer cry, women cash in". And cash in she does. 600,000 tickets: women cash in too The residency is also a huge business operation. Twelve nights over four consecutive weekends. More than 600,000 tickets. A venue built specifically for the occasion and an estimate of between €150 and 200 million in direct associated spending for Madrid. Instead of touring Europe, Shakira has managed to convince Europeans and others to travel to her. Madrid has becomes a destination for fans from dozens of countries and generations. And the line born as a response to a break-up takes on here a much more literal meaning. The 10 commandments of a she-wolf Towards the end of the concert, the ten commandments of the she-wolves appear on the screens. They are the code of this new Shakira: independence, freedom, sisterhood and a few nods to her past that the audience picks up instantly. One of them especially teases Madrid: A she-wolf shall not covet another’s goods. ('Clara-ly'). The stadium erupts. What a few years ago filled headlines about her private life has ended up as humour, music and spectacle. Shakira no longer tries to separate her personal story from her songs: she plays with it. Then comes 'Loba'. But there is still one last song, and it is hard to imagine her choosing any other. After more than two hours spanning three decades of career, Shakira saves for the finale the session with Bizarrap in which she turned her break-up with Piqué into one of the biggest hits of her career. Then tens of thousands of people once again shout with her: "Women no longer cry, women cash in". The circle closes right here and the last song feels written for this very moment. Shakira left Spain in tears. She has come back to Madrid cashing in.