Latest news with #EstoyAquí
Los Angeles Times
06-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
The 10 best moments from Shakira's show at SoFi Stadium
After a tour postponement, a canceled festival appearance and a show called off at the last minute, Shakira finally made it to Inglewood's SoFi Stadium this week on a world tour behind 2024's 'Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran.' The album, which examines Shakira's breakup with the Spanish soccer player Gerard Piqué, was the latest in a decades-long series of hits for the 48-year-old pop star from Colombia; here she played to two capacity crowds peppered with folks wearing fuzzy wolf ears inspired by her old song 'She Wolf.' My colleague Sergio Burstein covered Monday night's concert en español, but I ventured to SoFi for Shakira's second performance on Tuesday. Here are 10 highlights from the gig: 1. It's been a big summer for the walk-out video. Like Morgan Wallen and Drake before her, Shakira made opening the show a production unto itself, with a camera following her from behind the scenes, pro-boxer-style, as she snaked through the audience in futuristic shades and a silver jumpsuit to take her place onstage. 2. Flanked by the members of a co-ed dance crew, Shakira moved through plenty of choreography Tuesday night, none more memorably than the very convincing robot she did during a mash-up of 'Las de la Intuición' and 'Estoy Aquí.' 3. OK, one equally memorable bit of movement: using the arms, legs and backs of several male dancers as a living stationary bike in 'La Bicicleta.' 4. As singles from Shakira's 'Oral Fixation, Vol. 2' LP, 'Don't Bother' was easily overshadowed 20 years ago by the chart-topping juggernaut that was 'Hips Don't Lie.' At SoFi, though, I much preferred the former, which she sang while jabbing at a sparkly pink electric guitar and which sounded like Courtney Love fronting Josie and the Pussycats. 5. Shakira performed 2009's 'Men in This Town' for what appears to be the first time ever on Monday — the result of a fan campaign on social media that urged her to haul out the song about the sorry state of dating in L.A. ('I went to look / From the Skybar to the Standard / Nothing took,' goes one brutal lyric.) She did the song again Tuesday in a bedazzled Dodgers cap as a pair of video screens showed images of Matt Damon, whom she name-checks in the tune as one Angeleno not meant for her. 6. For a salsa-fied version of 'Chantaje,' cameras followed Shakira back to her dressing room, where she sang — live or prerecorded, it was hard to tell — through a costume change and a bit of hair zhuzhing before she reemerged onstage. It's a clever set piece, which might be why Lady Gaga has a similar one in the Mayhem Ball tour she brought to the Kia Forum last week. 7. Shakira's strongest vocal probably came in 'Última,' a stark piano ballad she's said will be the last song she ever writes about Piqué. (The song is 'a cyst,' she told the New York Times, that required removal from her body.) Here she sang it while standing in a glittering mermaid gown that seemed to make it impossible for her to move — some kind of metaphor for the gilded cage of a celebrity romance. 8. Fuzzy, jangly, lightly contemptuous: 'Pies Descalzos, Sueños Blancos' is truly one of the great '90s rock songs. 9. Before closing the show with 'Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53,' her Latin Grammy-winning 2023 collaboration with the Argentine producer Bizarrap, Shakira reached back to start her encore with 'She Wolf,' which when you think about it is a pretty unlikely hit to have endured for a decade and a half: a creeping disco-rock thumper about lycanthropy — 'Darling, it is no joke / This is lycanthropy,' she sings — that's somehow become an anthem of self-empowerment. Indie sleaze lives. 10. Speaking of throwbacks, the Black Eyed Peas opened Tuesday's concert with a tidy run through some of their fondly remembered late-'00s stadium-rave jams, including 'I Gotta Feeling,' which introduced with a little speech about the band's love of L.A.'s Latino community. Said the guy known for his indefatigably cheerful music: 'F— ICE.'
Los Angeles Times
16-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Shakira speaks out on the ‘constant fear' immigrants face while living in the U.S.
Amid ongoing Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids happening in Los Angeles and across the country, Shakira is opening up about the realities of being an immigrant in the United States. The 48-year-old singer spoke with the BBC last week about moving as a teenager from her native Colombia to Miami in the '90s. 'I was only 19 when I moved to the US, like many other Colombian immigrants who come to this country looking for a better future,' she said. 'And I remember I was surrounded by Spanish-English dictionaries and synonym dictionaries because back in the day I didn't really have Google or ChatGPT to [help].' Further commenting on her 'very precarious' situation, Shakira noted that she used the works of poet Walt Whitman and singer-songwriters Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan to refine her English skills. But beyond the language learning pains, the 'Estoy Aquí' artist spoke on the emotional toll of the immigrant experience. 'It means living in constant fear. And it's painful to see,' Shakira said. 'Now, more than ever, we have to remain united. Now, more than ever, we have to raise our voices and make it very clear that a country can change its immigration policies, but the treatment of all people must always be humane.' This isn't the first time Shakira has touched on the subject of immigration in recent months. While accepting the Latin pop album Grammy for 'Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran' in February, the 'Whenever, Wherever' singer dedicated her award to her 'immigrant brothers and sisters in this country' 'You are loved, you are worth it and I will always fight with you,' she said. Shakira's recent words of solidarity with the immigrant community came as other major Latin American music acts used their platforms to condemn the ICE raids and align their sympathies with immigrants. Becky G, Ivan Cornejo, Fuerza Regida, Junior H, Grupo Frontera and Maná were among the acts to publicly voice concern for the immigrant community.
