Shakira shatters Zócalo attendance record: ‘The love and friendship I have with Mexico is incomparable’

It has taken almost 20 years for the Zócalo, the largest public square in Latin America and one of the biggest in the world, to witness something similar to what happened this past Sunday. Shakira gave a free concert attended by more than 400,000 of her Mexican fans — according to the Mexico City government — who sang their hearts out to the songs that have been with them since the late 1990s. The roars echoed off the Cathedral and the National Palace in a massive event that shattered all attendance records.

The Colombian artist returned the love and devotion of her audience after selling out the GNP Seguros Stadium 13 times in a row. “The love and friendship I have with Mexico is incomparable,” she told her fans, whom she treated to a two-hour show and even the premiere of a new song with her fellow Colombian artist Beéle.

The plaza began to fill up two days prior, with groups camping out in the Zócalo to secure the best spots. In the hours leading up to the concert, Shakira herself posted a picture on her social media of the venue gradually filling up like an anthill, with people sheltering from the scorching sun under colorful umbrellas. “I feel so grateful for everything you do for me. Tonight I promise to give you everything,” she wrote. And without a doubt, she kept her promise.

The Colombian singer, a pop icon and queen of breakup ballads, was very nervous about this event, according to a source close to her team. “She knows this could be the most important concert of her career. And she wants to give back to the Mexican public all the support they’ve given her throughout her career,” the source said ahead of the show.

Aware that Mexico is home to her most fervently devoted fanbase, the artist prepared a show that combined the hits that propelled her to stardom in the late 1990s with her most viral songs of recent years. It was a performance to rival her concerts in large stadiums where tickets start at 1,500 pesos (about $86).

“Nowhere else is she loved as much as she is here,” said the member of her team, after more than 20 sold-out shows in Mexico as part of her Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour. In total, more than 800,000 people filled the seats to see her in the Mexican capital alone.

The stage on Sunday was the same place where, back in 2007, she gave her first and only free concert in Mexico. The two decades of wait were worth it. People began to roar with the opening video clips, displaying images that transported them back to their teenage years, to the MTV era, to their first heartbreaks. With a smile and her unmistakable lioness-like mane, which she played with throughout the show, Shakira approached her audience to greet them, to touch their hands, to feel that veneration in her fingertips.

At 8.30 p.m. She emerged from the smoke of the stage, clad in a glittery gold outfit. As she removed her oversized sunglasses, the crowd at her feet roared as she opened the recital with La Huesera, just as she had done in the rest of the shows on her tour. “From the Zócalo, here and forever...we are one,” she greeted the thousands of eyes that watched her on her catwalk. In the background, giant screens displayed various visuals created with artificial intelligence, featuring all her best-known iconography: wolves, fire, herself twisting impossibly.

With up to 12 wardrobe changes that defied the audience’s expectations, Shakira revisited all her eras. From her rock beginnings with Inevitable, the lyrics of which are etched in the memories of her fans, to more recent hits like Puntería. Throughout the night, she underscored that the Zócalo is an “emblematic” place and that she needed to feel its vibrant energy after “a few tough years.” Following her divorce from the soccer star Gerard Piqué and her tax fight with the Spanish Treasury, the singer has sought refuge in her career, her children, and sisterhood. “A woman alone is very vulnerable; together we are invincible,” the singer declared, quoting the writer Isabel Allende.

That plea for female solidarity and the jabs at her ex were present throughout her entire setlist. “Men were born from a woman’s hips, but a woman’s hips never, ever lie,” the screens displayed when Shakira embarked on her massive international hit Hips Don’t Lie. The ground shook, although the audience’s ability to dance was hindered by the sheer density of people.

The audience was taken on a journey through time, hearing a mix of odes to single life like Soltera, interspersed with classics like Si te vas. In between, she also performed the moves that propelled her to fame as a dance artist, particularly her signature belly dancing amidst flames that seem to spit across the stage. She herself moved like another flame, her hips swaying like a rattle of bells transporting the audience to the desert.

In the final stretch of her performance, she projected a video with images from her childhood and adolescence. Her beginnings served as a platform to present Pies Descalzos and remind everyone that she still remembers where she comes from. However, she reserved one song in particular from her early years, one that represents her special connection with the Mexican public. “I owed you this song, Mexico. It’s the song from the beginning,” she shouted as ¿Dónde estás corazón? Started to play. “More than an audience, you have been my accomplices. You have seen me grow up, you have accompanied me like someone accompanies a sister for 30 years,” she declared before the legendary Antología began. She sang, visibly moved, while her audience shed tears.

As the concert neared its end, Shakira took the opportunity to present her latest song: a collaboration with the Colombian singer Beelé titled Que Fluya, in which she blends diffused ethnic rhythms with pop. To end the show, she donned a skin-tight suit adorned with green tribal prints. Accompanied by her dancers, who moved like her own reflection, she performed Whenever, Wherever.

Then the square exploded with the African rhythms of Waka Waka. After a brief pause in darkness, a giant wolf showed up on screen to announce the penultimate song: Loba. The song, which climbed the charts in several countries, made the crowd roar. To cap off the night, Shakira bid farewell with a performance of her collaboration with rapper Bizarrap, in which she reveals details of her breakup with Piqué. The song became the most streamed on Spotify and YouTube in less than 24 hours.

“Thank you, Mexico. For tonight and for every night. Thank you for being my family. I love you,” the singer said, amidst the cheers of her fans, who dispersed from the plaza in a procession, their throats hoarse from singing their hearts out.

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