El Dorado World Tour


The El Dorado World Tour was the sixth world tour by Colombian singer Shakira, in support of her diamond certified eleventh studio album, El Dorado. Comprising a total of 54 shows, the tour visited Europe, Asia, North America and Latin America. It was her first tour in seven years, the last being The Sun Comes Out World Tour. The tour began on June 3, 2018, in Hamburg, Germany and ended on November 3, 2018 in Bogotá, Colombia. The tour was set to begin in November 2017, but due to a haemorrhage at Shakira's right vocal chord acquired at her last round of rehearsals, the entire tour was postponed to start mid-2018.

Background

Following an anticipation tweet from Shakira's official account featuring the flags of 18 countries and a link that directed to a newsletter subscription from her music label, the tour was announced therefore three days later, on 27 June 2017, and was mainly sponsored by Rakuten. Also teaming on tour were Live Nation Entertainment's Global Touring Division and Citi, which were, respectively, the producer and the credit card for the North American leg of the tour. As part of the tour introduction, Live Nation posted a video via their official social networks as a further reminding of it.
The tour would begin on 8 November, in Cologne, Germany, but due to voice strain related problems with the singer during her tour rehearsals, the date was cancelled a day prior to the original tour schedule. On 9 November, for the same reason, she announced the postponement to later dates also for both shows in Paris, as well as the following ones in Antwerp and Amsterdam. On 14 November, she made an announcement through her social networks in which she reveals to have acquired a haemorrhage at her right vocal chord during end October, at her last batch of rehearsals, and needs to rest her voice for some time to be cured; so all European leg was postponed to happen in 2018. On 27 December 2017, she announced the postponement of all North American dates, and the rescheduling of all announced dates so far to happen mid-year; the tour officially started in June 2018.
's Madison Square Garden, where she sold out the venue for the 5th time and became the first Latin artist to gross over 2 million US dollars from a US arena.
On 22 January 2018, she announced three additional European dates for the cities of Hamburg, London and Bordeaux. A second Los Angeles show was added on 9 May; and, a day after, Shakira announced a date for Istanbul, 11 years after visiting Turkey with her Oral Fixation Tour, as well as the Latin American dates. After these, it was announced that the Colombian singer would visit Lebanon, to perform at the Cedars International Festival. Although some Israeli media had reported about a concert to have been held in 9 July 2018 in Tel Aviv, which caused some controversial reaction, and a following threat of boycotting her Lebanese concert, supported by BDS, Live Nation confirmed through their Twitter account that no date was set for Israel due to scheduling problems.
On 29 June 2018, it was confirmed by the mayor of Shakira's hometown Barranquilla, Alejandro Char, that the native singer would perform at the inauguration of 2018 edition of the Central American and Caribbean Games, to be held in the Colombian city. For this special event, Shakira performed 3 songs in the Estadio Metropolitano Roberto Meléndez on 19 July.

Development

Preparations for tour as originally scheduled had started around late August 2017, with rehearsals taking place in Barcelona, as revealed by the singer herself. Shakira posted through her social networks a series of videos documenting the creative process of the tour since from the very early stages. Among the first of them there were one where she introduced part of her crew, and an immediately following to that one, posted a day after, where she is working out. As tour kept being rehearsed during October, more videos from backstage and rehearsals came out as promised. By then, one of the most commented videos by press coverage was one posted by Shakira's partner, Gerard Piqué, while he was attending her performing her 1997 single, "Antología". After the tour hiatus following the singer's health recovery, its rehearsals resumed on 9 May 2018, as Shakira has been keeping documenting her tour process through her social networks.
As part of tour interaction with fans during its original preparation and anticipation, on 7 August 2017 Shakira urged her followers through her social networks to collaborate in the selection of the list of songs that could be featured on tour, in a desire expressed by her of "this tour to be particularly special for her fans". In this way, Viber, a subsidiary of official tour sponsor Rakuten, carried out a poll for them to help her pick out some tracks. The winner choices were announced a week after, on the mobile platform. Seconding this research, Shakira had joined Viber again to promise a surprise contest for fans, on 10 October, that was announced two days later, on the same instant messenger application. One of the prizes was a trip to Barcelona to attend rehearsals. Rakuten Spain has delivered a similar prize contest, in which the winners were able to watch a private show by Shakira's team also in Barcelona, on 4 November, some days before tour officially kicked off originally. As for 2018 resuming rehearsals, the official Spanish tour sponsor was keeping on posting anticipation notes through their social networks, and the partnership with Viber for exclusive content from tour was kept too.
Crew members were announced by Shakira little by little, being one of the first ones Anna Kaiser, as her personal trainer, by videos and photos of the singer's AKT InMotion workout sessions. On 30 October 2017, Shakira herself revealed band members, including her longtime fellow musician contributors guitarist Tim Mitchell, keyboard player Albert Menendez and drummer Brendan Buckley. Besides them, there were, debuting on a Shakira tour, bass player Erik Kertes and violinist Caitlin Evanson. As for the actual tour start in mid-2018, all band members remained the same with the only exception of bassist Joe Ayoub who joined it to replace Kertes.
Production design company Vita Motus was commissioned by the stage design, and Syndrome Studio was in charge as the graphic designer for screen backdrops. Longtime Shakira's contributor Marjan Malakpour was the executive stylist for tour, and among the clothing line creators in charge of designing costumes for tour were French fashion house Balmain, American fashion designer Brian Lichtenberg, and fellow Colombian fashion designer Juan Carlos Obando. For the most Spanish concerts, she wore a belt with feathers designed by Hawaiian-based online clothing store Iheartpolynesia, adapted from the same type of piece this shop had previously designed for Miss Latina Hawaii 2018.

Commercial performance

Ticket sales

Tickets for first 33 announced dates went on sale on 30 June 2017, two days after a Viber presale valid for just one day. Live Nation and Citi also offered additional presales in case of rescheduling, although the presale by the latter was valid only for performances within United States. Shakira also teamed up with Ticketmaster to sell tickets for tour. Ticket price ranges from US$40 to over 2000 USD in both European and North American dates. Due to high demand, second dates were added to cities such as Paris, Barcelona, Miami, Los Angeles, and Mexico City. The pre-sale tickets for the show in Ecuador grossed over $500,000 in its first 6 hours of release, and the show was almost sold out in the first day of ticket sales. Ticket News reported that the show in Capital One Arena took the Best-seller spot on Thursday, July 5.

Accolades

In Mexico City, the show sold out within two days of going on sale, making Shakira the second female artist to sell out the Estadio Azteca following Gloria Estefan. A week later, a second date was added due to overwhelming demand, being the first female artist in history to add a second consecutive date in this stadium. According to Shakira's official Twitter account, the two sold-out shows in Mexico City have brought in over 100,000 people. In Ecuador, she broke the record previously held by Bruno Mars of having sold the most tickets during a pre-sale period. She is also the first artist to perform in Rosario's Estadio Gigante de Arroyito. Around 12,000 fans reportedly attended the opening show in Hamburg. According to Salva, the music producer and DJ in charge to be the opening act for most European concerts, the attendance for Amsterdam night was 20,000 people. Based on the Live Music annual report published by the Spanish Musical Promoters Association, all the five performances in Spain gained over 71,000 attendees. In Istanbul, around 60,000 people attended the show according to Turkish media reports. She is the first artist to hold a concert in the newly renovated Vodafone Park Stadium.  In New York City, she is the first Latin artist to gross over 2 million in one single night from an arena in American concert history. In Miami and Los Angeles, she is the only female artist to have two shows in both American Airlines Arena and The Forum in 2018. With the two shows in Miami, this extends her record of having the most concerts in the venue of American Airlines Arena, 9 shows since Tour of the Mongoose, more than any artist. According to Billboard, the two sold out nights in Miami was the venue's biggest in 2018 with almost 3 million dollars. Over 100,000 fans attended the shows in Mexico City.

Revenue

initially estimated the tour to gross around $75 million in 52 shows. Based on their 2018-year end report the tour has grossed $40.7 million worldwide in 28 shows, with an average of $1.6 million per show.  Billboard reported that the North American leg of tour has grossed $28.2 million.  The revenue for her concert in Bsharri, Lebanon, was a total of  $2 million according to some media means in the Middle East. The organizers of the show in Ecuador reported that the fast sale of presale tickets grossed over $500,000 in only 6 hours

Concert synopsis

The show starts by a flash of light appearing on the big screen, as Shakira's voice can be heard repeating "estoy aquí" ; at the same time, on the side round screens, a series of black and white pictures of hers is displayed in chronological order to showcase an infant Shakira growing up and becoming the superstar she is now. Once the slideshow is over, a victorious and smiling Shakira runs on stage waving at fans, opening the setlist with an EDM medley of her 1995 breakthrough hits "Estoy Aquí" and "¿Dónde Estás Corazón?." She plays a synth keyboard in between the songs and a confetti shower explodes once the second song of medley is played. The costumes of this act are designed by Balmain, Brian Lichtenberg, and Black Majesty. After the "memorabilia medley," an intermission comes: Shakira is seen sitting on a rock chair with chains around her; the entertainer starts dancing, chest pumping and hair whipping, to finally succeed in breaking the chains, and her 2009 hit "She Wolf" begins. After its second chorus, she plays again the synth keyboard and walks through the catwalk right to the B-stage, asking to the women in the crowd to howl à la "She-wolf style." The concert continues with a rockified version of her 2000 hit "Si Te Vas", what is followed by two recent El Dorado singles: "Nada" and "Perro Fiel;" the latter as a mash-up with another Nicky Jam's single, "El Perdón." The two artists sing both songs of mash-up, and pyrotechnique effects appear throughout this number. In sequence, she introduces her band, and they play a R&B version of her English-speaking 2002 tune "Underneath Your Clothes." A slightly edited version of "Me Enamoré" comes after. Then, the Latin songwriter takes an electric guitar to play her 1998 rock hit "Inevitable." The act ends with 2016 megahit "Chantaje," where Maluma appears for a moment in the central screen.
With the first costume change, an "Interlude of the Gods" is presented, recreating in animation the story of the creation of universe according to the Pre-Columbian Andean traditions, being narrated by an indigenous child, as excerpts of her 2008 single "Despedida" are heard. The little child finishes its tale with the story of the birth of the Mother Goddess, Bachué, who was in charge to populate the Earth. Shakira, as in a Bachué embodiment, returns to stage wearing a golden belly dancing attire with her back to the crowd and a mask on the back of her head; all costume pieces are designed by Laurel Dewitt. Right after this dance personification, she executes her signature belly dancing and sings the Sahara Mix of her 2001 smash hit "Whenever, Wherever" ; in the halfway, one more belly dance break is done, this in a very similar way of the one happened during "Ojos Así" at her immediately previous tour.
Seconding this one-song act, an "Underwater interlude" is shown as a backdrop consisting of outtake scenes of Shakira's underwater videos shot for "Trap" music clip, along with her disserting about the meaning of life. The third act comes out when Cuban percussionist Albert Menéndez, a longtime contributor of her band, plays a piano, and Shakira is spotted at a corner of stage singing her 1998 ballad "Tú", whilst dressed up with black outfits designed by fashion houses Agent Provocateur and Koral, alongside with chain bracelets by Elena Staun and a long avantgarde jacket by Israeli fashionist Liona Taragan. Following this up, "Amarillo" comes, with her playing a drawing-decorated acoustic guitar, which is raised at the end of song, revealing a picture of her partner, the Spanish football player Gerard Piqué, along with their 2 sons, Milan and Sasha. She takes off the Taragan jacket soon as her smash hit duet with Alejandro Sanz, "La Tortura," starts. Both Sanz and Menéndez do the male lyrics. Soon, Shakira brings most part of her band to the B-stage to join her to perform altogether an early tune of hers, "Antología," in a reminder of the same song rendition at selected dates of the Oral Fixation Tour. When it is over, the band returns to their original places, while she has a short talk to her drummer Brendan Buckley, that leads to 2014 hit "Can't Remember to Forget You," in a new reggae arrangement. Towards its final, the song turns into a heavier rock version as Shakira plays frenzily the drums, in company of Rihanna singing part of chorus on the sidescreens. This section ends thereafter with a merengue medley of two Sale El Sol hits, "Loca" and "Rabiosa."
As Shakira leaves the stage, an instrumental-only violin version interlude of her 2016 comeback hit, "La Bicicleta," is played by band member Caitlin Evanson, while the other musicians play characteristic samples of Queen's worldwide hit "We Will Rock You." Four big drums are put in the front of main stage, and Shakira goes back, wearing a red and yellow ostrich skirt, designed by Hawaiian clothing line Iheartpolynesia, to dance and sing a medley of her World Cup hits "La La La " and "Waka Waka".
For the encore, there is an "Education Interlude:" a short movie to raise awareness for children who are deprived of any kind of education, portraiting the daily fight of kids around the world in the most underprivileged areas putting maximum efforts to receive education. As it ends, Shakira arrives to a small round stage located in the middle of the crowd in a gold dress and sings a shortened version of "Toneladas" ; after that, she removes her golden dress to reveal a pink Colombian dress, and runs through the crowd greeting and hugging her fans, returning to the main stage to perform her 2006 Billboard Hot 100 chart topper "Hips Don't Lie;" closing the concert, she tells the audience about her hometown roots and does an a cappella snippet of "La Bicicleta," which is succeeded by a full length, full band accompanied version of the duet with fellow Colombian Carlos Vives, who has also his presence on the circular screens. As Shakira says goodbye to the audience, colorful confetti showers explode as an extra thanks to fans.

Critical reception

Europe & Asia

The tour received general to universal acclaim. Reviewing the London show The Times gave the show a five star out of five rating, describing Shakira as "raunchy rock chick, a fiery temptress." The Guardian gave the tour a four out of five star review, complimenting Shakira's ability to fill arenas after 3 decades by pleasing her Latin fans and not leaving behind her massive English hits saying "she-wolf still has sharp teeth." Sonia De la Forterie from French radio station NRJ called the atmosphere of the shows in Paris a "boiling arena," highlighting Shakira's rendition of "Je l'aime à mourir." Florian Koch from Abendzeitung gave the show in Munich also a five star out of five, highlighting Shakira's emotional state after the recovery, and highlighting "Whenever, Wherever" by calling it "seductive." The Spanish/Galician newspaper La Opinión A Coruña acclaimed the show in A Coruña, praising Shakira's vocals, "messages of solidarity," and her "electric dance moves," acclaiming the entirety of the show by saying "The Colombian star fills the Coliseum with a vibrant show." The concert in the Cedars of Lebanon was met with critical acclaim by Isra Hassan from Lebanese newspaper An-Nahar; in her review of the tour stop at the Lebanese World Heritage Site, she called it a once in a lifetime experience, besides calling Shakira "Queen of stage" and stating that few deserve the title "global superstar" and Shakira is one of them.

North America

Suzy Exposito from Rolling Stone reviewed the New York show saying "she asserted her rank as an international pop goddess," further complimenting Shakira for filling up the stage alone with no backup dancers, and asserting herself as a rock chick when playing the guitar and drums. Reviewing the Los Angeles show, Mike Wass from Idolator said "The end result is an intoxicating, electric live experience that feels both intimate and epic. From the opening number to her final bow, the Colombian superstar had last night 's sold-out crowd completely under her spell." to later acclaim the artist by saying "Long may her reign as the Queen of Latin pop continue." A further Los Angeles Times review acclaimed the same concert for having "the feel of a hero's return." The Anaheim show was acclaimed by Lucas Villa from AXS.com complementing Shakira for putting on a show without relying on huge production to amaze a crowd writing, "instead of relying on a big production, she used her best instrument, her body, to capture the audience and shine as the gold standard of a performer." They add by saying that the show reaffirms Shakira's status as a "global icon." The Washington Post praised Shakira for her ability to gain back her voice after the vocal injury acclaiming the show by stating "Shakira launches ‘El Dorado’ with real and vocal fireworks" they further acclaimed her three decade spanning and diverse catalog, her signature vibrato, and massive pyrotechnics. Natalie Weiner from The New York Times called the show "The return of a titan of Latin pop, a dance festival" giving Shakira the title "Titan of Latin Pop" for her crossover that stands out among all other Latin crossover artists. Reviewing the show in Phoenix, Anthony Sandoval from azcentral called Shakira's 2018 rendition of her 2001 hit "Whenever, Wherever" a "cinematic sequence," complimenting her signature belly dance and the concept of the mask, therefore acclaiming the show, calling it "a performance that was endearing, fierce and downright majestic." Lilia O'Hara from The San Diego Union-Tribune described the connection between Shakira and her fans by "great maturity", and later praised the artist for being "one of the most versatile" songwriters in Latin music, also applauding Shakira for her dancing, singing and her ability to play multiple instruments.

Latin America

Sebastián Peña from the Colombian blog Shock called the Mexico City shows "the return of living and golden legend of music." EFE also commented on the show in Mexico describing Shakira as "authentic owner of the stage" for filling the stage alone without the need of backup dancers also calling the night "magical". João Pinheiro from the Brazilian blog Tenho Mais Discos que Amigos! acclaimed the show in São Paulo calling it "rapturous," wowing the 45,000 attendees, highlighting the "She Wolf" performance calling it "hypnotizing" and "theatrical" and praising her ability to dance and sing "perfectly" at the same time. Notife.com said Shakira "captivated" the crowd of 40,000 during the Rosario step with her "eccentric voice" and "frantic dance steps". The Ecuadorian newspaper El Comercio reported that the show in Guayaquil had "stunning sound, lights, and fires," later highlighting the "Antología" performance describing it as "intimate" with the entire stadium singing along with her. When reviewing the last concert of tour in Bogotá, Sebastián Peña from El Espectador named her trek "the golden return of Shakira", also asserting that Shakira is the only Latin artist to fill stadiums along with legends like Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney, and U2.

Philanthropy on tour

Shakira, as a UNICEF goodwill ambassador and an advocate for free and quality education, invited this organization to be present during the tour to collect donations from fans. UNICEF was on the road with Shakira throughout the tour. The tour also included an interlude before the encore called the "education interlude" to raise awareness for the difficulty of receiving basic education in the world's most remote areas that are conquered by poverty and inequality. During her visit to Montreal, staff from LCI Education Network of LaSalle College met with Shakira to announce their collaboration with Shakira's Barefoot Foundation in the "Institución Educativa Fundación Pies Descalzos El Bosque project". Shakira asked fans to donate $10 to One Drop Foundation for a chance to meet her in Las Vegas. Before the tour's last stop in Bogota, Shakira had a quick visit to her hometown Barranquilla to set the first stone for 2 new schools by her foundation one in Barranquilla, and another one in Cartagena. Billboard reports the costs of the schools being over $4 million each.

Honors and awards

Honors

YearCategoryAward ceremonyResult
2018Tour of the YearLOS40 Music Awards
2019Best Latin Tour30th Annual Pollstar Awards
2019Tour of the YearPremio Lo Nuestro
2019Tour of the YearLatin Billboard Music Awards

Incidents

This set list was used for the show held on June 3, 2018 in Hamburg, Germany. It does not represent all dates of the tour.
  1. "Estoy Aquí" / "¿Dónde Estás Corazón?"
  2. "She Wolf"
  3. "Si Te Vas"
  4. "Nada"
  5. "Perro Fiel"
  6. "Underneath Your Clothes"
  7. "Me Enamoré"
  8. "Inevitable"
  9. "Chantaje"
  10. "Whenever, Wherever"
  11. "Tú"
  12. "Amarillo"
  13. "La Tortura"
  14. "Antología"
  15. "Can't Remember to Forget You"
  16. "Loca" / "Rabiosa"
  17. "La La La " / "Waka Waka "
;Encore
  2. "Toneladas"
  3. "Hips Don't Lie"
  4. "La Bicicleta"

    Broadcasts and recordings

On 27 August 2018, Shakira posted a video and then made a survey on her Twitter account about which one of the three Balmain shirts she alternately wore during first section of concert would be chosen for a next tour date. The day after that, Hans Nelson, a tour crew member, posted on his Instagram account that indeed the two concerts to be held at The Forum, Los Angeles, California, would be taped for a future live DVD release. On the date of the rescheduled second show in the city, the singer herself confirmed through her social networks that the concert of that day would be recorded for a concert film. Soon after the tour ended, Shakira announced she has started the editing process of the tour DVD.
On November 13 and 15, 2019; will be released in selected cinemas around the world the recording of the show in Los Angeles at The Forum. It's called Shakira In Concert: El Dorado World Tour.

Shows