Shakira’s Up Close and Personal show is a smaller-scale adaptation of her Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour set.
Photo by Celia Almeida
It’s been just shy of seven months since Shakira played two back-to-back shows at Hard Rock Stadium as part of her Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour. Since those early June dates, which came four months and nine countries into the global jaunt, the Colombian superstar has played another 12 U.S. cities, 11 cities in Mexico — including five shows in Mexico City, one of three multi-date stops in the country — and concerts in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina. She’s headed to El Salvador in February, before returning to Mexico for three additional shows later that same month.
Put simply: Shakira has had a busy and (mostly) triumphant 2025. Save for the criticism she’s received for an uncharacteristically long string of cancellations and postponements, her latest tour has been a victory lap 30 years in the making, one made all the more redemptive because it was inspired by a painful and public personal low point — her bitter divorce from former soccer player Gerard Piqué.
After a well-documented personal low, Shakira’s 2025 has been a career high.
So, how did Shak’s Up Close & Personal show — one of three back-to-back concerts scheduled at Hard Rock Live this week — differ from the show she’s been performing around the rest of the world this year?
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Well, mostly just in scale. The show had all the hallmarks of her stadium shows — light-up wristbands; lasers; stage risers; a massive, inflatable wolf effigy — but it offered a level of closeness that is a rare privilege for fans of superstars like Shakira. Removing the distance and distractions of a stadium production granted a peek behind the curtain: We all got to watch the wolf inflate together, we saw Shak scamper offstage instead of disappearing into a floor lift, and we saw her crouch on the B-stage as she waited for lighting cues before the next number.
“After a whole year of stadiums and my last two here in Miami at Hard Rock Stadium, I was so excited to design something more intimate for all of you, this time with Hard Rock Live, to be able to see each of your faces and spend an evening together celebrating how amazing 2025 has been,” Shakira wrote on Instagram before the show began. Indeed, she lit up and seemed genuinely delighted by the close contact (a little too close sometimes — she gently wrestled her way out of a couple of overeager embraces during her audience walk-through).
That kind of intimacy has been Hard Rock Live’s calling card since the 7,000-seater reopened in 2019 (and again in 2021 after COVID closures). In recent years, artists like Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, and, most recently, Stevie Nicks, have adapted their arena and stadium productions for a venue that holds about a tenth of the people for whom these artists typically perform.
With a three-decade career under her swiveling belt, Shakira is firmly among those ranks. Let us remember that, five years ago, the woman we saw in this large theater co-headlined the freakin’ Super Bowl. And this year, her Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran Tour, which Up Close & Personal largely adapts, became the highest-grossing Latin tour ever by a woman. Like all the best concerts, the show is built to woo both devotees and neophytes — even for this longtime fan, it was a reminder of just how many times Shakira has convincingly adapted and shapeshifted over the years — from Spanish to English; from rock to reggaeton; and well beyond.
Naturally, with 12 albums’ worth of material to mine from, some gems inevitably got cut. The two women seated next to me were left clamoring for “Ojos Así,” which was included only in an interlude. Some of the stadium show’s slower numbers — “Cómo dónde y cuándo,” “Última” — also got the axe, as did “Monotonía,” “Addicted to You,” “Loca,” and “Objection (Tango).” Another diversion from her Hard Rock Stadium concerts: no guest performers. In June, Shakira brought out Alejandro Sanz, Ozuna, and Manuel Turizo, but last night, it was just Shak, her band, and her dancers.
With three decades of material under her belt, some classics were left on the cutting room floor.
In a slightly odd break, Shakira took a moment to greet her Spanish fans, whom she said were also watching the show. She made it sound like they were watching live, but in actuality, it appeared her greeting and part of the performance were being pre-recorded for a New Year’s Eve broadcast. That might be why signs around the venue advised Saturday’s show was being filmed — the year may be winding down, but Shakira’s obligations sure aren’t. Still, despite her unrelenting schedule, playing a hometown show offered a rare comfort for the singer.
“Tonight, I get to sleep in my own bed, which is a luxury after a year on tour,” she told the crowd.
Setlist:
– “La fuerte”
– “Girl Like Me”
– “Las de la intuición” / “Estoy aquí”
– “Empire / Inevitable”
– “Te felicito / TQG”
– “Don’t Bother”
– “Acróstico”
– “Copa vacía” / “La bicicleta” / “La tortura”
– “Hips Don’t Lie”
– “Chantaje”
– “Soltera”
– “Pies descalzos, sueños blancos”
– “Antología”
– “Underneath Your Clothes”
– “Whenever, Wherever”
– “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)”
– “She Wolf”
– “Bzrp Music Sessions #53”