Behind the scenes of tour as she talks about immigrants to the US

Deep in the intestine of the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, a note is glued to the door of Shakira’s production office. “Please return later … Unless you are really set on fire.”

The handwritten pink scrub suggests a level of stress, which is completely understandable to the team that launches the biggest tour of the stadium during the year.

With 64 sold out shows in North and South America, Shakira has played more than two million fans.

“I’ve worked for over a year, polishing every single detail of the show, so it’s a really incredible reward,” the star told BBC News.

No nerves or screaming matches behind the scenes before the show in Miami … and no one is on fire.

The vibration is calm and professional. The dancers extend into the corridors, the seamstresses sew crystals on cats and guitar technicians check and check their settings.

Hold on long enough and find some surprising facts on the tour.

“We travel with two washing machines and two dryers, which we get involved (in) every place,” says wardrobe manager Hannah Kinkade, who has only 300 costumes to take care of.

Every outfit must be refreshed before a new show, she says, because “Shakira dances really hard and the dancers too.

“Men’s dancers smear their shoes so bad that I have to repaint them every morning.”

Birmingham -born stage manager Kevin Rowe shows us around the dark corridors under the scene where the crew has taken secret reserves from Gatorade and Iced Coffee to help them survive the sticky heat in Miami.

“Either it gets very hot or very wet,” he says, to work on an outdoor show. “But this is the compromise of living in the underworld.”

Around 2:30 pm, the group begins their sound check. Shortly after 3:00 pm, Shakira herself arrives with her non-resistant hips, surrounded by a police companion and joins the stage team.

Dressed in stretched silver jeans and a white tip, she can’t help but dance as she appreciates the place tonight.

“I came here for Beyonce’s concert and it was flawless, so it would be better to make me sound like that,” she jokes at the crew.

Or is it a joke?

Shakira delivers Quip with wink, but there is one thing that everyone admits behind the scenes: the boss is a perfectionist.

“When it is included, it is included,” says the main dancer Darina Littleton. “When she enters, she’s ready, her character is on, she’s full.”

“She knows what she wants, and if she can’t understand, she’ll get there in one way or another,” says music director Tim Mitchell, who has played with Shakira from the 1990s (he even writes the Rifta of Pan Tuba when).

“It is very specific to every aspect of the show: sound, visual, lighting, wrist bands, every single thing. It’s amazing. I don’t know how it does it.”

The obsession pays off.

Shakira’s concert is two and a half hours of music drama-non-stop parade of bilingual hits, 13 changes in the costume and move without stopping.

She performed Lebanese inspired belly dance during Ojos Asi; The routine of the tribal knife to be introduced always anywhere; throws a flying guitar during an objection (tango); And there is an audience to twist and embody through an electrifying version of She Wolf.

The tour is entitled Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran (women no longer cry) after Shakira’s latest album, which is inspired by some of the most intensive heartwashes and personal cataclysms she has ever experienced.

Her 11-year relationship with footballer Gerard Pique fell apart, at the same time, when her father underwent an emergency brain operation and Spanish authorities accused her of tax fraud at 14.5 million euros (12.7 million pounds) (she settles the case out of court).

“Many of you know that in recent years they have not been the easiest for me,” she says on stage. “But who has no fall here -there, right?

“What I learned is that the fall is not the end, but the beginning of an even better trip.”

In particular, the turbulence of her mid-1940s caused a creative outburst, which returned Shakira in a cultural conversation after seven years of musical silence.

BZRP’s music sessions in 2023, Volume 53, cooperation with Argentine producer Bizarrap, was full of Barbs, directed to Piqé and his new girlfriend (“You traded Rolex for a Casio”) and won the Song of the Year in Latin Grammy.

She continued the theme of a series of hit singles such as the sarcastic te felicito (congratulations) and TQG (Te Ques Grande – I’m too good for you), a duet with Colombian star Carol G, which has accumulated 1.3 billion flow of Spotify.

“She’s so inspiring for women,” says a fan of sheoff, shortly before the show. “She has done everything. She is a power.”

Shakira’s commitment to the show is such that she wants our interview to be held after She goes beyond the stage. Shortly after midnight, she appears from her dressing room, somehow she looks more fresh than a field of daisies.

“I warn you that I may not make much sense at the moment,” she laughs. “I’m still recovering.

“It was really hot and humid today. So when it is or there is altitude, it’s very challenging … but it’s worth it.”

What happens when she is tired or sick?

“To make a show of this size and do it every night, it doesn’t matter if you are sad or if you have a bad day or if you are sick or coughing – you just have to do everything you can and miraculously do it.

“And the adrenaline does not actually allow me to feel the exhaustion or how demanding it can be. It carries you.”

The game in Miami was particularly meaningful, she says, because this is the city where he moved as a teenager, hoping to break into the Western pop market.

By this time she was already a star in Colombia, but she knew that international success meant singing in English. The only problem was that she never taught him.

“I was only 19 when I moved to the United States, like many other Colombian immigrants who come to this country, looking for a better future,” she says.

“And I remember surrounded by Spanish -English dictionaries and dictionaries of synonym – because on the day I didn’t really have Google or Chatgpt (help). So everything was very uncertain.

“And then I went into poetry and started reading a little of Leonard Cohen and Walt Whitman and Bob Dylan, trying to figure out how English works in the writing of songs. I think I did it well.”

Recently, she has been thinking about these experiences, her admission to America and how it contrasts with the Trump administration’s attitude towards immigrants.

Taking Grammy for the best Latin pop album this year, she turned directly to the situation.

“I want to dedicate this award to all my brothers and Immigrants siblings in this country. You are loved, you deserve and I will always fight with you,” she said.

How do I feel, ask, to be an immigrant in the US today?

“It means living in constant fear,” she says. “And it’s painful to see.

“Now, more than ever, we must remain united. Now, more than ever, we must raise our voice and clarify that a country can change its immigration policies, but treating all people should always be humane.”

This is a powerful statement – it is partly spoken in Spanish as Shakira turns directly to Latin America fans.

This connection is at the heart of the success of her tour – the fans grew up with Shakira and see themselves reflected in it.

In Miami, the audience covers generations – with mothers and daughters who sing in harmony to hits from the 90s as Decalzos pies, Xuos Blancos and bouncing on a festive Vaka Vaka (this time for Africa).

That is why the emotional high point of the show comes during Acrótiico – the gentle ballad Shakira wrote about her children, promising them that he will remain strong in the part of Pique.

While she performs, Sasha (12) and Milan (10) appear on the screens of the video by hitting their mother.

“My heart melts every time I see them on this screen and hear their small voices,” the star says.

“They are just everything for me. They are my engine and the reason I’m alive. So I have them every night on stage, it’s just such a precious moment.”

This is the first time the boys were adult enough to see a mom to perform in a concert and she admits that they have “mixed emotions” for it.

“When I have a show, they are kind of stressed because they want everything to come out perfectly for me,” she says.

“They always worry like” Mom, how did you go? Did you fall? Are you fine? “

“And I try to show them that there is no perfect show. It’s good to make a mistake.”

The question of the United Kingdom fans is, will the tour come in Europe?

“You have to follow. Wait and see,” Shakira teases.

“We still can’t say dates, but we’re close to the announcement. I really want to share this show with my fans from all over the world.”