The divas cash in: Welcome to the era of Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Shakira, Karol G, Dua Lipa...

In July, Colombian singer Karol G will fill Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu stadium four times. That’s 240,000 tickets. It will probably be a record for paid attendance at a musical concert in Spain by a single artist. In May 2023, Coldplay sold 200,000 tickets over four nights at the Estadi Olimpic in Barcelona. At an average of €100 ($109) per ticket, the revenue from Karol G’s concerts, before a song has been sung (indirect costs should also be added: transport, hotels, drinks inside and outside the stadium...) totals €24 million ($26.2 million), proof of the current craze for live music, and particularly for female artists. There has never been a year in which so many releases and concerts by top female singers have coincided.

Shakira

When? Las mujeres ya no lloran, Shakira’s first album in seven years, will be released on March 22.

What’s on offer? Up to 16 songs, none of them particularly long: 11 are less than three minutes and the longest lasts for 3:36. Included on the album are the seven songs the Colombian singer released two years ago, when her relationship with Gerard Piqué ended (which is relevant because the lyrics deal with this breakup). As such there will be eight new tracks, including collaborations with Cardi B, Rauw Alejandro, Grupo Frontera and Bizarrap. Only on four songs does Shakira perform solo. Musically, she embraces the new trends of urban music, be it reggaeton or corrido tumbado. There is little doubt that it will garner millions of listens on platforms and that the album will be followed by a tour as early as 2025. Bets are being placed on how many Bernabéu concerts Shakira will announce. Three? Four? Or will she go for five to surpass her compatriot Karol G? We’ll see...

Beyoncé

When? Beyoncé will release her new album on March 29. When she released Renaissance (2022), the singer announced that there would be at least three chapters of the same project. If the first one was dedicated to dance music, everything points to Act II focusing on country.

What’s on offer? Beyoncé in a cowboy hat and boots with spurs. The star is reclaiming her roots — she was born in Houston, Texas — and although most of the stars of the genre are white, country music has its roots in Black folk music before it became widespread in the southern United States in the 1920s and 1930s. Rapper Lil Nas X scored a huge crossover hit in 2018 with Old Town Road, so Beyoncé's shift is not new. She released two previews of the album during the Super Bowl: the ballad 16 Carriages and the country dancehall Texas Hold ‘Em, which immediately topped the charts in the United States and the United Kingdom. For those who fantasize about a fight for the throne of female pop, Beyoncé today embraces country, precisely the style with which Taylor Swift began her career. Swift left it behind for commercial pop to conquer Europe, Latin America and Asia, regions that are less receptive to country.

Taylor Swift

When? Taylor Swift’s 11th album, The Tortured Poets Department, will be released on April 19. In addition, she will perform on May 29 and 30 at the Santiago Bernabéu in Madrid.

What’s on offer? The Taylor Swift brand does not rest. There is not a week in which her emporium doesn’t offer some new product for sale. Up to four editions of the album have already been announced (The Manuscript Edition, The Bolter Edition, The Albatross Edition and The Black Dog Edition). The only novelty compared to the original is the cover and an extra song. The ultimate goal, of course, is the bottom line. But everyone is free to do what they want with their money. The original album contains 16 tracks and two collaborations: with the rapper Post Malone and, most interestingly, Florence Welch of Florence & The Machine. As for the content, it is very likely that some of the songs will cover her ex-partners. Or so say the extremely well-informed Swifties. Jack Antonoff, the golden boy producer who has worked on Swift’s previous albums and has created the sound of records by Lorde, Lana Del Rey and St. Vincent, will be in charge of production.

Dua Lipa

When? Dua Lipa’s third album is due for release this spring. She will also headline the Mad Cool festival in Madrid on July 10.

What’s on offer? Last January the Londoner starred on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. There she revealed that her third album, which fans call DL3, “is a tribute to U.K. rave culture with touches of psychedelic pop.” Sounds good. She cites Primal Scream (we assume because of Screamadelica) and Massive Attack, but omitted The Stone Roses, the most influential British psychedelic pop act of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Blur and Oasis are also mentioned in the interview, but more in terms of the aesthetics: will she wear a Fred Perry polo shirt on the album cover, or an Adidas tracksuit with a zipper up to the chin? Musically there are already two advance tracks: Houdini, produced, among others, by Kevin Parker, leader of the psychedelic band Tame Impala; and Training Season. The first one has a slight touch of 1990s English club pop, and the second one is closer to Olivia Newton John and her gym anthem Physical. In both cases, Lipa continues to masterfully exploit musical nostalgia.

Billie Eilish

When? Billie Eilish’s third full-length work will be released during 2024.

What’s on offer? At just 22 years old, the Californian is the youngest artist to win two Oscars, both for Best Song. She took home the statuette in 2022 for the James Bond movie theme, No Time To Die, and in the early hours of Sunday morning she repeated the trick with the ballad What Was I Made For? from the movie Barbie. With the swag in her backpack, she is now focusing on her new work, about which little is known. “It’s finished,” the singer said at the Grammy Awards gala last January. The producer is her brother, Finneas.

Karol G

When? On July 21, 22, 23 and 24, Karol G will sell out the Santiago Bernabéu stadium.

What’s on offer? Two and a half hours of Latin music with everything you would expect from a stadium concert in 2024: platforms that raise the star to the skies, changes of scenery, dancers galore, state-of-the-art videos, lots of color and a barrage of reggaeton. Fun for the TikTok era is what Karol G’s Mañana Será Bonito Tour promises.

Lana Del Rey

When? On May 31, Lana Del Rey will headline the second day of the Barcelona festival Primavera Sound.

What’s on offer? As mentioned above, Taylor Swift is performing at the Santiago Bernabéu on May 29 and 30. What will the star do the following day? Many people are wondering if she will head to Barcelona to join Lana Del Rey on stage: Swift invited Del Rey to sing on Snow On The Beach, included on the album Midnights. And last January, Swift took Del Rey on stage at the Grammys and told her, for all to hear: “So many female artists would not be where they are or have the inspiration without the work she has done. She is a legacy artist, a legend in her prime right now. I’m so lucky to know you and to be your friend.” Maybe a duet in Barcelona is on the cards.

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