Shakira surprises crowds at Coachella with announcement of new world tour

Festivals like Coachella remind us of the power of brands. For companies, events like this one, which each year attracts more than 100,000 people, are an opportunity too good to miss. Would you like a beer? Walk a few feet that way to the sponsor’s drink garden. Do you want to see celebrities? Come see Paris Hilton in an exclusive area sponsored by a famous vodka brand. But on stage, artists continue to be the biggest consumer products. Shakira, one of the most valuable brands in the music industry, showed up on Friday night by surprise with the Argentine musician Bizarrap. To the surprise of everyone who unlocked their phones to record the moment, she made an announcement:

-”I’m leaving,” said the Colombian singer.

-“Where are you going?” responded the Argentine producer, who had barely spoken until then.

-“I’m finally going on a world tour,” Shakira said excitedly. A huge screen behind them announced “Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour.”

The moment remained etched in the collective memory like one more advertisement in a sea of advertising impacts. Shakira will begin promoting her new album in November. Minutes earlier, the star had sung the now famous Session 53, with which she settled her accounts in plain sight with her ex-partner, the Spanish soccer player Gerard Piqué. The song became an international hit and helped Bizarrap consolidate his reputation as a producer capable of conquering global charts. This collaboration was followed by La Fuerte, the song with which Shakira took the stage on Friday and which is included on the album that lends its name to her new tour. On stage, the duo showed good chemistry. “Biza, you are my partner, my colleague,” Shakira told Bizarrap. When she left, the Argentine said: “And they asked me if I was going to have guests at Coachella…”

Before the star’s fleeting appearance, Bizarrap (whose real name is Gonzalo Julián Conde), dressed in his tracksuit de rigueur, had performed a great DJ set with samples of his sessions. He started out with a song with Nathy Peluso, released three years ago, then made his way through more recent ones, such as the session he did with the Puerto Rican singer Villano Antillano or the one with the Mexican artist Natanael Cano, which has been on the air for less than 10 days. But the musical trip through the region was not done by jumping from genre to genre, but rather by uniting the voices in a solid package of electronic music that explored house, classic techno and even the dubstep popularized by Skrillex. He closed with another of his most viral songs, Quédate, by the Spanish artist Quevedo.

An hour later it was time for Peso Pluma, who occupied the main stage of the festival. His presence there made his meteoric rise crystal clear. It was only last year that the artist also known as Dople P and whose real name is Hassan Emilio Kabande made his debut at Coachella. His participation only lasted a few minutes, as a guest of Becky G on Chanel. On Friday he returned the invitation from the American artist with Mexican roots. Peso Pluma’s performance was the next to last, followed by the melancholic closing act by Lana del Rey and her guests, which included the multi-award winning Jack Antonoff, Jon Batiste, with whom she sang the opening of Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd; and Billie Eilish, with whom she sang Ocean Eyes, composed by the two-time Oscar winner.

Just as 1986 was the year of rap and 1991 was the year of grunge, 2023 went down as the year of the takeoff of Mexican regional music, a label that the industry has used to sell a wide range of sounds that include traditional corridos, Sinaloan bands, grupero and Tex Mex. It was that wave that gave drive to Génesis, the album that helped Peso Pluma become known to the general public after two more modest releases. On Friday he touched on several topics. These include the controversy outside his country for glorifying drug trafficking and the Sinaloa Cartel in songs like PRC, one of his corridos tumbados. Behind him were headlines from the world press that highlighted his “uncomfortable” relationship with organized crime.

“Up with Mexico, to hell, old man!” was his war cry during the concert. His guests were Arcángel, the rapper Santa Fe Klan and Junior H, whom he also paid tribute to in the video that closed the show. In the images, the 24-year-old Mexican artist talked about what he considers the history of the corrido, which starts with Chalino Sánchez and leads to himself, the self-proclaimed heir of that tradition.

Meanwhile, inside a tent, an unclassifiable event was taking place that showed one of the most alternative faces of Coachella. Clown Core made its debut at the festival with a sample of its act, which is half performance, half nightmare, a mix that has garnered the band quite a few followers online. The Nevada trio is made up of musicians who have remained anonymous behind their clown masks, letting the videos they publish from time to time and which are recorded in moving vehicles or in public latrines speak for them. These function as enigmatic video clips that leave a passing taste of a bad trip set to music with a mix of easy listening, jazz and ambient noise. The group has become a sensation in Los Angeles, where they quickly sell out their concerts. On Friday several people came to see them and quench their curiosity.

French electronic music duo Justice returned to Coachella with a stylish live number to present their new album, Hyperdrama, which will be available on April 26 and features a collaboration with Tame Impala. It is their first trip to the Californian desert since Xavier de Rosnay and Gaspard Augé became known in 2007 with a memorable performance. Last night they opted for an incredible set of moving lights that went up and down to form a roof over their heads and a maze of lights. Wearing suits and dark glasses, the French musicians left another great visual show using only the color white and their large cross, with which they usually accompany the gospel of electronic dance music.

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