As published on Bravo Magazine!

When Shakira takes the stage at Copacabana Beach on May 2, as part of the Todo Mundo no Rio project, the challenge will be different from the one she faces in closed arenas. The Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour already has a consolidated structure, with visual interludes, narrative blocks, and a balance between past and present. But Copacabana operates on another scale, with a different dynamic and a different kind of audience. It is a performance designed for millions, broadcast on television, symbolic in scope. That inevitably reshapes the logic of the repertoire.

The current setlist opens by immersing the audience in the aesthetic of the new album, with “La Huesera” and “La Fuerte,” and continues through an emotional arc that includes “Te Felicito,” “TQG,” “Monotonía,” “Última” and “Acróstico,” among others. It is a show that foregrounds the artist’s recent chapter, her public reinvention,n and her discourse of autonomy. That backbone is unlikely to disappear, because it sustains the entire tour.

At the same time, the repertoire already incorporates a substantial portion of her greatest hits. “Las de la Intuición” appears in a mashup with “Estoy Aquí,” linking the present to the phase that revealed her in Latin America and consolidated her relationship with Brazil in the 1990s, when she toured the country with more than 30 performances during the Pies Descalzos era. “Empire” and “Inevitable” nod to her more introspective rock phase. “La Tortura” appears within a medley that includes “Copa Vacía” and “La Bicicleta,” preserving one of the biggest milestones of 2000s Latin pop. “Hips Don’t Lie” holds a strategic position, reinforcing her biggest global success and the historic achievement of topping the Billboard Hot 100 as a South American artist. “Ojos Así” sustains the hybrid identity between pop and Middle Eastern influences that has always distinguished her sound. “Suerte (Whenever, Wherever)” revisits the single that definitively launched her into the English-language market. “Waka Waka” closes with undeniable symbolic force, tied to the World Cups and the collective memory of football.

If we cross this repertoire with her historical Top 10, we see that the core is almost entirely present. “Hips Don’t Lie,” “Waka Waka,” “Whenever, Wherever,” “La Tortura,” “Ojos Así” and “Estoy Aquí” are all there. What may change is not so much the inclusion of new songs, but the weight given to each of them. Copacabana tends to demand less fragmentation and more full choruses, fewer extended interludes, and more moments of collective singing. In an open space with millions of people, the strength of the show lies in familiarity.

There are also songs that, although not necessarily central in the current set, could gain strategic prominence on the beach. “Underneath Your Clothes,” for instance, was one of the major hits of the Laundry Service era and speaks directly to the generation that discovered her in the early 2000s. “Shakira: Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53,” already present in recent formats, connects her to the digital era and to audiences who rediscovered her through streaming platforms. In a globally televised event, reinforcing that bridge between past and present makes sense.

The Brazilian context always matters. Shakira has spoken fluent Portuguese since she was 18 and has built a consistent emotional relationship with the country, whether during her 1990s tours, at Rock in Rio in 2011, or at the closing ceremony of the 2014 World Cup at the Maracanã. It would not be surprising if Copacabana included a moment specifically designed for this audience, even within the already established structure of the tour.

Ultimately, what May suggests is less a promotional album show and more a celebration of repertoire. A sequence of songs that have ceased to be mere hits and have become shared memory. “Hips Don’t Lie” as rhythmic peak, “Waka Waka” as collective anthem, “Whenever, Wherever” as the milestone of the Latin crossover, “La Tortura” as the consolidation of bilingual pop, “Ojos Así” as aesthetic signature,e and “Estoy Aquí” as a reminder of the artist who started small and became global.

Copacabana is not a stage for subtlety. It is a space of consecration. If the setlist maintains its current structure while amplifying the prominence of iconic hits, the night in May is likely to function as a synthesis of three decades of career. Not merely a tour concert, but the staging of a trajectory that helped place Latin music at the center of the global stage.

Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour – Setlist

1. La fuerte
2. GIRL LIKE ME
3. Las de la intuición / Estoy aquí
4. Empire / Inevitable
5. Robot Intro
6. Te felicito
7. TQG
8. Don’t Bother
9. Baby Cubs – Acróstico
10. Acróstico
11. Mermaid
12. Copa vacía / La bicicleta / La tortura
13. Las Caderas
14. Hips Don’t Lie
15. Chantaje
16. Monotonía
17. Soltera
18. Si te vas
19. Diamond Tear
20. Última
21. The Sorceress
22. Ojos así
23. Baby Shak Poem – Pies descalzos
24. Pies descalzos, sueños blancos
25. Antología
26. Braids
27. Suerte (Whenever, Wherever)
28. Waka Waka (Esto es África)

Encore

29. Los 10 Mandamientos de las Lobas
30. Isabell the Wolf
31. Loba
32. BZRP Music Sessions #53