El Dorado World Tour

Following an anticipation tweet from Shakira's official account featuring the flags of 18 countries and a link that directed to a newsletter subscription from her music label,[4] the tour was announced therefore three days later, on 27 June 2017,[5] and was mainly sponsored by Rakuten.[6] Also teaming on tour were Live Nation Entertainment's Global Touring Division (what had previously collaborated with Shakira on her The Sun Comes Out World Tour) and Citi, which were, respectively, the producer and the credit card for the North American leg of the tour.[7] As part of the tour introduction, Live Nation posted a video via their official social networks as a further reminding of it.[8]

The tour would begin on 8 November, in Cologne, Germany, but due to voice strain related problems with the singer during her tour rehearsals, the date was cancelled a day prior to the original tour schedule.[9] On 9 November, for the same reason, she announced the postponement to later dates also for both shows in Paris, as well as the following ones in Antwerp and Amsterdam.[10] On 14 November, she made an announcement through her social networks in which she reveals to have acquired a haemorrhage at her right vocal chord during end October, at her last batch of rehearsals, and needs to rest her voice for some time to be cured; so all European leg was postponed to happen in 2018.[2] On 27 December 2017, she announced the postponement of all North American dates, and the rescheduling of all announced dates so far to happen mid-year; the tour officially started in June 2018.[3]

Shakira in New York City's Madison Square Garden, where she sold out the venue for the 5th time and became the first Latin artist to gross over 2 million US dollars from a US arena.

On 22 January 2018, she announced three additional European dates for the cities of Hamburg, London and Bordeaux.[11] A second Los Angeles show was added on 9 May;[12] and, a day after, Shakira announced a date for Istanbul, 11 years after visiting Turkey with her Oral Fixation Tour,[13] as well as the Latin American dates.[14] After these, it was announced that the Colombian singer would visit Lebanon, to perform at the Cedars International Festival.[15] Although some Israeli media had reported about a concert to have been held in 9 July 2018 in Tel Aviv,[16] which caused some controversial reaction, and a following threat of boycotting her Lebanese concert, supported by BDS,[17] Live Nation confirmed through their Twitter account that no date was set for Israel due to scheduling problems.[18]

On 29 June 2018, it was confirmed by the mayor of Shakira's hometown Barranquilla, Alejandro Char, that the native singer would perform at the inauguration of 2018 edition of the Central American and Caribbean Games, to be held in the Colombian city.[19] For this special event, Shakira performed 3 songs ("Me Enamoré," "Hips Don't Lie," and "La Bicicleta") in the Estadio Metropolitano Roberto Meléndez on 19 July.[20]

Preparations for tour as originally scheduled had started around late August 2017, with rehearsals taking place in Barcelona, as revealed by the singer herself.[21] Shakira posted through her social networks a series of videos documenting the creative process of the tour since from the very early stages.[22] Among the first of them there were one where she introduced part of her crew,[23] and an immediately following to that one, posted a day after, where she is working out.[24] As tour kept being rehearsed during October, more videos from backstage and rehearsals came out as promised.[25][21] By then, one of the most commented videos by press coverage was one posted by Shakira's partner, Gerard Piqué, while he was attending her performing her 1997 single, "Antología".[26] After the tour hiatus following the singer's health recovery, its rehearsals resumed on 9 May 2018, as Shakira has been keeping documenting her tour process through her social networks.[27][28]

As part of tour interaction with fans during its original preparation and anticipation, on 7 August 2017 Shakira urged her followers through her social networks to collaborate in the selection of the list of songs that could be featured on tour, in a desire expressed by her of "this tour to be particularly special for her fans".[29] In this way, Viber, a subsidiary of official tour sponsor Rakuten, carried out a poll for them to help her pick out some tracks.[30][29] The winner choices were announced a week after, on the mobile platform.[31] Seconding this research, Shakira had joined Viber again to promise a surprise contest for fans, on 10 October,[32] that was announced two days later, on the same instant messenger application.[33] One of the prizes was a trip to Barcelona to attend rehearsals.[34] Rakuten Spain has delivered a similar prize contest (although valid only for Spanish residents), in which the winners were able to watch a private show by Shakira's team also in Barcelona, on 4 November, some days before tour officially kicked off originally.[35] As for 2018 resuming rehearsals, the official Spanish tour sponsor was keeping on posting anticipation notes through their social networks,[36][37] and the partnership with Viber for exclusive content from tour was kept too.[38]

Crew members were announced by Shakira little by little, being one of the first ones Anna Kaiser, as her personal trainer, by videos and photos of the singer's AKT InMotion workout sessions.[39] On 30 October 2017, Shakira herself revealed band members, including her longtime fellow musician contributors guitarist Tim Mitchell, keyboard player Albert Menendez and drummer Brendan Buckley. Besides them, there were, debuting on a Shakira tour, bass player Erik Kertes and violinist Caitlin Evanson.[40] As for the actual tour start in mid-2018, all band members remained the same with the only exception of bassist Joe Ayoub who joined it to replace Kertes.[41] Production design company Vita Motus was commissioned by the stage design,[42] and Syndrome Studio was in charge as the graphic designer for screen backdrops.[43] Longtime Shakira's contributor Marjan Malakpour was the executive stylist for tour,[44] and among the clothing line creators in charge of designing costumes for tour were French fashion house Balmain,[45][46] American fashion designer Brian Lichtenberg,[46][47] and fellow Colombian fashion designer Juan Carlos Obando.[48] For the most Spanish concerts, she wore a belt with feathers designed by Hawaiian-based online clothing store Iheartpolynesia, adapted from the same type of piece this shop had previously designed for Miss Latina Hawaii 2018.[49]

The show starts by a flash of light appearing on the big screen, as Shakira's voice can be heard repeating "estoy aquí" (Spanish, "I am here"); at the same time, on the side round screens, a series of black and white pictures of hers is displayed in chronological order to showcase an infant Shakira growing up and becoming the superstar she is now. Once the slideshow is over, a victorious and smiling Shakira runs on stage waving at fans (with a firework rain at the back of the stadiums for the Latin American dates), opening the setlist with an EDM medley of her 1995 breakthrough hits "Estoy Aquí" and "¿Dónde Estás Corazón?." She plays a synth keyboard in between the songs and a confetti shower explodes once the second song of medley is played. The costumes of this act are designed by Balmain, Brian Lichtenberg, and Black Majesty. After the "memorabilia medley," an intermission comes: Shakira is seen sitting on a rock chair with chains around her; the entertainer starts dancing, chest pumping and hair whipping, to finally succeed in breaking the chains, and her 2009 hit "She Wolf" begins. After its second chorus, she plays again the synth keyboard and walks through the catwalk right to the B-stage, asking to the women in the crowd to howl à la "She-wolf style." The concert continues with a rockified version of her 2000 hit "Si Te Vas" (a traditional feature for most of her stage tours), what is followed by two recent El Dorado singles: "Nada" and "Perro Fiel;" the latter as a mash-up with another Nicky Jam's single, "El Perdón." The two artists (him on background) sing both songs of mash-up, and pyrotechnique effects appear throughout this number. In sequence, she introduces her band, and they play a R&B version of her English-speaking 2002 tune "Underneath Your Clothes." A slightly edited version of "Me Enamoré" comes after. Then, the Latin songwriter takes an electric guitar to play her 1998 rock hit "Inevitable." The act ends with 2016 megahit "Chantaje," where Maluma appears for a moment in the central screen.

With the first costume change, an "Interlude of the Gods" is presented, recreating in animation the story of the creation of universe according to the Pre-Columbian Andean traditions (specifically from the mythology of the Muisca civilization, who populated part of what is nowadays Colombian territory - this is the same people from whom arose the El Dorado legend), being narrated by an indigenous child, as excerpts of her 2008 single "Despedida" are heard. The little child finishes its tale with the story of the birth of the Mother Goddess, Bachué, who was in charge to populate the Earth. Shakira, as in a Bachué embodiment, returns to stage wearing a golden belly dancing attire with her back to the crowd and a mask on the back of her head; all costume pieces are designed by Laurel Dewitt. Right after this dance personification, she executes her signature belly dancing and sings the Sahara Mix of her 2001 smash hit "Whenever, Wherever" (that previously served as the encore act for her Tour of the Mongoose); in the halfway, one more belly dance break is done, this in a very similar way of the one happened during "Ojos Así" at her immediately previous tour.

Seconding this one-song act, an "Underwater interlude" is shown as a backdrop consisting of outtake scenes of Shakira's underwater videos shot for "Trap" music clip, along with her disserting about the meaning of life. The third act comes out when Cuban percussionist Albert Menéndez, a longtime contributor of her band, plays a piano, and Shakira is spotted at a corner of stage singing her 1998 ballad "Tú" (in its most known MTV Unplugged live incarnation, but missing second verse and chorus), whilst dressed up with black outfits designed by fashion houses Agent Provocateur and Koral, alongside with chain bracelets by Elena Staun and a long avantgarde jacket by Israeli fashionist Liona Taragan. Following this up, "Amarillo" comes, with her playing a drawing-decorated acoustic guitar, which is raised at the end of song, revealing a picture of her partner, the Spanish football player Gerard Piqué, along with their 2 sons, Milan and Sasha. She takes off the Taragan jacket soon as her smash hit duet with Alejandro Sanz, "La Tortura," starts. Both Sanz (in-off) and Menéndez do the male lyrics. Soon, Shakira brings most part of her band to the B-stage to join her to perform altogether an early tune of hers, "Antología," in a reminder of the same song rendition at selected dates of the Oral Fixation Tour. When it is over, the band returns to their original places, while she has a short talk to her drummer Brendan Buckley, that leads to 2014 hit "Can't Remember to Forget You," in a new reggae arrangement. Towards its final, the song turns into a heavier rock version as Shakira plays frenzily the drums, in company of Rihanna singing part of chorus on the sidescreens. This section ends thereafter with a merengue medley of two Sale El Sol hits, "Loca" and "Rabiosa."

As Shakira leaves the stage, an instrumental-only violin version interlude of her 2016 comeback hit, "La Bicicleta," is played by band member Caitlin Evanson, while the other musicians play characteristic samples of Queen's worldwide hit "We Will Rock You." Four big drums are put in the front of main stage (one for each musicist but the bassist), and Shakira goes back, wearing a red and yellow (signing colors shared by the flags of Colombia and Spain, besides Catalonia) ostrich skirt, designed by Hawaiian clothing line Iheartpolynesia, to dance and sing a medley of her World Cup hits "La La La (Brazil 2014)" (2014) and "Waka Waka" (2010).

For the encore, there is an "Education Interlude:" a short movie to raise awareness for children who are deprived of any kind of education, portraiting the daily fight of kids around the world in the most underprivileged areas putting maximum efforts to receive education. As it ends, Shakira arrives to a small round stage located in the middle of the crowd in a gold dress and sings a shortened version of "Toneladas" (being this song removed on both Istanbul and Bsharri nights - same happened to "Antología"); after that, she removes her golden dress to reveal a pink Colombian dress (being both outfits designed by Barranquilla-born stylist Juan Carlos Obando), and runs through the crowd greeting and hugging her fans, returning to the main stage to perform her 2006 Billboard Hot 100 chart topper "Hips Don't Lie;" closing the concert, she tells the audience about her hometown roots and does an a cappella snippet of "La Bicicleta," which is succeeded by a full length, full band accompanied version of the duet with fellow Colombian Carlos Vives, who has also his presence on the circular screens. As Shakira says goodbye to the audience, colorful confetti showers explode as an extra thanks to fans (firework shows were added for this part during the Latin American concerts too).

Shakira, as a UNICEF goodwill ambassador and an advocate for free and quality education, invited this organization to be present during the tour to collect donations from fans. UNICEF was on the road with Shakira throughout the tour.[93][94] The tour also included an interlude before the encore called the "education interlude" to raise awareness for the difficulty of receiving basic education in the world's most remote areas that are conquered by poverty and inequality.[79] During her visit to Montreal, staff from LCI Education Network of LaSalle College met with Shakira to announce their collaboration with Shakira's Barefoot Foundation in the "Institución Educativa Fundación Pies Descalzos El Bosque project".[95] Shakira asked fans to donate $10 to One Drop Foundation for a chance to meet her in Las Vegas.[96] Before the tour's last stop in Bogota, Shakira had a quick visit to her hometown Barranquilla to set the first stone for 2 new schools by her foundation one in Barranquilla, and another one in Cartagena. Billboard reports the costs of the schools being over $4 million each.[97]

• The concert in Istanbul's Vodafone Park stadium caused the grass of the stadium to be seriously damaged from overcrowding of fans, and the management had to repair the grass.[105] The same incident happened in Mexico's Estadio Azteca where the overcrowding of the two concerts left the grass with "severe" damages. NFL had to move their premiere match between Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Rams to a different stadium in Los Angeles.[106][107]
• Lebanese police arrested 2 crazed fans who illegally entered to a ceremony held for Shakira in the Cedars reserve in Tannourine hours before her concert.[108]
• During the concert in Toronto heavy rain started to fall outside the arena, the rain caused floods in the city, Scotiabank Arena was flooded as well due to drainage failure.[109]
• An overly excited fan stormed on stage at the end of the concert in Mexico City, Shakira hugged and took a picture with the fan while security tried to escort him off stage.[110]

This set list was used for the show held on June 3, 2018 in Hamburg, Germany. It does not represent all dates of the tour.[111]

On 27 August 2018, Shakira posted a video and then made a survey on her Twitter account about which one of the three Balmain shirts she alternately wore during first section of concert would be chosen for a next tour date.[115] The day after that, Hans Nelson, a tour crew member, posted on his Instagram account that indeed the two concerts to be held at The Forum, Los Angeles, California, would be taped for a future live DVD release.[116] On the date of the rescheduled second show in the city, the singer herself confirmed through her social networks that the concert of that day would be recorded for a concert film.[117] Soon after the tour ended, Shakira announced she has started the editing process of the tour DVD.[118]

On November 13 and 15, 2019; will be released in selected cinemas around the world the recording of the show in Los Angeles at The Forum. It's called Shakira In Concert: El Dorado World Tour.[119]