A marriage proposal, declarations of platonic love and plenty of Latin energy. Emotions ran high at Karol G’s debut concert in Portugal, this Sunday, July 7, at the MEO Arena. The Colombian singer’s second show in Lisbon is scheduled for this Monday, the 8th.
The 33-year-old artist moves crowds, as evidenced by the long lines of fans dressed to the nines — read with lots of sparkles, cowboy hats and pink outfits — that began to form long before the venue opened. When the doors opened at 6pm, hundreds rushed to secure the best seats, waving their country’s flags to show support for the singer.
Colombia, Spain, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic. Latin America was present in force and was clearly audible, with screams, applause and some despair before Karol G took the stage with another show of the La Bichota Season Tour.
As soon as the countdown started and the inflatables with a giant mermaid were raised, no one could contain themselves. The singer didn’t want to raise the anticipation to inappropriate levels and appeared wrapped in diamonds to open the concert with “TQG”, one of the songs written in collaboration with Shakira. The group of dancers followed her, setting the tone for the next two hours: a true Latin party, with lots of energy, reggaeton and sensuality.
Always very happy and eager to talk to her fans, Carolina Giraldo (the artist’s real name) brought some of her best-known songs to Act I (as she describes the segments of the concerts on her world tour). She sang “Besties”, “Mi Cama”, “El Barco”, “X Si Volvemos” and then invited the audience to dance with all their energy to the sound of “Tusa” — the song that, as she mentioned, would be one of the favorites of the people of Lisbon, who put it in the top of Spotify.
With the crowd ready to keep dancing and singing, Karol G took a break to change her clothes and change the scenery for Act II. But the three minutes she took cannot be considered “down time”. The Colombian singer took the opportunity to fill the screens with an excerpt from the story of the mermaid Carolina in cartoons. At the end, everyone realized that they were about to enter another phase of the show. With a new costume in shades of pink and fur details that contrasted with the high temperatures of the room, the singer appeared on a giant shark to sing “Bichota G”, “Oki Dokie” and “Friki”.
Still in the second part During the show, Karol G performed “Carolina”, which she admitted was her favorite song from the new album, and “Gatúbela”, which everyone present sang in unison.
In the third act, the singer appeared alone, with a more discreet look, to perform “Ocean”, released in 2019. The audience responded to the singer’s request to dedicate the song to someone special, singing each syllable with enthusiasm, while waving their glow bracelets.
After a few emotional minutes, which ended with tears for a good portion of those present, emotions continued to run high with “Pero Tú”, “A Ella” and “Mercurio”.
The singer always reserved moments between songs to interact with the audience. He began by reading a poster from a 56-year-old fan declaring her love for the artist, and then noticed a young woman who was crying with emotion. “Why are you crying, darling? I love you,” he said, turning words into actions. He went down to the crowd to hug the young woman and take a photo with her. The next event was a live marriage proposal, in which Karol G intervened to find out the bride’s response and admire the ring.
With so many emotions, the Colombian singer took the opportunity to change her look and scenery for the last part of the show. “Mientras me Curo del Cora”, which includes some notes from Bob Marley’s “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”, marked the introduction to the songs from her most recent album, “Mañana Será Bonito”. The title of the album is a mantra that the singer has repeated “countless times” over the last year.
“I always said that when everything seemed to be going wrong,” she explained to the crowd. “Every day I told myself: everything is fine, tomorrow will be beautiful. If you are going through a difficult situation, remember that tomorrow can be more beautiful.” At the same time, infographics related to Lisbon and an airplane with a banner “Lisbon is more beautiful” appeared on the screen.
“Ojos Ferrari”, “Tus Gafitas”, “Cairo” and “Mi Ex Tenía Razón” followed. The artist’s energy seemed inexhaustible, and to celebrate she toasted everyone present with a shot, claiming that “drinking with the bichota brings health”. This toast served as an introduction to “200 Copas”. There was also time for “MAMIII”, the single released with Becky G, and “Amargura”.
The artist saved “Provenza (Tiesto Remix)” to close the show, leaving fans asking for “just one more”. The singer complied with the request and, after the lights went out, returned to the stage for a warm farewell with “Si Antes Te Hubiera Conocido”, which entered the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart. At the end, she came down from the stage again to join the audience and “do the biggest TikTok dance ever”.
The audience was captivated by the artist’s friendliness and energy. Those who have followed the Colombian singer’s career have also seen her maturity, not only in her increasingly ambitious concerts (the ones on the La Bichota Season Tour last around two and a half hours), but also in her voice, which is increasingly trained and rarely misses a note.
Far from Carolina Giraldo, who grew up on the streets of Medellín, the capital of Colombia, and was rejected by Universal Music, Karol G showed (once again) why she won the Grammy for Best Urban Music Album, at the ceremony held in February, in Los Angeles. Today, the 33-year-old artist is one of the most promising names in Latin music. She has already released hits such as “Tusa”, with rapper Nicki Minaj, “Ahora Me Llama”, with Bad Bunny, TQG, with Shakira, among others.
In 2023, she also became the first woman to reach number one on the Billboard top 200 with an album sung in Spanish. The success of the tour is accompanying the success on the charts. Karol G has already “sold more than 843 thousand tickets for just 18 concerts”, says Live Nation. The singer returns to the MEO Arena this Monday, July 8, for another dose.
Click on the gallery to see some images from the concert.
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