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After mourning the death of the Duolingo Owl, Dua Lipa is gearing up for part two of her Radical Optimism Tour. Kicking off on March 17, the U.K. singer is heading down under to Australian with five nights scheduled for the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, and a further three at Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena.
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Unfortunately, tickets are already sold out for her entire Australian trek, according to promoters, but Dua stans, don’t fret. There are plenty of last-minute tickets for the European and North American legs of her Radical Optimism Tour still available through Ticketmaster and other resell sites.
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How to Buy Tickets to Dua Lipa’s Radical Optimism Tour, At a Glance:
General Sale: Ticketmaster
Resell Sites: Gametime, Vivid Seats, SeatGeek, StubHub
Dates:
Australian and New Zealand leg: March 17, 2025 – April 4, 2025
European leg: May 11, 2025 – June 27, 2025
North American leg: Sept. 1, 2025 – Oct. 16, 2025
After her sold-out dates in Australia and New Zealand, Lipa will jet over to Europe stopping at several major cities, including Madrid, Prague, Amsterdam, London, Milan and Dublin. She will then embark on the final leg of her tour in North America, hitting Chicago, Boston, New York City, Miami, Dallas, San Francisco and more before concluding in Seattle.
To help make sure you secure last-minutes tickets before they sell out, we created a guide to shop affordable tickets to Dua Lipa’s Radical Optimism Tour online now.
How to Get Tickets to Dua Lipa’s Radical Optimism Tour
Dua Lipa’s Radical Optimism Tour will kick off March 17 at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia, and will conclude on Oct. 16 at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle. While tickets are selling fast, fans can still secure them through Ticketmaster and other resale sites, including StubHub, Vivid Seats, Seat Geek and Gametime. Act fast before tickets sell out.
StubHub is offering tickets for as low as $108. Each purchase comes with the FanProtect Guarantee, which will keep your purchases protected. You can also use the interactive venue map to choose tickets based on price and seating section.
Another option is Vivid Seats, which has tickets for this tour for as low as $106. You can also save $20 off orders of $200+ when you use the code BB2024 at checkout. Each ticket purchase will be protected through the site’s Buyer Guarantee, which you can learn more about here.
SeatGeek currently has tickets starting at $52, and you can utilize the site’s deal-rating scale to determine how good of a deal you’re getting. SeatGeek uses a 1-10 rating system, with 1 being the worst deal and 10 being the best deal you can get. You can also save $10 off your ticket purchases of $250+ (offer valid on first purchases only) when you use the code BILLBOARD10.
For more affordable tickets, Gametime is offering ticket options for as low as $79. Purchasers will receive the Gametime Guarantee, which includes event cancellation protection, a low-price guarantee and one-time ticket delivery. Bonus offer: Get $20 off orders of $150+ when you use the code SAVE20 at checkout.
Dua Lipa Radical Optimism Tour Dates
Australian leg:
March 17 – 23: Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, VIC
March 26 – 29: Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney, NSW
April 2 – 4: Spark Arena, Aukland, New Zealand
European leg:
May 11 – 12: Movistar Arena, Madrid, Spain
May 15 – 16: LDLC Arena, Décines-Charpieu, France
May 19 – 20: Barclays Arena, Hamburg, Germany
May 23 – 24: Paris La Défense Arena, Nanterre, France
May 27 – 28: O2 Arena, Prague, Czech Republic
May 31 – June 1: Olympiahalle, Munich, Germany
June 3 – 4: Ziggo Dome, Amsterdam, Netherlands
June 7: Hippodrome Snai La Maura, Milan, Italy
June 11 – 13: Sportpaleis, Antwerp, Belgium
June 20 – 21: Wembley Stadium, London, England
June 24 – 25: Anfield, Liverpool, England
June 27: Aviva Stadium, Dublin, Ireland
North American leg:
Sept. 1 – 2: Scotiabank Arena, Toronto, Canada
Sept. 5 – 6: United Center, Chicago, Illinois
Sept. 9 –10: TD Garden, Boston, Massachusetts
Sept. 13 – 14: State Farm Arena, Atlanta, Georgia
Sept. 17 – 21: Madison Square Garden, New York City
Sept. 26 – 27: Kaseya Center, Miami, Florida
Sept. 30 – October 1: American Airlines Center, Dallas, Texas
Oct. 4 – 8: Kia Forum, Inglewood, California
Oct. 11 – 12: Chase Center, San Francisco, California
Oct. 15 – 16: Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle, Washington
Shakira was set to perform in front of hundreds of thousands of fans in Santiago, Chile for her back-to-back performances set for March 2-3 at the Estadio Nacional. Instead, she settled for an impromptu performance outside of her hotel where she sang “Antología” for fans that had gathered in lieu of seeing her onstage.
“I couldn’t leave without singing to you with the promise that I will be back very soon,” she captioned a social media post.
Less than a month into her Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour, Shakira has postponed a total of four shows in Latin America – one for medical reasons and three due stage production issues – causing quite a stir among fans in that region who’ve taken to social media to express their frustration over last-minute cancellations.
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On March 2, just hours before her scheduled show at the Estadio Nacional de Santiago de Chile, Shakira posted a lengthy statement that, over safety concerns with stage production, she had to cancel that night’s show, less than a week after canceling her concert in Medellín, Colombia for similar production reasons.
“When an artist travels to a country, their production and team become directly dependent on the local producers,” the Colombian superstar wrote. “My staff and I trusted at all times that the production company hired by the local promoter would follow to the letter the specifications that were diligently provided by us so that a show of the magnitude of this one could take place.”
It’s not uncommon for artists to cancel shows over production issues. Especially when it involves massive productions in older stadiums or buildings in Latin America that perhaps lack the infrastructure to be able to pull off such complex productions and local production companies who are not used to shows of that magnitude.
But when a global star like Shakira – who notes in her statement that she’s been working on “every minimal detail for a year” and whose return to touring after seven years is beyond momentous – cancels three shows at the top of her highly anticipated stadium tour in Latin America citing production reasons, it can feel alarming. Even more so when the issues cited, like how much weight the floor can bear, are being identified at the last minute.
However, Marcelo Fígoli of Fenix Entertainment, the promoter for Shakira’s shows in Chile, says that despite the show’s size, he is “confident” production issues will be smoothed out for these and future shows.
On Sunday, Fenix also issued a statement basically stating what Shakira had already informed. “We have encountered technical problems beyond the control of the artist and their production that prevent the correct development of the concert, since the floor where the stage would be located is uneven,” the promoter’s statement reads. A day later, Fenix confirmed that the second show at Estadio Nacional on March 3 would also be postponed. “During the last hours, the promoter and production team have been working to find a solution to the construction difficulties that prevented yesterday’s concert. At this moment, tonight’s concert will not be able to take place.”
Fenix told Billboard it is now expected to announce new dates this week.
Unlike her shift from arenas to stadiums in the United States, Shakira’s Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran Latin America Tour was always set for stadiums. The sudden production issues and cancellations raise questions over whether local promoters have the capacity and resources to make this a streamlined process for the artist.
According to Shakira, her Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran stage weighs 62 tons, and the unleveled stage would compromise her safety and that of her band, dancers and fans. In Medellín it was the roof of the Estadio Atanasio Girardot that was damaged. The local promoter hired for that show explained that their decision to cancel Feb. 24’s concert had been made because of a risk to the safety of the performers, the crew and the crowd.
The Superintendency of Industry and Commerce (SIC) of Colombia has now intervened in the case to protect consumer rights and has extended the deadline, from Feb. 28 to March 20, for organizers Ticket Colombia and Promotora Colombia to announce a new, rescheduled date.
“Promotora Colombia requested an extension for compliance, arguing that the rescheduling of the event requires a complex logistical deployment and the coordination of all those involved,” the SIC’s statement reads in Spanish. “It also indicated that the request for an extension is due to the fact that it has not been possible to agree on a date among all the parties involved in the planning of the event, especially due to the artist’s agenda. In addition, it indicated that if it is impossible to define a new date within the term granted by this entity, it would be forced to cancel the concert and proceed with the refund of the money.”
Shakira’s Latin America stint kicked off Feb. 11 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil at the Estádio Olímpico Nilton Santos and is set to continue through April 2 before launching the U.S. leg of the trek May 13 in Charlotte, N.C.
Even with dates hampered by production issues, Shakira’s four shows in Colombia gave cities like Bogotá and Barranquilla a major economic boost, a nod to the tour’s impact beyond the cultural. According official numbers offered by local government, Shakira’s concerts generated an economic impact of nearly 206 billion pesos (approximately 52 million dollars). Additionally, spending in key sectors such as food, hospitality, and the multiplier effect in Bogotá alone accounted for 73 billion pesos, further demonstrating the impact on the local economy.
The new tour — in honor of her critically and commercially successful 2024 album of the same name — follows Shakira’s 2018 El Dorado World Tour, marking her grand return to the global stage. The next city on Shakira’s Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran Tour itinerary is Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she’s set to perform at Campo Argentino de Polo on March 7-8.
Billboard reached out to Live Nation – the promoter behind Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour – for further comment but did not hear back at press time.
Richard Vega and Stephen Schulcz have been promoted to partners in the music divison at WME.
Vega is based out of Miami, where he relocated in 2024 as part of WME’s continued global expansion of the agency’s Latin business. His clients at the agency include Alvaro Diaz, Becky G, Café Tacvba, Humbe, Kevin Kaarl, LP, Saiko, Tainy, Will Smith and Xavi. Vega has worked with super producer TAINY since 2018 and has been one of the main strategists in shifting him into the live space, culminating last year with his first ever sold-out arena show in Puerto Rico to more than 17,000 fans, according to the agency. He has also worked with indie regional Mexican sensation Ivan Cornejo since 2022, taking him from clubs to arenas in a matter of years, and was an early believer in the corridos tumbados movement out of Mexico, signing top acts like Natanael Cano.
Vega began his career playing drums for various bands in Bogota, Colombia, and over time transitioned to the business side of the industry. After seven years in Colombia, he relocated to Nashville, where he graduated from Belmont University. After interning for a year at WME, Vega would go on to work for the agency in Nashville and Los Angeles.
Richard has played a major role in expanding the visibility of Argentine artists in North America and Europe. His client Khea performed across 11 countries in Europe in 2019, while two of his other clients, Bizarrap and Nicki Nicole, have both had major moments at Coachella.
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Schulcz, who is head of domestic festivals for the agency, oversees a roster that includes Givēon, Weezer, Kid Cudi, Swae Lee, Macklemore, Sam Fender, Livingston, Coheed and Cambria, Oliver Tree, ian, Nicki Nicole, Mike Campbell, Mark Ambor, Montell Fish, David Kushner, The Avalanches, Passion Pit and Jean Dawson. He has worked with Teddy Swims since 2020, helping propel his career from clubs to arenas in a matter of years. He also helped orchestrate Victoria Monét’s sold-out Jaguar tour.
Schulcz was born and raised in Los Angeles and graduated from the UCLA. He has been with the agency for more than a decade, starting right out of college in the mailroom.

At once soft and hard, fiery and vulnerable, Lola Young’s precise, revelatory songs thrive in their multi-facetedness. The introspective but musically adventurous This Wasn’t Meant For You Anyway – the south Londoner’s first full-length album, which dropped last June – served as an uncompromising portrait of inner turmoil, detailed with 808s and scratchy guitars that […]

Sphere Entertainment reported quarterly revenue of $308.3 million, slightly lower than the year-ago period, owing to half-a-dozen fewer shows, the Las Vegas venue company reported on Monday (March 3).
Sphere — which chairman/CEO James Dolan reminded analysts on a call is still basically a brand-new company — reported an operating loss of $142.9 million, a $16.7 million improvement compared to the same quarter a year ago. Meanwhile, adjusted operating income of $32.9 million was down $18.6 million from the prior-year quarter and events-related revenue of $54.4 million was $800,000 less than the year ago period. The quarter included shows by the Eagles and Anyma as well as the Las Vegas Grand Prix, which returned to Sphere in November as part of a multi-year deal.
With additional shows from the Eagles and Anyma and upcoming residencies by country star Kenny Chesney and Backstreet Boys, Dolan said 2025 will be marked by continued demand and improved operating efficiency.
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“This year, the biggest opportunities are the nuts and bolts of how well we operate the business. That is going to provide a boost,” Dolan said on a call with analysts. “Longer term, the expansion of more Spheres is what is going to deliver the most [return].”
Sphere grossed $169 million, while MSG Networks generated $139.3 million, for the quarter ending Dec. 31. Sphere’s operating loss of $107.9 million on an adjusted basis was $800,000, while MSG Networks reported an operating loss of $35 million. On an adjusted basis, MSG reported an adjusted operating income of $33.7 million.
Advertising on the outside of Sphere, which the company calls Exosphere, plus suite license fees generated $20.3 million, a $2.7 million improvement from the prior-year quarter.
Here’s what else you need to know from the earnings call.
In addition to Sphere Abu Dhabi, the company is working on mini-Spheres.
Last fall, Sphere Entertainment announced plans for a second Sphere venue in Abu Dhabi, the capital city of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), that would be entirely funded by the UAE’s Department of Culture and Tourism. The new venue will be operated as a franchise, with Sphere Entertainment receiving a franchise initiation fee that grants Abu Dhabi the right to use the company’s intellectual property and content from The Sphere Experience, like Postcard from Earth and V-U2: An Immersive Concert Film.
As plans for Sphere in Abu Dhabi move forward, the company is exploring smaller versions of Sphere that could seat around 5,000, compared to the Las Vegas venue’s 20,000-seat design, Dolan said.
“We’re currently working on the architecture of our smaller Sphere” and identifying mid-sized cities that could present opportunities, Dolan said. “We’re looking to take advantage of the content we’ve created already and the business we’ve created already and bringing it out to other markets. Right now, we’re in the planning and design phase.”
While the cost of playing Sphere is “high” for artists, demand is higher.
Dolan acknowledged that playing Sphere, a first-of-its-kind venue, comes with a slew of costs that can set performing artists back. But acts like Chesney, who will kick off a 15-show residency in May, and Backstreet Boys, who start an 18-show residency this summer, save on the cost of touring multiple cities, Dolan said.
“We know that the content costs are high for a band, but they are offset by the fact that it’s a residency,” he said. “So a touring band has to go to 50 cities, move place to place. The bottom line for bands is they do better.”
In response to a question about the biggest opportunities ahead, Dolan said the demand from fans, artists and corporate sponsors is overwhelming. The Las Vegas venue has 55 shows planned for the first half of 2025, up from 37 in the first half of 2024.
“We have a desire to do those concerts, and artists have a desire to play the Sphere,” Dolan said. “If there is anything that is going to limit concerts, it’s probably going to be [demand].”
Expect more concert videos like the one made of U2’s Sphere show.
Dolan declined to share details about the newest The Sphere Experience, but he said it’s likely the company will do more concert films like V-U2 in the future owing to the success of that show and the low cost of creating content like it.
These films, which are akin to “attending the concert without having the band there,” cost less than $500,000 to record and create, Dolan said, adding that they have more performance recordings in the wings.
“The cost of that product is quite low, and I expect that we will continue to build up the library and that you’ll be seeing those kinds of experiences for years to come,” Dolan said.
Lady Gaga will perform her first concert in Mexico in 13 years on April 26 at the GNP Seguros Stadium in Mexico City, Live Nation announced on Monday (March 3) in a press release, followed by a post by the pop star on Instagram. “¡Viva La MAYHEM! We’re coming back,” she wrote. The highly anticipated […]
In 2000, after Larry Magid sold his Philadelphia promotion company Electric Factory Concerts for an undisclosed sum, the buyer, Robert Sillerman, called at 12:30 a.m. to congratulate him. Then Sillerman said, “Now you congratulate me.”
“OK, congratulations on what?” Magid asked Sillerman, his new boss.
“Well, we merged,” Sillerman said.
Sillerman, then executive chairman of SFX Entertainment, was referring to his company’s $4.4 billion dollar sale to San Antonio, Texas-based broadcast behemoth Clear Channel Communications, which he’d finished at almost exactly the same time he bought Magid’s company. Thus, Magid would become an employee not of SFX, but Clear Channel, for the next five years — a period that was not easy for Magid, who had been Philly’s top independent promoter since roughly 1968, when he opened the Electric Factory club with a Chambers Brothers show. “It just seemed to be a struggle,” he recalls. “There were a lot of meetings, none of which we were used to.”
All this took place 25 years ago this week — Clear Channel’s purchase of SFX was announced Feb. 29, 2000 — and it would change the concert business forever. For decades, the live industry was ruled by unaffiliated local promoters like Magid, who ran their cities like local cartels as rock’n’roll evolved from tiny events to stadium concerts. Sillerman had spent the past three years buying out those local promoters — an acquisition spree that included big names like the late Bill Graham’s company in the Bay Area (for a reported $65 million), Don Law‘s company in Boston ($80 million) and lesser-known indies such as Avalon Attractions in Southern California ($27 million). The result was a consolidated behemoth that guaranteed advance payments of up to millions of dollars for top artists to do national tours, prompting promoters to raise prices for tickets, parking, food and alcohol to pay for their costs — all of which has become standard industry practice for concerts over the ensuing 25 years.
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Then Sillerman turned around and sold everything to Clear Channel.
By that point, the concert business no longer operated as a collection of regional fiefdoms — in which Bill Graham Presents and its Bay Area competitors competed for, say, a U2 date — but as a central entity in which SFX booked U2’s entire U.S. tour. In 2000, SFX was to promote 30 tours, from Tina Turner to Britney Spears to Ozzfest, “light years beyond what any other company has ever attempted,” Billboard reported at the time. “It has become nearly impossible for a major act to tour without SFX being involved in some way.”
“What [Sillerman] accomplished revolutionized the business. It was probably the biggest impact in the industry since the Beatles,” recalls Dennis Arfa, longtime agent for Billy Joel and others, who sold his talent agency to SFX and worked there for several years. “Bob took the business from a millionaire’s game to a billionaire’s game. From the street to Wall Street.” (Sillerman died in 2019.)
Sillerman’s sale to Clear Channel offered an even more tantalizing promise for the concert business: linking hundreds of top radio stations with top promoters and venues — “taking advantage of the natural relationship between radio and live music events,” Lowry Mays, Clear Channel’s chairman and CEO, said at the time of the sale.
But the venture ultimately failed. Many of the SFX promoters never felt they fit in at San Antonio-based Clear Channel. “We knew we were dealing with a very conservative family out of Texas — that was people’s main concern,” recalls Pamela Fallon, who’d worked with Boston promoter Don Law when SFX bought his company, then became a Clear Channel senior vp of communications. “We were pretty footloose and fancy-free in the concert business.”
Clear Channel’s meetings-heavy corporate culture reflected Mays, a former Texas petroleum engineer who, by 2000, had expanded the company from a single station in the early 1970s to a media giant with 867 radio stations and 19 TV stations, a robust billboard business and a weekly consumer base of 120 million. Along the way, Mays helped build conservative talk radio, using Clear Channel-owned syndicate Premiere Radio Networks to expand the reach of Rush Limbaugh, Laura Schlessinger and other right-wing hosts.
In 2001, writing in Salon, former Billboard reporter Eric Boehlert, later a progressive media critic, called Clear Channel “radio’s big bully.” In 2003, U.S. Senators questioned Mays about Clear Channel’s business practices during a committee hearing on media consolidation; the Eagles’ Don Henley showed up to accuse Clear Channel of strong-arming artists to work with the company, as opposed to its competitors. John Scher, a New York promoter who did not sell to SFX, Clear Channel or Live Nation, adds today: “The merger with Clear Channel, in some markets, was the death knell to local promoters: Sell to Clear Channel, or not be able to do any significant marketing with their radio stations.”
But the Clear Channel vision of combining radio with concerts had a fundamental flaw: It may have violated antitrust laws, as a rival Denver promoter claimed in a 2001 lawsuit, alleging the company blacked out radio airplay for artists who booked tours with Clear Channel rivals. (The parties settled in 2004.)
Other flaws in the “mega-merger,” as Billboard referred to it in a March 2000 front-page headline, were less public. In every market, according to Angie Diehl, a longtime marketing exec for promoters, who worked for both SFX and Clear Channel at the time, there were multiple competing radio stations that could present a concert. There were also multiple competing rival concert promoters. Clear Channel aimed to lock down all of these entities in one city so the company could control all the marketing, advertising and promotion of, say, U2.
“But there’s only one U2,” Diehl says. “The artist still dictates what they want. If you want U2 to play for you, and U2 says, ‘Well, we want KROQ to present the show,’ that’s who’s going to present the show.” Arfa adds that the combined company “never quite lived up to its synergistic ambitions.”
Perhaps recognizing this reality, Clear Channel spun off its concert division in 2005 — which would come to be known as Live Nation, led by Michael Rapino, a Canadian promoter who’d also sold his company to SFX. At first, despite emerging as the world’s biggest promoter, Live Nation struggled with hundreds of millions of dollars in debt — $367 million from the initial Clear Channel spin-off, growing to $800 million due to venue-maintenance fees over the next few years. But Rapino steered the promoter into a merger with ticket-selling giant Ticketmaster in 2008, providing crucial cashflow for years to come. “Until the Ticketmaster merger, I don’t think it made any money,” Scher says, adding that he used to book 30 to 40 New York arena shows per year, but industry dominance among Live Nation and top rival AEG has forced him to downsize to three or four. “They are formidable adversaries.”
In the long run, Live Nation solved a problem that the short-lived, SFX-infused Clear Channel Communications never quite figured out. (Clear Channel Communications renamed its radio operation iHeartMedia in 2014; Mays died in 2022.) So despite the promise — and the fears — that Clear Channel would take over the concert business and shut out competition, it was actually what came before and after the $4.4 billion acquisition that proved far more significant. Before the acquisition, SFX was the entity that expanded concert promotion from regional to national; after the acquisition, Live Nation made the concert industry more profitable than ever.
The promise of Clear Channel “synergy,” during its concert-industry excursion from 2000 to 2005, never fully paid off. “The idea was they were going to be able to promote all our concerts over their radio stations,” recalls Danny Zelisko, a Phoenix promoter who sold his company, Evening Star Productions, to SFX. “But at Clear Channel, [promoters] were the stepchild in the backseat. We were almost a dirty word. There was never anything about bringing the radio and the concerts together. It just wasn’t meant to be.”

Gracie Abrams has canceled two more shows as she continues to fight off an illness, the singer announced Sunday (March 2). In another handwritten note posted to her Instagram Story, Abrams told fans that she would no longer be performing March 3 in Nottingham or March 4 in Leeds. “I hate that I have to […]
Shakira called off her concert in Santiago, Chile, tonight (Sunday, March 2), just hours before the show at Estadio Nacional was scheduled to go on.
“I am heartbroken that I cannot sing for you today for reasons beyond my control,” the Colombian superstar wrote in a statement posted on social media. In her note, she explained that there were safety concerns regarding her stage production at the stadium, which is located in Santiago’s Ñuñoa district. Shakira was expected to perform at Estadio Nacional for two nights, both of which were sold out.
It’s the second Latin American city to be postponed citing local production issues on Shakira’s Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran Tour, following the cancellation of her Feb. 24 show in Medellín, Colombia — and the third total that she’s had to reschedule since bringing her world tour to the region in February. On doctor’s orders, Shakira couldn’t perform in Lima, Peru, on Feb. 16, as she was hospitalized with an abdominal condition.
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“To my fans,” Shakira wrote in her Sunday update, “you who have been with me for more than 30 years know more than anyone else my professional ethics and how much I strive to always give you the best. For a year I have worked tirelessly, night and day, on the smallest details to achieve an unforgettable experience for my fans as they deserve and as we have been able to enjoy together during the concerts I have been performing.”
The star expressed that connecting with fans every night on tour “is a big part of what makes me wake up every day wanting to celebrate life,” then broke the news that her performance in Chile must be postponed:
“You can imagine how painful it is for me as an artist to see that after so many efforts to come to this country that I love so much, my show in Chile on this occasion must be rescheduled due to circumstances beyond my control or that of my production.
“When an artist travels to a country, their production and team become directly dependent on the local producers. My staff and I trusted at all times that the production company hired by the local promoter would follow to the letter the specifications that were diligently provided by us so that a show of the magnitude of this one could take place.
“The Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran Tour, which I wanted to start in my home, Latin America, is the biggest tour of my career and currently one of the biggest productions in the world. With a stage that weighs 62 tons, unfortunately we have found that the floor of the place where my stage would go is uneven and is not properly stabilized to ensure the safety of my band, dancers, my fans and myself.
“There are two things I would never compromise and that is the safety of my team and my fans, and I would never offer you a show below the quality standards you deserve.”
Shakira intends to return to Chile as soon as possible — even if she has to “inspect the floor and every last screw in the structure that supports my stage” herself, she says.
On the event’s ticketing page, Fenix Entertainment shared the same information in a statement on Sunday: “We regret to inform you that during the assembly process of the show scheduled for today (March 2) at the Estadio Nacional de Santiago de Chile, we have encountered technical problems beyond the control of the artist and their production that prevent the correct development of the concert, since the floor where the stage would be located is uneven.”
The next city on Shakira’s Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran Tour itinerary is Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she’s set to perform at Campo Argentino de Polo on March 7-8.
See her full note about the Chile concert postponement here.
Janet Jackson is taking immersive audio to new heights with her new Las Vegas residency at Resorts World Theatre in Las Vegas.
The two-hour show runs through 43 of Jackson’s biggest hits, including tracks “What Have You Done For Me Lately,” “Nasty” and “When I Think of You,” the single from her 1986 Control album that became her first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Powering the show is L-Acoustics’ most advanced loudspeaker deployment to date, with 242 speakers spread out across the stage and proscenium to evenly deliver high-quality sound to each of Resorts World Theater’s 5,000 seats.
The brains of L-Acoustics’ loudspeaker systems is L-ISA, the pioneering immersive audio platform that utilizes patented acoustic algorithms and proprietary technology to create ultra-high-resolution spatial audio with precise sound placement. By utilizing L-ISA, Jackson’s audio team was able to develop a carefully detailed soundscape for the show that’s designed to reinforce the artist-audience connection.
Started in 1984 by French physicist and Pink Floyd fan Christian Heil, L-Acoustics is best known for creating the modern speaker line array, a configuration for evenly distributed amplified sound that came to replace the stacked sound configuration rock bands relied on during the 1980s. L-ISA is an extension of that technology, equipping sound engineers with tools to sonically place any of the show’s 99 channels into specific locations throughout the theater. In using L-ISA for Jackson’s show, sound engineer Caram Costanzo was able to sonically space out instruments for better sound clarity, send other sounds in loops around the audience and enable Jackson’s vocals to follow her across the stage — with her voice even rising in height for one scene in which she utilizes a lift to hoist her atop the stage.
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“Whether you’re seated right in the middle or on the right or the left, the sound draws the audience in and creates greater intimacy,” says Scott Sugden, director of project management at L-Acoustics. “And as an artist on stage, [they] notice the audience is more captivated and engaged and it leads to a better experience for both the artist and the fan.”
This is far from the first time L-Acoustics has had a presence in Las Vegas. Adele used the company for her Weekends with Adele residency at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, as did fellow Resorts World alums Katy Perry, Carrie Underwood and Luke Bryan for their respective residencies at the hotel and casino. But Jackson’s show represents the company’s most advanced deployment on the strip to date.
Resorts World Theater — named the world’s highest-grossing venue with a capacity of less than 5,000 on Billboard’s annual Top Grossing Venues list for 2023 — boasts the first fixed install of L-ISA in Las Vegas, powered by seven line arrays across the front of the stage, each outfitted with 14 of the company’s k2 loudspeakers and complemented with a complex mix of out-fill and center hung arrays, subs, coaxials and processors.
“This theater is very unique in terms of sound design,” says L-Acoustics CEO Laurent Vaissié, noting the intimate interior design by Quebec theatrical architecture firm Scéno Plus at the venue, where the furthest seat from the stage is just 150 feet away. However, he adds, “It’s L-ISA that creates the show’s unique soundscape and brings it into three dimensions.”
Sugden says that while many audio aficionados have described the L-ISA system as immersive audio because of its ability to fully immerse the listener with sound, he prefers the term “hyperreal” because it “enhances the reality of the show.”
“It’s localizing her voice and making sure that it’s really intelligible and separated from the rest of the instruments we can localize on stage,” he said. “It’s much more than just surround sound; it’s the ability to position sound and the artist’s voice in ways that make the most sense. We have this canvas which allows the engineer and the artist to paint sound in three dimensions, and what they do with that is completely a creative choice.”
Janet Jackson: Las Vegas runs through May 31 at Resorts World Theater. For more information, visit rwlasvegas.com.