The Sun Comes Out World Tour (also known as the Sale el Sol World Tour) was the fifth concert tour by Colombian singer Shakira, launched in support of her eighth and ninth studio albums, She Wolf (2009) and Sale El Sol (2010). After a special tour preview-show, held in Montreal, Quebec on 15 September 2010, the North American leg of the tour commenced in Uncasville, Connecticut on 17 September, finishing in Rosemont, Illinois (Chicago) on 29 October 2010. The European leg of the tour was then planned to begin in the city of Lyon, France on 16 November, and end in London, England on 20 December 2010.
The tickets for the initial European shows were soon sold out, and Shakira extended the tour into 2011, announcing a show in Paris, France. Additionally, the tour would visit new markets and countries for Shakira, performing in places such as her father's homeland of Lebanon, as well as UAE, Belarus, Ukraine, Hungary, Serbia, and Moscow and Saint Petersburg, Russia, to name a few. Further dates in Spain, Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, Portugal and Switzerland were also added.
The Latin American leg of the tour was a part of the South American Pop Festival circuit, stopping in many cities across Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay and Venezuela, as well as Shakira’s home country, Colombia. The tour concluded at the José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum in San Juan on 15 October 2011.
The setlist of the tour was composed of songs chosen, primarily, from Shakira's ninth studio album, Sale el Sol; the rest were from her various studio albums. The stage was shaped like the letter "T", with a catwalk extending from the stage into the center-floor section of the audience, to enable the best views of Shakira and her band/dancers; several dance and musical numbers were performed utilizing the catwalk as a stage, with spectators in those areas getting up-close views and interactions with Shakira. A large screen was set behind the stage, on which various visuals were displayed, as well as high-definition live video, for those seated farther away.
For the bulk of the shows, Shakira kept clothing simple, mainly wearing a mesh gold crop-top with tight leather pants or jeans, and frequently performing without shoes. Other small costume changes Shakira had during the shows included a hooded pink gown, a golden bejeweled 'bellydancing' dress and bikini top (for "Ojos Así"), a flamenco skirt, and a feathery blue dress.
The shows were very well-received by critics, many of whom praised the charisma and energy which Shakira displayed during the performances. Commercially, the tour was a success. It ranked at number 40 on Pollstar's 2010 year-end "Top 50 North American Tours" list as it grossed a total of $16.9 million in the continent, with total ticket sales numbering 205,371. In 2011, the tour ranked at number 20 on Pollstar's 2011 "Top 25 Worldwide Tours" with a total gross of $53.2 million and ticket sales numbering 629,064. It brought in a total of $70.1 million gross and 834,435 tickets sold. A live album of the show (held at the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy in Paris, France in June 2011) was released as Shakira: Live from Paris, on 5 December 2011.
Background
On 3 May 2010, Shakira's official website announced dates for the North American leg of the then-unnamed global tour. Three dates and locations were confirmed in the announcement: the tour would appear in Madison Square Garden in New York City, on 21 September, Toyota Center in Houston, on 8 October, and Staples Center in Los Angeles, on 23 October. Following a pre-sale period, the tickets for the three locations were made available for public purchase on 7 May, on Shakira's official website. By 23 August, 19 new tour dates and locations were added to the initial ones, summing the total count of the 2010 North American shows to 22. It was also announced that a special tour preview show would be held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, on 15 September, to offer fans "an exclusive look at Shakira's worldwide arena tour", prior to the tour's official commencement in Uncasville, Connecticut, on 17 September. The last location for the tour to touch upon was Rosemont, Illinois, on 29 October.
On 28 June, Shakira announced the dates for the European leg of the tour. 22 dates and locations were announced in total and the tour would begin at the Halle Tony Garnier concert hall in Lyon, on 16 November, and end at the O2 Arena in London, on 20 December. Notable locations the tour would appear in were the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy in Paris, the Festhalle Frankfurt in Frankfurt, the Manchester Arena in Manchester and The O2 in Dublin. After the tickets of the European leg of the tour were sold-out, Shakira extended the tour into 2011 and announced a show to be held at the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy in Paris, on 14 June. Later, Shakira decided to add another date to the Paris show of the tour and set 13 June to perform at the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy. By 15 March, new tour dates were added at locations such as Croatia, Russia, Spain and Switzerland.
On 3 December, the Latin America dates of the tour were announced. The first date of the tour was decided to be held on 1 March in Salta, Argentina. Other locations the tour would touch upon included Bogotá in Shakira's native country Colombia, San José in Costa Rica, Mexico City in Mexico, and São Paulo in Brazil. The final date for the Latin American leg of the tour was scheduled to be held on 12 April, in Panama.
The name of the tour was initially speculated to be "Tour of Earthly Delights", until Shakira's official website revealed the poster of the tour on 8 September, which highlighted "The Sun Comes Out World Tour" as the name. The poster of the tour features Shakira jumping in the air wearing a golden bikini top coupled with golden pants, similar to the cover art of her 2010 single "Loca". The tour was launched to promote Shakira's eighth studio album She Wolf, which was released in October 2009, and her ninth studio album Sale el Sol, which was set to release on 19 October 2010. The words "Sale el Sol" are Spanish for "The Sun Comes Out", hence the tour was also referred to as the Sale el Sol World Tour.
Development
In 2008, Shakira signed a 10-year deal with international touring giant Live Nation, which prompted Forbes to deem her as the fourth highest earning female musician in history. The Sun Comes Out World Tour was her first tour to be promoted by Live Nation. The Latin American leg of the tour was part of Pop Festival, a "brand new festival that will bring international music stars to Latin America, and which will also showcase the latest in contemporary art and technology". According to Valentina España, senior managing editor of Terra.com, the production budget of the tour was big enough to "put Britney's Circus (Tour) to shame". Shakira talked about the tour, saying:
"It's going to have themes and there'll be a lot of audience interaction. My live show will have a lot of that — a lot of dancing, a joie de vivre. I feel such freedom on stage. It's such a rush to be performing. I like to see everybody's faces on stage, to see the reaction. Normally, you can only see the front row because of the lights. So you'll see a lot of (my) energy... but there are also going to be other moments that I hope are artistically energetic. I want people to feel things up close"
On 27 November 2009, it was revealed that Shakira was conducting auditions to choose a different opening act for each of the tour's appearances in different cities. The acts willing to audition were required to upload videos of their performances to Shakira's official website. Fans were allowed to vote for their favourite acts and the ones with the most would proceed to the finals; Shakira and her team would then pick the winner out of them. The visuals and conceptual video scenes for the tour were managed and designed by entertainment branding agency Loyalkaspar, who had previously designed tour visuals for artists like U2 and Jay-Z. Elliott Chaffer, the creative director of the agency, talked about the project, saying that "Shakira was a much bigger undertaking then anything we've attempted previously. They were looking for original content that had to work over two LED screens and on a huge projector mapping surreal models of an ever-changing animated face, all in just three weeks. This is for her global world tour, so modifications to the setlist and track durations continued through nine rounds of revisions". The visuals were projected onto the large screen set behind the stage. The stage was shaped in the form of the letter "T" to enable a maximum number of viewers to see Shakira.
Concert synopsis
The concert began with the lights dimming and a sole spotlight being focused on the crowd. The spotlight then followed Shakira as she entered the hall wearing a hooded fuchsia gown. Singing the "pensive" and "sentimental" ballad "Pienso En Tí" ("I Think of You"), she began walking towards the stage while shaking her fans' hands and hugging them. As soon as Shakira climbed the stage, she threw off the gown to reveal her main attire: a mesh gold crop top coupled with skin-tight leather pants. A more energetic routine followed as she "sprinted, jumped, and yodelled" across the stage while performing more guitar-oriented versions of "Why Wait" and "Te Dejo Madrid" ("I Leave You Madrid"). After stopping to play a harmonica solo, Shakira performed "Si Te Vas" ("If You Go") accompanied by "dense" musical instrumentation. This was followed by a more rock-tinged performance of "Whenever, Wherever", during which Shakira invited four female fans onto the stage and taught them how to belly dance.
The band moved to a small platform in the middle of the hall and Shakira came onto the stage after changing into a wine red-coloured flamenco skirt. A short set of acoustic songs followed, beginning with a cover of "Nothing Else Matters", a ballad by American heavy metal band Metallica. According to Jon Parales from The New York Times, the cover of the song "made it sound Andean, with six-beat drumming and the strumming of a ukulele-sized charango". The cover was blended straight into a performance of "Despedida" ("Farewell"), a song recorded by Shakira for the soundtrack of the 2007 film Love in the Time of Cholera, during which she "tested" her band drummer's musical skill by "incorporating him into her moves". "Gypsy" was performed with a "folk lilt" and Shakira's vocals were backed by "accordion, fiddles and the rhythm section". The segment was closed with a performance of "La Tortura" ("Torture").