Shakira Thrills Crowd of 2 Million with Free Concert on Brazil's Copacabana Beach

Colombian singer Shakira (C) performs during a concert on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 02 May 2026. EPA/ANDRE COELHO

Asharq Al Awsat

10:18-3 May 2026 AD ـ 17 Thul-Qi’dah 1447 AH

Asharq Al Awsat

10:18-3 May 2026 AD ـ 17 Thul-Qi’dah 1447 AH

Shakira Thrills Crowd of 2 Million with Free Concert on Brazil's Copacabana Beach

Colombian singer Shakira (C) performs during a concert on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 02 May 2026. EPA/ANDRE COELHO

Colombian superstar Shakira gave a free concert on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday night, an event that the city's mayor said drew 2 million people to one of the world’s most iconic waterfronts.

The performance followed similar shows by Madonna in 2024 and Lady Gaga last year, which also were attended by huge crowds that danced on the sprawling sands.

For Shakira, it was part of her “Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran,” or “Women No Longer Cry,” world tour named after her 2024 album.

Shakira's set kicked off around 11 p.m., more than an hour after the scheduled slot, to her fans screaming with excitement and frantic applause as skywriting drones flew overhead, spelling out in the sky, “I love you Brazil” in Portuguese.

The megastar spoke fondly about the first time she came to Brazil, some three decades ago.

“I arrived here when I was 18 years old, dreaming about singing for you,” Shakira told the crowd shortly after coming on stage. “And now look at this. Life is magical.”

The much-loved pop star sang fan favorites such as “Hips Don’t Lie,” “La Tortura” and “La Bicicleta." She ended with “BZRP Music Sessions #53/66,” which followed her separation from Spanish soccer player Gerard Piqué.

She also took the time to celebrate women’s resilience during the show. “Us women, every time we fall we get up a little wiser,” she said.

People attend a concert by Colombian singer Shakira on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 02 May 2026. EPA/ANTONIO LACERDA

According to The Associated Press, Rio Mayor Eduardo Cavaliere said on X that 2 million people attended the performance. “The She-Wolf made history in Rio,” he posted, referring to Shakira's 2009 hit.

When Shakira first performed in Brazil in the 1990s, she established an amazing connection with the Brazilian public, according to Felipe Maia, an ethnomusicologist pursuing a doctoral degree in popular music and digital technologies at Paris Nanterre University.

That success in Brazil “has a lot to do with the fact that she comes from Colombia, a country whose culture has many similarities with Brazil,” Maia said, adding that Saturday’s performance “crowns the relationship she has had with Brazil for a very long time.”

Erica Monteiro, a 38-year-old accountant, said she has listened to Shakira since childhood.

“For me she represents the strength of our Latino community,” Monteiro said ahead of the concert. “We’re treated as if we were inferior but in fact we have much more strength.”

Heading home after Saturday's show, Hellem Souza da Silva said Shakira's performance, like Bad Bunny's concerts in Sao Paulo in February, helped consolidate Brazil's Latino identity.

These artists “are making it clear that Brazil, Puerto Rico, Colombia and other countries are part of Latin America. And that America is not the United States,” she said.

Series Finale of ‘Babylon Berlin’ Offers Dark Mirror for Today’s Germany

German directors and screenwriters Henk Handloegten (L), Tom Tykwer (2ndR) and Achim von Borries (R) and German actor Volker Bruch (2ndL) and German actress Liv Lisa Fries pose on the red carpet upon arrival for the premiere of the "Babylon Berlin" TV series' fourth season, at the Delphi Filmpalast in Berlin on September 20, 2022. (AFP)

10:31-9 September 2026 AD ـ 27 Rabi’ Al-Awwal 1448 AH

Series Finale of ‘Babylon Berlin’ Offers Dark Mirror for Today’s Germany

The hit TV series "Babylon Berlin" has captivated audiences by portraying the chaos and excitement of Weimar-era Germany, but the dark shadow of Adolf Hitler's rise to power will bring down the curtain on the show's upcoming final season.

Season 5 will debut online in Germany at a time when many are fretting about the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which scored a breakthrough victory in a state election last Sunday.

The timing is "pure coincidence," insisted the directors behind the program, Tom Tykwer, Achim von Borries and Henk Handloegten.

But viewers and critics are still certain to draw uncomfortable parallels and resonances in the gritty hit drama from public broadcaster ARD.

Inspired by crime novels from German author Volker Kutscher, the big-budget series is set against the backdrop of the final years of the Weimar Republic, Germany's 14-year experiment in democracy.

The era, sandwiched between the end of World War I and Hitler's ascent, was a period of liberal social attitudes, rapid technological progress and cultural achievement.

But it was also a time of economic hardship, inflation and deep political polarization worsened by the humiliation of military defeat and the Great Depression.

Broadcast in 140 countries, the show chronicles the investigations and romances in Berlin of Gereon Rath -- a young police inspector from Cologne traumatized by World War I -- and his partner Charlotte Ritter, a young Berliner from a modest background who dreams of a career in law enforcement.

- Rise of extremes -

The final run of "Babylon Berlin", which will premiere on Thursday at a red-carpet event in Berlin's famed Zoo Palast cinema, does not yet have an international release date.

Since the show first aired in 2017, the directors have focused the narrative on the final four years of the Weimar Republic, from the global crash of 1929 to Hitler's seizure of power in 1933.

Tykwer, also known for films such as "Run Lola Run" (1998) and "Cloud Atlas" (2012), said the show's creators did not necessarily set out to create a parable of our own times.

"We were drawn to these themes even before the major upheavals in Europe and globally," said Tykwer.

The director said they were surprised when the historical drama began resonating as democracy in Germany and around the world faced a crisis of rising nationalism and mounting voter distrust.

When work on the project began in 2013, the far right had no presence in the German parliament and the AfD had only just been founded as an anti-euro party.

It has since transformed into an anti-immigration party and radicalized, with opponents regularly accusing it of racism, collusion with neo-Nazi extremists and ties with Vladimir Putin's Russia.

The AfD has also steadily grown in popularity, entering parliament in 2017 and finishing second in the most recent national election in February 2025.

The party now routinely leads national opinion polls, well ahead of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's center-right CDU/CSU bloc.

- 'Vulnerability' of democracies -

Tykwer, in an interview with AFP, said "Babylon Berlin" reflects the "vulnerability" of democracies "and how quickly they can be brought to collapse by radical aggression, despite having been built up with such care over such a long period".

"We were drawn to these themes because they touch on something deeper and universal: the struggle between peaceful, empathy-based systems and the forces capable of destroying them."

But Tykwer and von Borries said the show is not intended to deliver any kind of clear message to voters ahead of further regional elections later this month.

But Handloegten expressed pride in having "struck a chord that truly resonates" with viewers around the world who also find themselves -- and their countries -- at a political inflection point.

"I think we took a clear political stance, especially in this final season, and that seems very necessary to me," he said.

For Handloegten, the pressures facing democracy in many countries where the series airs "were truly a source of motivation" during the show's lengthy run.

"I felt there was a contemporary relevance to it, so for me, the work we've been doing here for 13 years is, in a strange way, political."

Entertainment

‘Wallace & Gromit’ Creators Turn 50 with Spook-Tacular Shaun Yarn

This photo taken on March 4, 2026 shows an employee working on models for "Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom" at Aardman Animations studios in Bristol, western England. (AFP)

17:18-9 September 2026 AD ـ 27 Rabi’ Al-Awwal 1448 AH

08:17-9 September 2026 AD ـ 27 Rabi’ Al-Awwal 1448 AH

17:18-9 September 2026 AD ـ 27 Rabi’ Al-Awwal 1448 AH

08:17-9 September 2026 AD ـ 27 Rabi’ Al-Awwal 1448 AH

‘Wallace & Gromit’ Creators Turn 50 with Spook-Tacular Shaun Yarn

This photo taken on March 4, 2026 shows an employee working on models for "Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom" at Aardman Animations studios in Bristol, western England. (AFP)

Crochet hook in hand, the animator slightly raises the eyelid of a clay model sheep in a filmmaking technique as old as cinema, perfected over five decades by Aardman Animations.

In the basement of the Bristol-based company -- whose beloved characters such as Wallace and Gromit have won them four Oscars -- designers have been working for the past three-and-a-half years on the latest adventure in their "Shaun the Sheep" series.

"Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom" is the third full-length film starring the mischievous, savvy sheep, due to be released on September 18 in UK cinemas.

This time Shaun and his flock have to work together to save Halloween from a fur-raising creature terrorizing their farm's pumpkin patch.

The film marks the 50th anniversary of Aardman, founded in Bristol in 1976 by Peter Lord and David Sproxton who went to school together and used to make models on a kitchen table.

In the dim light of Aardman's basement, about 40 small rooms with a blue background have been set up, with curtains concealing puppet-sized scenes from the film.

One curtain opens to reveal Mossy Bottom farm and its autumnal colors, another a mad science lab, while behind yet another is a black and red fishing boat.

In the world of sophisticated digitalized animations and computer graphics, Aardman stands out for its painstaking handcrafted "stop-motion" technique, which dates back to the late 19th century.

"Our aim as animators is to make people think these puppets are alive," said animation director Claire Rolls.

"Nowadays, there's not a lot of places in the world doing stop-motion animation."

- 'Spare arms and ears' -

In a docklands scene, Rolls, who joined the company in 1998, was working with team member Ed Jackson setting up camera shots.

The sheep, wearing yellow rain jackets, are trying to attract the attention of a crew of sailors, Rolls explained.

The animator gets down to work, eyes fixed on a screen that alternates between the shot he's preparing and the previous frame.

To create the illusion of movement, he raises one sheep's head, lowers another's legs, and clicks the camera once the shot is ready.

After two days of this patient, exacting work, he will have filmed about two seconds of footage, each second made up of 24 frames.

The complete film is made up of more than 100,000 of these painstakingly created stop-motion frames.

The creatures that populate the studio's productions are created upstairs, in the puppet department.

After first appearing in 1995 in "Wallace & Gromit: A Close Shave", Shaun has become one of the studio's icons.

He is now the hero of a television series, shown in 170 countries, and two previous films, and has attracted a huge social media following.

Amid a jumble of drawings and materials, Kate Anderson, the head of the puppet department, pulls out a box filled with interchangeable parts -- a mouth closed, a jaw dropped, or rounded in an "O" of surprise.

Such parts help animators to illustrate different "sounds and expressions" for Bitzer, the long-suffering sheepdog.

The puppet makers "stick with clay for really expressive areas of the puppet, like the face," said Anderson, even if sometimes silicon is used to make the characters' bodies.

That material is more resistant when applied to a metal frame, she said, with the figures nailed in place to avoid any continuity errors.

"Because animators are touching puppets all day long, they do break quite easily," she said.

"We always know that we need to have a big stock of spare sheep arms and ears."

- 'Quirky, fun' -

"The animation is like a live performance," said co-director Steve Cox.

It is different to computer-generated images and two dimensional or 2D ones as "you can't really go back and change things once you've done it".

Filming is done in silence and sound added later, but that doesn't stop its "very British" humor, kind of "quirky and fun", from shining through.

"We do use digital effects in our films, but they're an embellishment to... the hand-crafted work," said producer Richard Beek.

Artificial intelligence has not been used for this latest Shaun movie, he said.

Aardman's playful, imaginative clay figures are instantly recognizable, from the pumpkins to Shaun's mad-scientist glasses.

The release of Disney's "Toy Story" in 1995 caused concern, as with AI, that "we're going to make films now on computers" and there would no longer be any place for stop-motion.

"But what's happened is we've continued to make films," Beek said.

"The whole world changes around us, but there's lots of things that stay the same at Aardman, and maybe that's partly what people like... there's a familiarity to it."

Entertainment

For Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, ‘Practical Magic 2’ Heals Old Wounds

US-Australian actress Nicole Kidman attends the US premiere of "Practical Magic 2" at Directors Village theater in Los Angeles, on August 31, 2026. (AFP)

12:02-8 September 2026 AD ـ 26 Rabi’ Al-Awwal 1448 AH

For Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, ‘Practical Magic 2’ Heals Old Wounds

US-Australian actress Nicole Kidman attends the US premiere of "Practical Magic 2" at Directors Village theater in Los Angeles, on August 31, 2026. (AFP)

Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman view “Practical Magic” very differently today than they did when they made it 28 years ago.

In 1998, the film received mixed reviews and had a modest box office performance. It has since become a cult favorite, embraced by a new generation who found the romantic comedy through social media clips.

The two Oscar winners are returning to their roles of witchy sisters Sally and Gillian Owens in “Practical Magic 2,” in theaters on Sept. 10, giving them a chance to reckon with the original’s rocky reception and its unlikely second life.

Both films trace their roots to Alice Hoffman’s novels: “Practical Magic,” published in 1995, inspired the original film, while her 2021 novel “The Book of Magic” expands the Owens family’s story and provides inspiration for the sequel.

Bullock recalls a promotional push for the original film that became memorable for the wrong reasons.

“I had so much trauma from the press junket from the first one because it was brutal,” Bullock recalls. “We were not well-received because we were ‘too much,’ ‘too witchy,’ ‘too many women,’ ‘too many tones.’ I’m like, ‘Have you lived a day in a life as a woman?’”

“We didn’t stumble, but it stumbled, but it didn’t really stumble. Maybe it needed to marinate a little bit. We were marinating,” said Bullock. “But here we are, and how lucky are we that we’re still here to be able to go reap the benefits and the rewards of our work?”

The movie eventually found the audience it had missed in theaters, and Bullock said she realized there had been a reappraisal about six years ago.

“I was still harboring so much shame,” she said. “I was like, ‘the things that were said, I’m sorry, we thought we were doing something nice.’ And turns out we did. It was just 28 and change years too early.”

For Kidman, the film’s resurgence became personal.

“People started just coming into my life who would go, 'You want to know what my favorite film of yours is? ‘Practical Magic.’ And suddenly I was like, ‘What? Wow, OK,’” she said.

When it came time to make the sequel, Bullock sat down with her children and their friends to watch the original.

“I wanted fresh eyes,” she said. “Because we were embarking on the new chapter, the new baby witches coming in. I wanted to understand it from a point of view I didn’t have. I wanted to see what they had to say.”

As producers, Bullock and Kidman also faced the practical realities of mounting a legacy sequel on a budget. Among the challenges was recreating one of the original film’s most recognizable elements: the Owens house.

The production rebuilt the house on a London back lot as a full structure, rather than the temporary exterior shell used for the original film.

“It was an incredibly tough fiscal time. We were hedging the dollar,” Bullock said. “We’re not a big superhero film, so you don’t get the luxury of a big price tag.”

Kidman added: “And we also knew the responsibility of bringing it in on a certain price because then you go, 'OK, we can breathe a bit,'” she said. “I think when a budget blows out, you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, the stress.’ And we don’t need any more stress in our lives. It’s stressful enough.”

The sequel continues the story of the younger generation of Owens women, with Joey King and Maisie Williams playing Kylie and Antonia Owens, the daughters of Sally.

“I really appreciate that it’s like a passing of the baton. I think it’s beautiful,” King said. “It just felt like we were stepping into their world and doing this with them, and it’s a real gift and honor to be considered the people who are taking the batons.”

Producer Denise Di Novi, who also produced the original and cast King in her first leading role in 2010's “Ramona and Beezus,” said the new characters could carry the story forward.

“We would love to make a third one, and I think there’s so much more to do with Kylie and Antonia,” she said. “At the end of the movie, spoiler alert, but you kind of feel like the Sally and Gillian characters are kind of the elder aunts, you know, and Kylie and Antonia are the ones launching off into the world as witches.”

Williams is also hoping to expand on the younger Owens women’s story: “We’re so there for it. There’s so much more of ‘Book of Magic’ that we didn’t get to explore,” she said.

Shakira Thrills Crowd of 2 Million with Free Concert on Brazil's Copacabana Beach

Most Viewed

Series Finale of ‘Babylon Berlin’ Offers Dark Mirror for Today’s Germany

‘Wallace & Gromit’ Creators Turn 50 with Spook-Tacular Shaun Yarn

For Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, ‘Practical Magic 2’ Heals Old Wounds

لم تشترك بعد