Shakira Shakes Houston During El Dorado World Tour

Shakira returned to Houston to perform to a sold out crowd at the Toyota Center on Wednesday night in the middle of the international pop star's Texas run of the El Dorado World Tour. Originally scheduled for January the concert was postponed due to a vocal cord injury that required time to heal. After months of waiting, the night was finally here and the crowd began to get a bit antsy as time passed with no sign of the superstar appearing on stage.

The fans took it upon themselves to create an electric environment starting with one very enthusiastic woman in a pink shirt on the floor level who was determined to get the crowd excited by screaming, clapping and trying to starts chants. However, her thunder was stolen when a group of fans in the lower bowl successfully started the wave that made it around the arena four times. Then precisely at 9:04 p.m. the house lights went out and everyone’s phones went up to record their experience.

Shakira rushed onto the stage pumping her fist along with flashing a million dollar smile. Her lion mane of hair, shimmering grey pants and bedazzled sleeveless shirt lit up the crowd. Cannons blasted confetti into the audience reminiscent of a winning championship celebration and this was less than halfway though the first song.

The former coach on NBC’s The Voice transitioned from English to Spanish and back again with songs and stage banter. Her voice sounded great but it was often drowned out by the band. She sounded the best when singing power ballads like “Nada”. At times she joined in with the band performing on a golden guitar, keyboards or pounding out a quick drum solo.

The stage show came complete with several outfit changes, energetic dancing, multiple confetti showers, lasers and pyrotechnics, but it was Shak’s incomparable dance moves that were the highlight. Her sensual dance moves were highlighted during “Perro Fiel” as she cupped her breasts and the camera zoomed in on her other gyrating assets.

The Colombian treasure has been performing for more than 20 years and has 11 albums of tracks to create a set list. Surprisingly fans did not get to see her perform “Clandestino”, her newest single that is climbing the Latin Billboard charts. To highlight her global popularity, she selected two consecutive FIFA World Cup anthems (2010 and 2014) performed as a brief medley toward the end of the set.

Even though Shak’s voice was not always heard over the band, it was an impressive show. The crowd knew every word to the 20-plus songs performed. For close to two hours, the crossover star held the Houston crowd in her hip pocket as they clung to her every movement.