Rakuten presents global pop star Shakira’s next world tour
When the reigning queen of Latin pop hits the road this fall in support her 11th studio album, she will be doing so with the backing of a brand new sponsor. On June 27, Rakuten announced it will be the sole presenting sponsor of Shakira’s upcoming El Dorado world tour – her first since The Sun Comes Out World Tour in 2010-11, which saw the beloved Colombian songstress play 107 shows in five continents.
Rakuten, which offers over 70 services to its one billion members across e-commerce, digital contents and fintech businesses, is known for its support of major music and sporting events in Japan and around the world, but this will be its first sponsorship of a pop star of Shakira’s global standing – a bold new step aimed at boosting Rakuten’s global branding, customer and community engagement.
To this day, Shakira is recognized as the highest-selling Colombian artist ever with a total of 60 million albums sold around the world. Behind Gloria Estefan, she is the second-most successful female singer of Latin descent. She is also critically acclaimed; racking up 12 Grammy awards over her illustrious career.
Since the May 26 release of “El Dorado” – named after Columbia’s legendary ‘lost city’ – the album has spawned multiple hits in Latin America, including lead single “Chantaje,” which topped Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart for eleven non-consecutive weeks. As of June 27, 2017, the “Chantaje” music video has been watched more than 1,400,000,000 times on YouTube, making it one of the platform’s biggest Spanish-language hits ever. Starting November 8 in Cologne, Germany, Shakira, will take these songs and her extensive portfolio of hits to fans around the world, for one of the year’s most eagerly awaited musical tours.
On her first-ever partnership with Rakuten, Shakira commented, “I’m so excited to be announcing the El Dorado world tour, I feel this will be my best tour yet, and am thrilled to be supported by such an amazing partner as Rakuten, with whom I share the same values!”
To help amplify the El Dorado tour around the world, Viber, a popular instant messaging and calling app with 900 million users and also a Rakuten Group company, will become the ‘Official Messaging App’ for the tour and launch an exclusive content and bot experience with Shakira on its platform. Viber will also offer a free Shakira sticker pack to fans of the singer on the platform and hold an exclusive presale of tour tickets for Viber users beginning Wednesday June 28th at 10 a.m. local time, two days ahead of regular ticket sales.
Get ready Shakira fans: if past tours are any indication, tickets are bound to go fast.
