In June 2022, Karol G’s Spanish record label headquarters received a call from the Colombian artist’s team. “Karol would like to be at the Pride March in Madrid. What are the possibilities?” The request came directly from her: she was not following a strategic plan from her large group of collaborators. She simply wanted to live the experience. Work was done quickly and on July 10, 2022, the Colombian appeared perched on a float ready to take part in the parade. She had dyed blue hair and had put on wings with the colours of the LGBT flag.
“She was going to perform a song and she spent three hours singing and interacting with the people. This had a huge impact, it was a symbiosis with the people, a turning point in her connection with the Spanish public,” says Néstor Hernández, product manager for Karol G in Spain. Some 600,000 people lined the route to Madrid’s Plaza de Colón. Many of them sang along to songs such as Cob either Provence and they did not stop encouraging the trip with shouts of “bichota, bichota!”, the nickname by which the Latin artist is known.
Although the data can fluctuate due to the imprecision with which concert promoters work, All four stadiums were full at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium Karol G’s (Medellín, Colombia, 33 years old) Madrid concerts (July 20, 21, 22 and 23) will set a record for the number of tickets sold by a singer in Spain on consecutive days. With 240,000 tickets, she surpasses Coldplay’s 225,000 in 2023 at the Estadí de Montjuïc. The average cost of a ticket reaches 100 euros. If the maths is correct, the Colombian singer’s performance will bring in, in ticket sales alone, 24 million euros. Spain is among the three most important markets for the Latin artist, along with her country, Colombia, and the United States.
What is striking, apart from the numbers, is that Coldplay or Taylor Swift (only two bernabeus last May) receive a much broader media and commercial treatment than the Colombian. Karol G’s conquest of Spain and other countries comes from a base that has a lot of popularity and from overturning the laws of the marketing from the offices to rewrite them on the street.
Karol G began her special relationship with Spain from the most effective showcase, television. In the first months of 2019 she served as an advisor to jury member Antonio Orozco on the program The voice, broadcast on Antena 3 in prime time. There, he made an impression on the audience with his empathy and his tears: emotional outbursts were frequent when evaluating the promising stars. At his farewell he cried at the comment The warm welcome of the presenter, Eva González (“In my country, they say this: you are a good person”), and the hugs and more or less successful jokes of Pablo López (“Don’t go, let’s take away his passport”) or David Bustamante (“Don’t ever change, please”). The journey, in any case, had begun.
The next knock comes in 2020. Publish Cob, a song with the American rapper Nicky Minaj that became a global success and number one in the charts in Spain. She had been dedicated to music for ten years and had two full-length albums (Unstoppable, 2017and Ocean, 2019), but it is with this issue that he proves that Colombia has become too small for him. Popular Colombian journalist Leila Cobo speaks, who is in charge of the Latin information of the American publication Billboard has interviewed Karol G since she was barely known until now. “Karol has a very long history of success. Almost ten years of hits. “It brings together two generations who are fans of her music. Although many people see her as new, she is not at all,” Cobo said by phone from Miami.
![Karol G., when she was still young, at a recital in a small club in Tampa, Florida, in 2017.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/3RKN2PJELZHVPLWIRBXNLCCPME.jpg?auth=d15aeb5fbedd0061a05dbf58cb969a08b6048547c2a92c7eb2f41c426599015d&width=414)
Back in Spain, the name of Pedro Artola appears, another of the singer’s anchors in our country. Artola was born 29 years ago in Oviedo and works as a visual artist. Karol G was attracted by the direction of the Asturian in Sen Senra’s videos either Guitarricadelafuente and wanted to form a team. So much so that Artola has filmed the last nine music videos from the Colombian. The first two that they shared were also filmed in Spain: Provence, in Lanzarote, and Catwoman, in Barcelona. Artola believes that the connection with the Spanish public is based on language, but not only. “I think that we Spaniards are very attracted to closeness in relationships. To achieve this, it is essential to connect and show vulnerability. And these are outstanding characteristics of Karol: her ability to transmit authenticity and closeness,” says Artola. The person in charge of Billboard, Leila Cobo, delves into this topic: “Karol is very charismatic, and she has also internalized the concept of friend. In music, there aren’t that many artists who have that mix of stardom and accessibility. As a fan, you feel like you can sit down with them for a drink, go to the gym, or go to the movies. Taylor Swift does that, too. They’re both super glamorous, but you feel like you can sit down and have a conversation with them.”
The Colombian has a strong fan base. Many girls, who consider her a genuine aspirational model. Isa González, 37, will go to the Bernabéu with her daughter Raquel, seven years old. “My daughter is the biggest fan,” Isa says over the phone. They are coming to Madrid from their native Granada. “Raquel discovered her at school through other girls and because I showed her a video. She is attracted by the way she dresses, the colour of her hair, the music. Now she comes home and the first thing she does is ask Alexa to put on Karol. I like it too: her music activates me, it fills me with positivity and I like the feminist message; it gives me good vibes, as she says,” explains Isa, who has paid 220 euros for the two tickets. They are going to the concert with another mother from Granada and her nine-year-old daughter. “It is her communion gift. Before they gave each other dolls and now they give each other tickets to see Karol G. So everything has changed,” Isa laughs.
![Karol G, excited, during a program on 'La Voz' in 2019.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/W3JBGL5575HX7MAO4JU6R5XPHQ.jpg?auth=6b9881475266fd2feaa352fb25ecd916786a7e2f5d1032cbc0c2d85bceb63183&width=414)
The definitive episode of the Spanish invasion by the Colombian arrived in February 2023 with the release of their third album, Tomorrow will be nice, an album with reggaeton, but broadening the radar to embrace the Latin pop label and reach a wider audience. The lyrics tell universal stories, but this time reversing the patriarchal discourse: love betrayal, sex and triumph, all from the woman’s point of view. There are nods to Spain in this work, with the collaborations of surely the two young values of urban music that raise the most passions among the young Spanish public, Quevedo, with whom he sings But you, and Bad Gyal, with whom he shares Karmika, with lyrics of female power where they tell a guy “not to get his hopes up, because they only want sex,” and goodbye tomorrow.
But the theme that pulled this album was TQG, Another master move by Karol, as she shares it with Shakira, who is very popular in Spain. Both of them, cheated on by their partners (footballer Gerard Piqué and reggaeton singer Anuel AA), have a lot to say in the lyrics. “In Colombia, one of the most popular genres is what we call the music of heartbreak. It has its roots in popular music. It tells stories where the protagonist has his heart ripped out and goes to the bar to forget that love. Karol G adapts that style very well with lyrics that many women identify with,” says Colombian Chucky García, journalist and concert organizer, by phone from Medellín.
These four berbabéus They should also be read in the context of the current craze for attending concerts. It is not so much a question of discovering an artistic concept, but rather of pure entertainment. And that is where Karol G is an infallible product. “She is at the right time and in the right place,” she says. Sebastian Litmanovich, Argentine who has been living in Madrid for ten years, musician and producer and host of the program specialized in Latin music Latinizingon Radio 3. “Karol is very cool, she does her job very well and she has managed to get many young people to identify with her, beyond her music. And it is because of her feminist attitude and for breaking many canons in a very macho industry. It is a phenomenon with many edges. And someone who can understand it very well is Madonna, who experienced it first hand in another context. Karol G opens the doors to a new generation that is creating music as entertainment: that may not have as much artistic interest,” reflects Litmanovich. And he adds: “It is possible that Karol G breaks attendance records at concerts and others highly appreciated by the current music industry, but I do not think she has the cultural and artistic importance that Madonna had.”
Many of those interviewed highlight his ability to work and his strategic expertise. Fabio Acosta, Colombian, manager J Balvin and Latin music expert highlights in a telephone conversation: “In addition to being incredibly talented and complete, she is the perfect example that when an artist does focused work with completely clear objectives, they get great results. She knows perfectly well that the way to make an impact in the industry is through constant and planned work. Small steps to build careers that last over time and are not just ephemeral moments of trend.”
The latest episode in the marriage between Karol G and Spain occurred just a few days ago, when her new song, the merengue-pop If I had met you before (which some have found reasonable similarities with Disappointed, by Rosalia) has climbed to number one of the most listened to songs on the platforms. It is already being announced as the song of the summer that will be played the most in beach bars and clubs.
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