Shakira closed her historic series of 13 concerts at the GNP Seguros Stadium in Mexico City on Friday night (Feb. 27), becoming the artist with the most performances in a single tour at the iconic venue. For this final show, the superstar had her fellow Colombian artist Beéle as a guest and featured Santos Bravos in the “Walk with the She-Wolf.”

The performance marked a new milestone for Shakira, with 800,000 tickets sold across those shows, “something unprecedented,” according to promoter Ocesa.

“How are you, my Mexican family? How are you back there? Thirteen GNP Stadium shows are more than a gift, it’s a miracle, a reward from life,” the singer said to the 65,000 people gathered at the capital’s stadium. “You know my journey hasn’t been easy these past few years because no one is spared from life’s falls.”

Shakira reiterated her excitement about concluding her historic Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour in Mexico, which had its epicenter in the capital city, where the Colombian artist made history and reaffirmed her esteemed position as a global star.

“Definitely, there’s no better reunion than that of a little she-wolf with her Mexican pack, awooo! Mexico, tonight, forever and always, we are one,” the performer greeted her audience.

The tour’s finale at the GNP Seguros Stadium introduced a new guest, singer Beéle, with whom she performed her hit “Hips Don’t Lie,” in the new version recorded alongside Ed Sheeran. Beéle joined Grupo Frontera, Danna Paola, and Belinda as guest artists who accompanied Shakira during her series of shows at the venue, which began nearly a year ago.

Shakira recently announced a unique collaboration with Beéle, who, like her, was born in Barranquilla: a song titled “Algo Tú,” to be released on March 4. Additionally, she performed “¿Dónde Estás Corazón?” live for the first time since 2019, to the surprise and delight of the audience.

The final “Walk with the She-Wolf” at the Mexican stadium, a symbolic and empowering act that the singer performed every night to open her show, featured special guests on Friday: the members of Santos Bravos, HYBE’s first Latin boy band.

This historic moment in Shakira’s career, with a tour that moved hips and shattered world records, coincides with yet another international recognition: her nomination this week to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

The nomination crowns remarkable achievements since the Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour began. The tour set a Guinness World Record as the highest-grossing tour of all time by a Hispanic artist, earning an astonishing $421.6 million and selling 3.3 million tickets across 86 shows, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore.

Shakira will wrap up her stay in Mexico this Sunday (March 1) with a massive free concert in the Zócalo — the second-largest public square in the world, only behind Tiananmen Square in Beijing — where she will return nearly after 20 years and where she is expected to set a new attendance record.

The artist first performed there on May 27, 2007, drawing an official crowd of 210,000 people, which surpassed the previous record of 170,000 set by Mexican rock band Café Tacvba in 2005. The current attendance record at Mexico City’s main square belongs to the Argentine band Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, who gathered 300,000 attendees on June 3, 2023. Grupo Firme holds the second spot, having drawn 280,000 people a year earlier.

From career milestones to new music releases to major announcements and those little important moments, Billboard editors highlight uplifting moments in Latin music. Here’s what happened in the Latin music world this week.

Bruno Mars Opens New Album With Stunning Mariachi Bolero

Bruno Mars returns with The Romantic, his first solo album in a decade, opening with the stunning bolero “Risk It All.” Backed by a mariachi ensemble — featuring trumpets, violins, guitarrón, and vihuela — the singer, dressed in a classic matador suit in the song’s music video, strums a nylon guitar in a scene straight out of a dream. Co-directed by Mars and Daniel Ramos, the musicians are seen in the video performing in front of a vintage Catholic church, golden hour lighting them like a painting, before transitioning into a wedding scene.

“I would run through the fire just to be by your side/ If your heart’s on the line you could take mine/ It’s crazy but it’s true/ There’s nothing I won’t do/ I’d risk it all for you,” Mars sings, embodying a lovelorn troubadour pouring his heart out. The video garnered excitement across the Latin community, with Rancho Humilde founder Jimmy Humilde commenting on Bruno Mars’ Instagram post sharing a snippet of the clip: “I love this. Thank you for embracing our roots. Glad to be part of it.” Fuerza Regida’s JOP added, “This is history. United States is full of cultures,” while Ivan Cornejo simply chimed in, “LFGGGGGG” (or “LET’S GO”). Watch the video below.

Xavi’s breakthrough “La Diabla” Joins Spotify’s Billions Club

Xavi’s “La Diabla” has officially entered Spotify’s prestigious Billions Club, surpassing one billion streams with a total of 1,002,857,857 plays and counting. Released in November 2023, the track quickly became a cultural phenomenon, propelling the Mexican American singer-songwriter to prominence by early 2024. It earned Xavi his first No. 1 on the Hot Latin Songs chart — an impressive feat for a newcomer — and solidified his role as a standout voice in the regional Mexican music wave. This corridos tumbados kiss-off marked Xavi’s rise to global recognition, cementing his status as a rising household name. Watch the video below, and maybe soon, it’ll also join the Billion Views Club.

Trueno On Collaborating With Gorillaz on “The Manifesto”

Trueno teams up with Gorillaz on the collective’s new album The Mountain, delivering a fiery Spanish-language rap performance on “The Manifesto,” alongside the late Proof of D12. Buoyed by Indian-leaning instrumentation, and a haunting beat-switching production, the Argentine rapper explores themes of life, death and ambition in his freewheeling verse. The collaboration came after a 12-hour studio session with Damon Albarn, who later invited Trueno to open Gorillaz’ upcoming arena and stadium tour across England, Scotland, and Ireland, with stops in cities like Manchester, Glasgow, and Dublin.

“These are countries where I’ve never had [the opportunity to perform] in my life,” Trueno tells Billboard in a video interview. Gorillaz’s new album also features Bizarrap on the song “Orange County,” alongside Kara Jackson and Anoushka Shankar. Check out “The Manifesto” below.

Thomas Rhett has added a new title to his résumé: father of five.

The country star and his wife, Lauren Akins, announced Friday (Feb. 27) that they’ve welcomed their first son, Brave Elijah Akins, who arrived last week weighing “almost 10 pounds and almost 2 weeks early.”

In a joint Instagram post, Akins shared that Rhett was deeply involved in the delivery. “Thomas Rhett was my biggest champion in labor & delivery🤍 He helped deliver him (😭), was the first one to see and tearfully, mixed with a bit of shock announce to us all in the room ‘It’s a BOY’😭🩵🥰,” she wrote.

Brave joins the couple’s four daughters — Willa Gray, Ada James, Lennon Love and Lillie Carolina — expanding the Rhett household to seven. “Your four sisters are smitten and we are completely over the moon in love with you big Brave boy 🩵🌙🩵,” Akins added.

The couple first revealed they were expecting their fifth child in August 2025, when Rhett surprised fans by tweaking the lyrics to his 2017 hit “Life Changes” in a social media video — a full-circle moment for a song that helped define his early mainstream breakthrough.

“Life Changes” topped Billboard’s Country Airplay chart and became one of Rhett’s signature crossover hits, reaching the Billboard Hot 100 and helping solidify his standing as one of country radio’s most consistent hitmakers of the past decade.

Fatherhood has long been woven into Rhett’s songwriting. His 2015 smash “Die a Happy Man” — inspired by his relationship with Akins — spent multiple weeks at No. 1 on Country Airplay and earned Grammy nominations, while later projects have continued to reflect his evolving life at home.

Over the past decade, Rhett has amassed more than 20 career No. 1s across Billboard’s Country Airplay chart and released seven studio albums, including Where We Started.

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If you’re an independent artist looking to create, promote and grow your online presence, creating a home base and foundation of your work is key. Like inviting people to your home, artists need an online hub that reflects your style, vision and message. Yes, social media platforms are a great way to interact with fans, but if you want sustain engagement and reach other online communities, promoting your music takes a lot more thought than posting a link or going viral once.

To help upcoming artist make the most of their online presence, we’ve created a how-to guide on promoting your music online in 2026.

Leverage Social Media Without Burning Out

When it comes to promoting your music and your brand, the power of social media is limitless. With a variety platforms to connect with fans, other artists, media outlets, local communities and so on, building an online presence is the quickest way to connect your music with everyone. For independent artist, it’s best to focus on one or two social media platforms. It’s generally more effective to focus on a platform where your target audience is most active rather than spreading yourself thin across many.

Mastering a single platform allows for higher-quality, consistent content, which is often more valuable than maintaining a fragmented presence. Once you have established sustainable growth and consistent engagement on one, you can strategically expand to other platforms if they align with your goals and make sense for your online presence. This rule also applies to paid advertisement. If you start promoting your music with ads too early the authenticity of your work could feel tainted.

Build a Professional Artist Website as Your Home Base

As great as social media platforms are for growing and connecting with fans, having your own website gives you more control to create and build credibility without the hassle of algorithms and rules. It’s a way to directly communicate to your fans without any distraction. With a home site, you can set up content for followers that they can’t engage with anywhere else, including an email newsletter or provide exclusive discounts or bundled deals that only your community can take advantage of.

With Bandzoogle, the site offers every tool you’ll need to customize a website to your liking. No, you don’t need to be a designer or coder. The site offers simple steps to rearrange sections, add in image assets, change colors, text, templates and more. Once you have a layout in place, the site design will automatically optimize for PC as well as mobile with ease. Don’t know want to create a layout from scratch? Bandzoogle has dozens of stylish preset designs made for musicians — all included free with Bandzoogle website plans.

Use Streaming Platforms as Part of Your Promotion Plan

With your new and improved website, it’s time to promote your music. From electronic press kits, smart links and music landing pages, Bandzoogle gives musicians a variety of options to create custom onesheet promo pages to share your music with fans and industry professionals. On the site, you can create email newsletters, fan mailing list, early access promo and even blogs for more in-depth content. This is great way to bypass the noise of social media and create exclusive content for your die-hard fans.

Also, when promoting your music. The most common way to build up hype and sustain it is by creating a three-step plan: pre-launch, release and post-launch. Typically, you should work backward from your release date, ideally allowing 4–8 weeks for the pre-launch phase to educate your audience and build up interest. During the release, shift to direct, high-intensity promotion. Finally, for post-launch, deliver extra content to keep fans engaged, like behind-the scenes footage or Q&A’s.

Collaborate & Network With Other Musicians

Building relationship within your industry is great way to grow your presence with the music world. The best ways to build your network is by connecting with artists in your local community or similar genre, prioritizing live gigs and community events. Expressing your interest and support toward fellow artists can open the opportunity for collaborations or remix’s that can penetrate their fan base.

When online, following local venues, artists and industry professionals can easily provide opportunities to connect. Building these relationships takes time—focus on being a present, reliable community member.

Take Email Marketing Seriously (Even If Your List Is Small)

Like previously mentioned, using your website to create an email newsletter is an efficient to communicate with your fan base without any distractions or restrictions. Bandzoogle can help grow that list over time by giving you all the tools you need to setup a consistent content rollout. With the platform, artists can schedule mailouts in advance, track email reports in real time and the ability to reward fans who have signed up for mailing list with exclusive content like free tracks, artwork or early access promos.

Turn Your Songs Into Visual Stories With Video

With TikTok and Instagram Reels becoming a popular choice for younger generations to consume content, this sets up low-budget, short-form opportunities for indie artists to create visual assets for their work. All you need is an iPhone to capture content and go viral off of a 3 to 30-second clip. As you grow and your budget grows, creating a traditional music video becomes more viable. Wheter its short or long form video content, develop a creative concept that plays to your existing strengths while minimizing complex logistics. Focus on a single, compelling idea—such as a strong narrative, unique performance, or artistic aesthetic.

Pitch Yourself to Local Press, Blogs & Playlists

These days engagement is king. The bigger your audience, the more intriguing you are publications and media outlets. Building your community, brand image and resume should be your first priority. Once that foundation is strong, you should create an press kit. Luckily, once you sign up for Bandzoogle, you’ll get access to builld custom EPK’s that spotlight’s your best work with features to show off your music, press images, album art, videos and everything else. Once your EPK is created, you should realistically target a highly curated list of 20 to 50 journalists and outlets within the focus area of your music.

Participate in Online Music Communities

Platforms like Reddit, Discord and other internet forums a great ways to dive deeper into niche music communities. Depending on your genre of music, finding similar communities online is a great way to promote your music to current and new fans with a similar taste in sound. Without spamming your content down people’s throat, share your music within those forums while asking and taking in feed back. Provide updates on new music releases or upcoming concert dates.

Use Contests, Giveaways & Experiments

Make your fans feel special by offering contests, giveaways and promotions that will present fun ways for your community to invest in your world. From merch promos, free ticket giveaways, and exclusive digital content, by targeting people who genuinely care about your product or content, you attract long-term followers rather than “freebie hunters” who unfollow after the contest ends. Success relies on keeping entry tasks simple, setting a clear timeframe, and maintaining active engagement throughout.

Analyze and Adapt Your Strategies

Bandzoogle isn’t only great for building a website, but for monitoring data as well. It’s important for indie artists to analyze active fan engagement and sustainable growth alongside total stream counts. With Bandzoogle, users can look at interactive reports to see all visitors at a glance. Want to know the area your fans are most active in? The platform also offers location data, so artists can see fan activity on an interactive map, including purchases, music plays, and mailing list signups. This can help you find your best fans when you plan your next tour or where to promote your music.