Shakira wanted to end her European residency in Madrid on a high note, and for her 13th concert, she surrounded herself with great friends. Maluma, Laura Pausini, Beéle, Dani Martín and Bizarrap joined her for one last night, which also featured dancers from the Carnival of Barranquilla, a drone display and a visibly emotional Shakira bidding farewell.

“There has been a before and after for me. It’s all felt like a dream, and honestly, I don’t want to leave,” the Colombian superstar told the audience. “It’s going to be very, very hard to leave Spain again.”

Announced a week earlier as “The Last Dance,” Monday’s concert (Oct. 12) brought the residency to a total of 13 shows and concluded with four consecutive performances from Oct. 9-12. The finale also coincided with Spain’s National Day (Día de la Hispanidad), with Latin culture strongly present throughout the celebration.

“I’ve prepared so many, many surprises for you tonight,” Shakira teased shortly after starting the show. “Tonight, I’m not holding anything back. I’m going to give you everything, everything, everything I have, because there’s nothing like when a she-wolf meets her pack.”

The first surprise came with Maluma, who returned for the second night in a row to perform “Chantaje” and “Agua” alongside Shakira. “We’ve already done four songs together; we should form a group called Shaluma,” joked Shakira to her compatriot, who replied that he was ready to create many more songs with her.

Later, Shakira paused the show for several minutes to thank the audience and everyone who made possible what she described as one of “the most important” projects of her career. “This residency has been historic for me,” she said, adding that during these weeks, she had also gone through difficult moments, including her father’s health issues and other personal challenges. She said the audience gave her the strength to step on stage every night “with total joy and a full heart… You’ve made me feel like I’m just starting my career, and I will never forget that.”

The superstar then extended her gratitude to everyone who had been part of the show and Macondo Park, as well as Sony Music, Live Nation, her team, musicians and dancers. According to Shakira, more than 10,000 people worked on the production of the show and the themed city that was built around the stadium. She also gave a particularly heartfelt thank-you to her ex Antonio de la Rúa, a current collaborator, introducing him as “a great friend, a soul friend.” Shakira highlighted his support during the tour and his work behind the creation and details of the project.

Following her thank-yous, Laura Pausini took the stage as “the cherry on top,” as Shakira presented her. The Italian artist returned to the residency to perform a duet of “Antología,” as she had during one of the first nights of the residency. Before singing, she took a moment to offer some words, emphasizing what Shakira’s career represents for younger generations of artists. “You are a lesson for so many,” she said. “Just imagine our younger colleagues who see the immense example that you are of a long and very solid career.”

The next guest was Dani Martín, former lead singer of El Canto del Loco and one of the most recognized names in Spanish pop-rock, who joined her for “Te Dejo Madrid.” Shakira introduced him with a nod to the song’s lyrics: “Today, I’m going to sing this with a Madrileño who won’t break my heart.”

Beéle later joined her for a performance of “Algo Tú,” while several Carnival of Barranquilla dancers filled the stage, bringing a piece of her hometown’s celebration to a night that coincided with Spain’s National Day. For “Dai Dai,” the Ghetto Kids joined the celebration in a particularly colorful and vibrant evening.

The final performance also highlighted just how far the residency had come. “When they proposed doing eight concerts here in Madrid, I thought it would be impossible,” Shakira shared. “And look, today is our 13th show. Someone pinch me, please, so I know if this is real or not.” According to the artist, around 700,000 people attended the shows at the Shakira Stadium during the entire residency.

The energy remained high throughout the residency, both on stage and among the audience. Purple wigs and chain belts with coins became a recurring sight among attendees, who embraced some of the most iconic images from different stages of Shakira’s career. Near the end of the show, dozens of drones lit up the sky, first forming the shape of a she-wolf and then a giant “12+1,” the chosen way to mark the final night of the residency.

But one last surprise was still in store. Bizarrap took the stage for the grand finale, stepping behind the turntable to perform “Shakira: Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53” with the singer, keeping the party alive until the final moments of “The Last Dance” and bringing nearly a month of Shakira in Madrid to a spectacular close.

James Hetfield doesn’t seem very interested in turning a Metallica concert into a political lecture.

During the band’s Las Vegas Sphere residency, the heavy metal frontman took a second to thank fans for traveling to see the group before making one thing clear: Metallica isn’t there to push an agenda.

“Unless you live in Vegas, you’ve come a long way to spend some time with Metallica,” Hetfield told the audience during the band’s Oct. 10 show. “And I just gotta say: Metallica is not here, like some other entertainers, to influence you with their bullsh–.”

Instead, the singer and guitarist said the band wants fans to leave their outside worries at the door.

“We are here to forget about all the outside sh–,” he continued. “Metallica’s agenda is love, energy and heavy music, baby!”

Hetfield didn’t name any specific entertainers he had in mind, leaving his comments open to interpretation. Still, his message was unmistakable: When fans show up for Metallica, he wants the music to take center stage.

And the band’s staying power speaks for itself. Metallica’s ReLoad returned to the Billboard charts following an expanded reissue, landing at No. 1 on the Top Hard Rock Albums chart. The achievement was the band’s sixth leader on the ranking, following the success of its 2023 album 72 Seasons.

The remarks came during Metallica’s Life Burns Faster residency at Sphere, the immersive Las Vegas venue that has become known for its enormous wraparound screen and elaborate visual productions. The band kicked off the run in October, becoming the first heavy metal act to headline the venue. The residency features a series of performances scheduled through March 2027.

While Metallica doesn’t want to get political onstage, that doesn’t mean the band has refrained from being outspoken throughout their decades-long career. Over the years, they’ve addressed subjects ranging from war and addiction to social alienation in their music and they were on the frontlines of the fight against Napster, becoming the first musicians to sue the controversial music-sharing service in 2000.

On Saturday night, Harry Styles asked a sold-out Madison Square Garden crowd to turn their attention to Oscar Belgal, the 28-year-old man who was shot by ICE in his car in the Bronx, New York City, earlier this week while his 5-year-old son was in the backseat.

“I just want us to take a moment to think about Oscar Belgal tonight,” said Styles, guitar in hand before performing “Sign of the Times,” one of the final songs on his Together, Together setlist on Saturday (Oct. 10). Concertgoers captured the moment and uploaded the clip to TikTok, as they’ve done with many of Styles’ interactions with fans throughout the star’s 30-night residency at the Garden.

“I want us to just think, [to] remember, to just look after each other,” Styles told the audience in a speech in which he didn’t say “ICE,” but seemingly referenced the situation with ICE — and the administration’s deportation agenda — after saying Belgal’s name.

“It is up to us to make the cities that we live in places we want to see,” Styles said. “It’s up to us to make the world a place that we want to see, that we want to give to our children. So please continue looking after each other, and remember, your friends, the people you love, the people who don’t look like you and aren’t born where you are from: they deserve respect, love, dignity.”

“Please get home safely and look after each other,” Styles urged the crowd.

On Thursday, Belgal was backing his car into a parking spot in the Marble Hill neighborhood with his young son in tow when he was surrounded by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in plain clothes. His vehicle started to move forward, and he was shot in the neck, according to NYPD commissioner Jessica S. Tisch, who says at least one ICE officer fired seven shots.

City police, who are not involved in federal immigration enforcement, arrived at the scene after hearing a report of shots fired and transported Belgal to the hospital. Belgal is now being held at Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, while the child is safe and in the care of a family member.

Federal officials described Belgal as an “illegal alien gang member” from the Dominican Republic who refused to get out of his car and “smashed into two government vehicles.”

Tisch reported Belgal has had two prior arrests in New York City: “One for robbery in 2023, in which he pleaded guilty to fourth-degree grand larceny and received five years’ probation, and one for criminal sale of a controlled substance in 2025, which is still pending.”

Mayor Zohran Mamdani held a press conference on Thursday, declaring, “What happened today was an outrage.” He stated, “There is no explanation for these tactics. There is no explanation for federal officers firing this many rounds into a car that has a 5-year-old in the car. There is no explanation.”

Mamdani said, “ICE agents surrounded the man’s vehicle before opening fire. They wore construction vests and masks that concealed their faces. There was no reasonable way to identify them as ICE agents. School had just gotten out. The street was crowded with families and children. When ICE agents opened fire, a 5-year-old child — a 5-year-old child — was in the backseat of the car. Thank God that child is physically unharmed.”

“Tonight, a 5-year-old child sits traumatized and terrified,” the mayor said at the time. “Tonight, millions of our neighbors are wondering whether they will be safe on our streets, in our schools, at their work sites. Tonight, New Yorkers across the five boroughs are asking whether their civil liberties will be respected, whether law and order is supposed to look like a man carrying a long gun, wearing a mask.”

Mamdani added, “I also want to say something on a personal note. I stand here not just as the mayor of our city, but as someone who is proud to be an immigrant in our city. And I know that these kinds of raids, this kind of terrorizing of this city, leave the 3 million immigrants of this city asking if they are safe here, if they belong here, if this, too, can be their home. We will not normalize ICE’s viciousness. We will not accept its cruelty.”

Styles’ historic concert residency at Madison Square Garden, where he performs Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays through Oct. 31, resumes with night 22 on Oct. 14.

He recently extended his touring plans into 2027 with a run of stadium dates in several more North American cities, including Phoenix, Dallas, Los Angeles, Toronto, Atlanta and Chicago, before the trek’s summer European leg.

Styles’ fourth studio album, Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in March, led by the Hot 100 chart topper “Aperture.”

Ella Langley returned to the stage in Lubbock, Texas, Saturday night (Oct. 10) after canceling Friday’s concert in Tulsa, Okla., due to a security threat that had been called in ahead of the event.

Though local law enforcement swept Tulsa’s BOK Center and its surroundings and determined the threat was not credible on Friday, the show was still called off. Langley explained why that decision was made on Saturday in Lubbock.

“When it comes to keeping you safe, and making sure that this show is a safe place for us to come and enjoy our music, it will happen. But the second it feels like it’s not, I’m not doing it. I’m not doing it because a concert’s not worth a human life. It’s not,” Langley said, as seen in a fan-filmed video clip from Saturday’s show at United Supermarkets Arena.

“I would’ve made yesterday’s decision 10 billion times over. I would have,” she added.

The “Choosin’ Texas” hitmaker — her single holds the record for the most weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 — continued to address the situation for a couple more minutes before launching into her song “Loving Life Again.”

Langley told the crowd, “While I’m grateful to get to do what I do, it’s not the most important thing in this life. The most important thing in this life is the people around you that love you, and that are there for you no matter what. The most important thing in this life is making sure you wake up every day and feel like, you know what, I’m good today. I’m so grateful to have woken up today.”

She then turned to her faith, saying, “The most important thing in this life, number one, is your relationship with Jesus Christ.”

“If it wasn’t for Him, I would’ve canceled this show tonight,” said Langley, who’s currently on her Dandelion Tour, in support of her album of the same name. “I would have. But I felt this calling and this tug at my chest that says, ‘It’s OK. We are safe and we can do this show.’ I decided to [perform tonight] because of Him right there.”

She went on, “Every time I see ‘do not fear’ in the Bible, I underline it. Every single time. I’m not going to live in fear. We are going to put on music and get to do this for the rest of our lives, and I know that. I know that because this is my calling. This is the thing that I was called to do and I’m gonna continue doing it. Nobody is gonna talk me out of it or scare me out of it. No, you will not.”

“Thank you so much for showing up tonight,” Langley said to the audience. “I know yesterday was scary. It was scary for all of us. But we’re just so grateful to be playing this show tonight. We’re so grateful and we will never take this for granted.”

Langley’s Friday tour date in Tulsa was called off just a few hours before showtime. The announcement came via a statement from Langley’s team and the venue that read, in part, “Due to a serious security threat involving the safety of my fans, venue personnel, and the artist, Ella Langley’s scheduled performance tonight at BOK Center in Tulsa has been canceled. The safety and well-being of everyone involved is our absolute priority, and, after careful consideration, we have determined that the show cannot proceed.”

The Tulsa Police Department released a statement Friday saying they’d swept the building and surrounding area and “found no credible threat to the event’s safety.”

In a video message posted online, Captain Richard Meulenberg communicated that there had been a threatening call received, with the caller saying someone was going to bring “great harm to the people at this event in the way of shots fired and bombs, so we came out again in an overabundance of caution … The person who called this in with a phone call disrupted this event for all these folks.”

Kelly Clarkson had a real-life Pretty Woman moment, and she’s not keeping quiet about it.

The 44-year-old superstar took to social media on Saturday (Oct. 10) to call out a Brooklyn store for allegedly treating her poorly in a scene reminiscent of the 1990 romantic comedy starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere.

“Just drove all the way to Brooklyn to check out this store I thought looked really rad and had a few things in mind to buy and literally was looked at as if I couldn’t afford it and was told he could find something comparable for me,” Clarkson wrote on X.

“Wow, dude. You’re an idiot and just lost a huge sale. But y’all should go check out Art of Play in Brooklyn if you enjoy being treated like Julia Roberts character in Pretty Woman. For sure, check it out 👎.”

The “Since U Been Gone” singer, who moved to New York in 2023, was referencing a memorable scene in Pretty Woman in which Roberts’ character, Vivian Ward, is snubbed by sales associates at an upscale store who refuse to show her more expensive items because of how she’s dressed.

Later in the film, Vivian returns dressed to impress and carrying shopping bags from other stores. She delivers a pointed message to the sales associate who dismissed her: “Big mistake. Big. Huge.”

Shortly after Clarkson’s post, Art of Play seemingly responded through Instagram Stories by sharing messages from customers defending the store. One wrote, “Can’t speak to everyone else’s experience, but @artofplay has been quite welcoming during every one of my visits. Let’s all extend a bit of grace to each other.” Another added, “For what it’s worth I think @artofplay is a great store!”

The following day, Art of Play — known for its “unique collection of home goods, puzzles, games, toys and books” — shared its side of the story on Instagram.

“Yesterday, Kelly Clarkson visited us in Brooklyn and inquired about buying ‘Molly,’ a one-of-a-kind singing and dancing bird automaton who plays an important role in the magic shows we host here,” the store wrote. “Molly is permanently attached to the wall and isn’t for sale.”

The shop pushed back against Clarkson’s account, emphasizing that all visitors are welcome whether they intend to make a purchase or simply browse. “At Art of Play whether someone comes in to make a purchase or simply look around for a while, they are equally welcome,” the business wrote, adding that many guests spend hours enjoying its puzzles, games and toys.

Art of Play also expressed surprise at the attention its small business received following Clarkson’s post, writing, “Imagine our surprise when our small local business was suddenly attacked by 8 million people who have never visited our store.”

The shop thanked supporters and expressed hope of clearing things up with Clarkson someday, closing with a nod to her 2012 hit “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)”. “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” the store wrote.

In February, Clarkson announced she would end her Daytime Emmy-winning talk show, The Kelly Clarkson Show, after seven seasons to “prioritize my kids, which feels necessary and right for this next chapter of our lives.” The series finale aired in August, featuring a special Kellyoke performance of “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters, along with her hits “Since U Been Gone” and “Stronger.”

During a late-September appearance on Late Night With Seth Meyers, Clarkson discussed her return to The Voice for season 30, describing the experience of reuniting with original coach Adam Levine and new coaches Queen Latifah and country singer Riley Green as “seamless.”

Clarkson’s most recent album, Chemistry, arrived in 2023 and peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard 200.