It is difficult to find a show today in which you can feel as if you were in your living room, with your slippers warming your feet and sheltered in a blanket that makes you remember all the sounds, the smells. and the colors of your childhood or your adolescence. That was the extraordinary merit of World Tour 2023/2024 by Laura Pausini which this Saturday, January 27, was stopping in Madrid.
After almost two months touring throughout Italy, the singer-songwriter arrived at her second home: Spain. And a welcoming committee of more than 15,000 spectators made it clear that she kisses the ground where she steps. Because the soloist has prepared a show that transcends the musical. It is not only the journey through 30 years of career of a world-class star who has known how to reinvent himself and at the same time maintain his identity since the mid-90s. It is not only a repertoire of almost 45 songs (with some medleys) where no He leaves none of his hits without singing on stage. It’s all that and much more.
The feeling when leaving the crowded Wizink Center is that you have just passed through corners and rooms of Laura Pausini’s heart that only those closest to her should have the right to know (and I’m not even talking about entering). But the interpreter is like that: familiar, close, spontaneous… Capable of letting out the expression “fuck*” telling an anecdote about her daughter Paola’s most sincere question about her and regretting it after a few seconds.
His family is a fundamental pillar of his show. And we’re not just talking about moral support. They are the leitmotiv to which the artist returns again and again throughout the almost 3 hours that makes her audience vibrate. She rides freely on the rock (The first step on the moon, Every time, Last…), the pop (I sing, every time…), the melodic ballad (So heavenly, Our daily love...) or dance electronics (Surrender, With the music on the radio… making the particular universal truths that concern her daughter, her husband, her family and, by extension, all her followers.
She sings for them and thanks to them she promises to continue doing so for at least, according to her, another 30 years. More than enough time for her to continue accumulating vital experiences such as proposing to her partner and showing it on a giant screen in front of thousands of ‘adopted’ members of the family in each venue.
The family conversation, the tenderness and caresses, life itself becomes a show in every minute of their concert. Changes of scenery and costumes take place that transport you to different worlds and love is vindicated in its very different forms: towards those who are no longer here (Unforgettable), towards the planet we live on (Sister Earth), towards respect for women (I do), towards people of the same sex (Similar) and towards the same heartbreak (As if we had not loved each other, I will return to you…).
But above all towards the family. And that is more than enough for Laura Pausini who wanted to vindicate the figure of her parents or as she defines her ‘babo’: the original Pausini. The one that encouraged the performer to appear at the San Remo festival where it all began.
More than 3 decades later, she has crystallized into a diva of song with a precise corps de ballet that expresses every emotion in every step, with a beastly style full of colors and sobriety (“I am one of those singers who still dresses and I want you to hear my voice“: whoever feels welcomed should answer…) and a magical staging thanks to the videos on the giant screens, the choreographies designed for each of their songs and even with the wink to Rafaella Carrá at the end of the show.
In the heat of the fireplace of the majestic voice of the Italian singer we see the time pass, not wishing for the notes of the last encore to sound where we receive the goodbye kiss and hug. With Gone and loneliness said ‘ciao’ from Faenza, a small town in the northeast of Italy, who never dreamed that she would get to experience everything she has experienced, shared and sung for millions of people.
His songs, his awards, his collaborations but, above all, his life speak for themselves about his last 30 years of personal and professional career. His families, the real one, the one that makes up his technical and artistic team and the one that is made up of all of his followers come together as a whole on nights like this.
Setlist by Laura Pausini at the Wizink Center in Madrid (01/27/2024)
The first step on the moon
Span
A good start
Every time / Half-truths / I sing / Love emergency (Medley)
So heavenly / Our daily love / In front of us (Medley)
Listen carefully
parallel souls
Between you and a thousand seas
As if we had not loved each other
Early Spring (It Is My Song)
Box
I will return to you
Clean / Surrender / With the music on the radio
Next door (different surprise song in each show)
No one has said / Right side of the heart / I never abandoned / In the absence of you (It’s Not Goodbye)
Welcome
Similar
The things you live
I do
Live me
Sister Earth
Zero
On the other hand, not
Unforgettable
strange loves
Bis
He went away
Loneliness
