Shakira, 49, looks incredible in a purple sequin minidress as she kicks off her 12-night European residency in Spain

Shakira kicked off her 12-night European residency in Spain on Friday night. 

The singer, 49, performed in Madrid for the first time in eight years for her Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour. 

The temporary stadium, Estadio Shakira, has been built inside the Iberdrola Music space in Villaverde. 

Shakira looked incredible in a purple sequin minidress as she performed a string of hits including Hips Don't Lie, Girl Like Me and Te felicito during the two-hour concert. 

The songstress had multiple costume changes throughout the evening. At one point she wore a paisley pattern jumpsuit and also changed into a skintight catsuit for She Wolf.   

Shakira told fans as she welcomed the 55,000-strong crowd: 'I can’t believe I’m here. It all feels like a dream.

'Having you here again tonight, you don’t know how happy it makes me because it’s proof of the love and affection you’ve given me all these years.

'Everyone tells me, "Shaki, look at the face you left with and the face you’ve come back with". 

She added: 'Things have happened in my life since the last time I saw you.' 

It comes after Shakira fired a parting shot at the Spanish government after an exhaustive tax-fraud case ended with the Colombian star winning an enormous €55million refund four months ago. 

The singer has been cleared of alleged fraud relating to a 2011 tax return following a lengthy legal dispute with Spanish authorities that began in 2023. 

She will now be awarded a €55million refund and celebrated the victory earlier this year by sharing one of Rihanna's best-known lyrics alongside a series of photos on social media. 

Taking to Instagram, Shakira accompanied her posts with a snippet from the Bajan singer's 2015 single, B***h Better Have My Money – a less than subtle reference to her incoming refund. 

Shakira had previously confessed to six tax fraud crimes at a Barcelona courthouse in 2023, accepting a suspended three-year prison sentence and a €7.3million fine. 

She admitted to wrongdoing for the years 2012, 2013 and 2014 on the first day of a scheduled trial as part of a plea bargain deal, despite accusing the Spanish Treasury of 'publicly burning her at the stake' like a witch during the Inquisition in a subsequent no-holds-barred attack from her new home in Miami.

But she celebrated victory over Madrid tax chiefs in May over her 2011 tax return.

The Audiencia Nacional Court in Madrid confirmed it had sided with the singer as it said authorities had been unable to prove she had spent the minimum 183 days in Spain in 2011 that would have made her liable to pay tax there for that year. 

It said in a statement: 'The administration has not proven the singer stayed in Spain for more than 183 days in 2011.

'On the contrary, the ruling judges understand that Shakira's stay in Spain amounted to 163 days and that the administration therefore failed to prove that the singer had her centre of economic interests in Spain or family ties with residents in the country.'

The sentence said it was 'irrelevant' that the Bahamas, where the singer was officially a tax resident in 2011, was a tax haven at the time.

It said: 'The essential point the administration had to prove was whether the appellant was a tax resident in Spain.'

The artist, who moved to Miami in 2023 with her two children following her split from former Barcelona footballer Gerard Pique, said at the time: 'After more than eight years enduring brutal public accusations, orchestrated campaigns to destroy my reputation, and entire sleepless nights that ended up affecting my health and my family's well-being, the Audiencia Nacional court has finally set the record straight.

'There was never any fraud, and the Administration itself was never able to prove otherwise, simply because it was not true.

'Even so, for almost a decade, I was treated as guilty, every step of the process was leaked, distorted, and amplified, and my name and public profile were used to send a threatening message to other taxpayers.'