Colombian-born Shakira matched her superstardom in Latin America with this year’s Oral Fixation, Vol. 2 album. Fueled by her chart-topping hit, “Hips Don’t Lie (featuring Wyclef Jean),” she became Latin pop’s biggest female crossover artist and kicked off a spectacular tour of North America in August.
Lighting designer Abbey Rosen Holmes’ multi-layered lighting rig includes an automated and conventional lighting package supplied by PRG Lighting. The lighting design features 34 of Clay Paky’s Alpha Spot HPE 1200 luminaires, which are the only lights used for the graphic effects on the stage. The Alpha Spot projectors offer a rich and innovative graphic section, featuring 20 gobos on 3 wheels, rotating prisms, an Animation Disc and infinite colors (CMY color system + Linear CTO + 7-color wheel).
Holmes chose to use the Alpha Spot HPE 1200s in her design also after seeing a demonstration show at the New York Theatre Reps in March. Clay Paky created the gobos for the luminaries by following Holmes’ exacting specifications.
Ben Hammett, the PRG Lighting technician who is responsible for the Shakira lights working every day adds, “The Clay Paky lights have been great; they are very reliable, and have needed very little service.”
The entire crew rehearsed for the tour in Barcelona, Spain where PRG’s Vice President of Concert Touring John Lobel attests to receiving superlative support from Clay Paky. “Everybody we dealt with, from Francesco Romagnoli in Italy to Eric Mueller in Texas have really been paying attention to the details,” Lobel says. “They have been fantastic—really helpful and enthusiastic, just great.”
Production manager Jake Berry (whose credits include the Rolling Stones, U2, and many others) heads up an impressive team, which also includes Set Designer Jaume De Laiguana, and Tour Director Steve Dixon. Lighting programmer/director Dan Boland recently left the tour in the capable hands of Graeme Nicol, who will oversee the lighting as the tour heads south of the border to Mexico. Then Shakira will return to South America for shows in her native Columbia before wrapping up the year with stops in Chile and Argentina.
TECHNICAL SHEET
Production: Jake Berry
Set Designer: Jaume De Laiguana
Lighting Director: Dan Boland
Lighting Designer: Abigail Rosen Holmes
Lighting Service: PRG Lighting
Audio System: Clair Brothers Audio
Sound Engineer: Brad Madix (only if useful)
Tour Direction: Steve Dixon