ARCHIVE/Madrid 2024

Black Eyed Peas

Date: 18 DecVenue: Madrid

Black Eyed Peas performed at Starlite Occident Madrid on Wednesday, December 18, 2024. It was the Los Angeles trio’s first visit to the indoor auditorium of the second Christmas edition, with a set of anthems the audience sang and danced to from start to finish.

A party night at the second Madrid edition

The Black Eyed Peas show had been announced in October 2024, when the organisers confirmed the group alongside Taburete for the second winter season in the Spanish capital. It was their first time at Starlite Occident Madrid, with a show that, according to the announcement, was all about having fun and living life to the full. The concert fell in the second week of an edition that ran for twenty days, from December 12 to 31, in a venue twice the size of the 2023 one, with a programme that combined concerts, the festival’s own restaurants, Christmas shopping and after parties at Starlite Sessions. Familiar faces in the audience included Paula Echevarría and Miguel Torres, Gigi Howard, Patricia Conde, Lola Marceli, Pepe Navarro, Desiré Cordero, Lidia Santos, Beret, Urs Bühler of Il Divo, Juan Peña and Geraldine Larrosa.

From “Let’s Get It Started” to “I Gotta Feeling”

Will.i.am, apl.de.ap and Taboo ran through the catalogue of hits that has followed the band since the 2000s: “Let’s Get It Started”, “Pump It”, “Boom Boom Pow”, “This Is Love”, “Scream & Shout”, “Don’t Stop the Party”, “Where Is the Love?”, “I Gotta Feeling” and “Don’t You Worry”, the track recorded with Shakira and David Guetta that opened their ninth album, “Elevation”. Energy, rhythm and a close rapport with the crowd defined the evening, with the audience following the lyrics and the dance moves of every song. The trio arrived in Madrid after a 2023 of festivals around the world and a 2024 in which they recorded, with Becky G and El Alfa, the lead single for the soundtrack of the latest Bad Boys film.

Thirty years on from Los Angeles

The Black Eyed Peas story began in 1995, when Will.i.am, apl.de.ap and Taboo started playing live in Los Angeles. Over 25 years the group has won six Grammy awards and sold 35 million albums, and it has kept adding chapters: the album “Translation” (2020), with J Balvin, Ozuna, Maluma, Shakira, Nicky Jam and Tyga; the reunion with Shakira and David Guetta on “Don’t You Worry” (2022), and “Simply the Best” with Anitta and El Alfa. That blend of hip hop, pop and Latin rhythms is what they brought to Starlite Occident Madrid. After their show, the edition continued with Camilo (December 20 and 21), Isabel Pantoja (26), Taburete (27) and Estopa (28), and closed the year with the festival’s first New Year’s Eve in Madrid, with a Hombres G concert and a Juan Magán after party.

The Black Eyed Peas concert was one of the international nights of the second edition of Starlite Occident Madrid, with the whole auditorium dancing along.

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