The surprising announcement of the performance of the Colombian singer Karol G at the unusual concert held tonight in the Plaza de San Pedro del Vaticano gave for many imaginations: in the case of an urban pop star and the reggaeton of explicit letters and sexual bomb aesthetics, it was already seen exploding in the middle of Bernini’s colonnade and making it staggered with two guns. It was enough, without going any further, to repeat his last performance of September 5 in São Paulo, in the intermediate of an American football match. But no, he does not perreate in the Vatican, she already knows it, and yet he triumphed anyway in a gala version for all audiences, appropriate for the occasion.
Nothing less than the first concert in history in the Plaza de San Pedro, a festival called Grace for the World (Gracia for the World), which aims to launch a message of peace and fraternity. It was free and showed, a crowd of tens of thousands of people has completely filled the square and the Via della recilizacione: Pharrell Williams, one of the masters of ceremonies, came to say that there were 300,000 people, more than in many canonizations.
The Colombian artist has been the most applauded, by far, when they announced her at the beginning of the night and it was seen that a good part of the crowd, and the one that was most desired, was there for her. That is why his followers knew the five minutes on stage to sing While I was curateof his penultimate album, of 2023, of soft rhythm and with the tone of continuous gospel and diffuse spirituality that dominated the entire evening. “Oh, don’t tell me it’s over!” They complained in a group of Mexican tourists. They did not expect a perreo apotheosis (”Nooo, she is very religious, very sweet, she has a foundation that helps people”), but something more animated. He was accompanied by a 250 voices choir that swayed innocently, and that is the most that it came from body movement. No matter how high voltage that has a “bichota“as the Colombian artist calls himself, there is no one who resists the downturn that is the double filter of dress code And decorum that supposes the Vatican combined with Disney, who broadcast the event live, along with other chains. Everything is clean of impurities, like distilled blessed water for the mainstream. To the joy of his fans, however, Karol G reappeared an hour later, in a duo with Andrea Bocelli, singing I live for hera collaboration that appeared on an Italian tenor album last year. But, again, a very very for families. It wasn’t with Bad Bunny, it was with Andrea Bocelli.
The crowd was indefinable and varied, in a festive atmosphere of thousands of Romans, mixed with tourists and fans. There are usually not many concerts of big stars in the Italian capital, and the city turned. The unusual place of the recital and the eclectic poster, by Andrea Bocelli, Il Volo and John Legend to Bambam, idol of the K-Pop Thai or the New York rap duo Clipse, gave rise to a very rare mixture of spectators. But that is what was sought, fraternity among different people. They mixed boy scouts and gangs of spoiled kids with crucifixes, which seemed to have lost their way to a disco. Frailes with sandals, modern nuns, school excursions with well -shaved priests, with groups of Latin fans, and girls with scandal tops, who would not let in the Basilica of San Pedro, nor in many churches of Rome, where their shoulders must cover themselves.
Yes there has been a certain previous stir in the most ultraconservative Catholic circles, although it has had little echo. In change.org a collection of signatures had been released against the performance of Karol G, which at the beginning of the concert had more than 14,200 signatures, with this message: “his artistic message – with explicit references to sexuality, substance consumption and an aesthetic that promotes a secular vision of female empowerment and promotes in its foundation the use of contraceptives in adolescents in adolescents – contradicts the principles of adolescents – contradicts the principles of adolescents – contradicts purity, respect and spirituality of our Christian morals that we try to instill in the new generations. ” There was also another collection of Citizen Go firms, an ultra -Catholic organization that emerged from you to hear, which had 4,000 and warned: “The Vatican is not a scenario for songs of vulgarity and promiscuity. Karol G does not represent young people or Catholic families. The sacred is respected!”. But in view of what the performance was probably much more calm.
The ceremony was also an anomalous combination of music and sermons interspersed with priests and personalities that cut the roll, starting with that of Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, vicar of the city of the Vatican, arciprest of the Basilica of San Pedro and organizer of the event. As soon as a priest appeared as Naomi Campbell to talk about peace in the world. One of the most spectacular moments was a choreography of 3,500 drones, perfectly synchronized, which drew amazing images in the sky (the virgin, hearts, pigeons, a giant heart …), on the dome of the Vatican. Among them, that of Pope Francis, promoter of the Fratelli Tutti Foundation (all brothers), which organized the concert. The act ended after 23.00, after two hours. Surely centuries ago that in the Vatican you could not sleep at that time. But then they would sleep well because the thing did not rise.