2010 MTV Europe Music Awards

Lore & Background

The 2010 MTV Europe Music Awards landed in Barcelona, giving Shakira a quasi-homecoming feel: a major Spanish-speaking city, a European audience primed for Latin crossover, and the momentum of the most-watched sporting event of the year still echoing in stadiums and living rooms. 'Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)' had already become a global sing-along, and seeing it rendered live in a grand arena, with Shakira's unmistakable stage command, transformed a stadium chant into a pop concert centerpiece.

For the Shakira fandom, the performance crystallized a particular era: the artist who could command a 90,000-seat World Cup final and then pivot to a glitzy awards ceremony without losing an ounce of charisma. The Spanish-language and English-language crossover of her catalog was at full throttle, and the EMAs stage let her flex both. The production leaned into the song's percussive, call-and-response structure, inviting the audience into the rhythm in a way that felt less like a televised set and more like a shared celebration.

In the broader narrative of her career, the 2010 EMAs slot sits between the raw, self-produced confidence of her earlier albums and the later, more globally branded phases. It captures Shakira at a moment when the world was literally singing her song back to her, and she was delivering it with the joy and physicality that made her performances feel like an event unto themselves.

In Their Own Story

The arena hummed with a low, electric murmur as the lights dimmed. Then a single drum hit—dry, close, almost tribal—and the floor of the Palau Sant Jordi seemed to inhale. Shakira stepped into the light not with a bow but with a grin, arms wide, as if greeting a crowd of old friends. The first chorus of 'Waka Waka' broke open, and ten thousand voices in Barcelona found the rhythm they'd been chanting in kitchens and car parks all summer. She spun, pointed to the audience, let them carry the beat for four bars before snapping back in. The confetti cannons fired not at the end but mid-song, a golden rain that caught the LED wash and turned the air into something liquid. She was laughing, genuinely, eyes crinkled, because the crowd was singing the bridge back to her in perfect unison. For ninety seconds, a World Cup anthem stopped being a stadium thing and became a room full of people, a city, a continent, all breathing the same rhythm.

Reader's Guide

The 2010 MTV EMAs performance leaned into the percussive, communal energy of 'Waka Waka (This Time for Africa),' treating the arena less as a concert venue and more as a giant living-room sing-along. Shakira's stage presence—wide arm movements, direct eye contact with the audience, a constant physical bounce—anchored the set and made the production feel organic rather than choreographed.

The stage design featured large LED panels cycling through warm golds and deep greens, evoking both the African-inspired visuals of the World Cup campaign and the Mediterranean light of Barcelona. Percussion elements were front and center: live drummers flanking the main platform added a layer of raw, in-the-room energy that the studio track's layered production sometimes smoothed over.

The most memorable beat of the set was the call-and-response bridge, where Shakira dropped the mic to her side and let the audience carry the hook. In Barcelona, that moment landed with particular force—the crowd's familiarity with the song turned the arena into a single, roaring instrument. The performance closed with a wide, open-armed pose, Shakira soaking in the applause, the LED walls pulsing in slow amber waves behind her.

For fans tracking her live work, the 2010 EMAs set is a compact, high-joy snapshot: no pyrotechnic overload, no narrative arc, just a performer and a song that the whole world already knew, delivered with the kind of unforced delight that makes a two-minute slot feel like a full concert.

Did You Know?

• The 2010 MTV Europe Music Awards were staged in Barcelona, giving Shakira a performance in a major Spanish-speaking city during the height of 'Waka Waka's' global run.
• 'Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)' was the official song of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, making Shakira's EMA performance a direct bridge between sport and pop culture.
• Shakira's live performances from this era were noted for their emphasis on audience participation, particularly in the call-and-response sections of her biggest hits.
• The MTV Europe Music Awards have been broadcast to audiences across Europe and beyond since 1996, making the 2010 Barcelona edition part of a long-running tradition of cross-continental pop spectacle.