Shakira News

(9/25/02, 3 p.m. ET) -- Shakira has announced that her first-ever world tour, dubbed Tour Of The Mongoose 2002, will kick off at the Sports Arena in San Diego on November 8. The tour will visit 30 North American cities through February, with a European stopover scheduled for December. While in Europe Shakira will play London, Cologne, and Barcelona, among other major cities. The Colombian superstar's tour will visit some 30 countries and 50 cities from 2002 through 2003. Additional dates and cities will be announced shortly, according to tour promoter Clear Channel Entertainment..

Shakira described her tour as an entertaining rock show during a press conference in New York City on Wednesday (September 25), saying, "I'm not saving any effort to make sure that this concert (tour) will be the best I can offer to my fans. And it's going to have a strong spirit of rock and roll, so you will see a rock-and-roll show, but it will have all of the nuances and the subtleties of a show that attempts to entertain."

Shakira also told reporters why she chose the unlikely symbol of a mongoose to represent her tour. "It's an animal, right, that looks like a rat, but you know what? The first time I ever heard about a mongoose, I was really impressed by it because it is an animal that can defeat the snake with just a bite. It's like a living miracle, this animal, to me, because if there's an animal on earth that can defeat the snake--a venomous viper--with a bite, I think that there's got to be some way for us to defeat, or to bite the neck of hatred in this world, no?"

Tickets for the North American leg of Shakira's tour will go on sale beginning October 5. Tickets will be available online via cc.com and ticketmaster.com. Check your local listings for the on-sale dates in your area. Fans can also reserve tickets in advance by joining the official Shakira fan club at clubshakira.com or cc.com (click the "getAccess" link).

The Tour Of The Mongoose is sponsored internationally by Pepsi and Reebok, both of which Shakira has endorsement deals with, and it's presented by MTV in North America. Shakira's first English-language album, Laundry Service, has sold more than 9 million copies worldwide to date.

Tour Of The Mongoose 2002 dates (subject to change):

November 8 - San Diego, CA - Sports Arena

November 10 - Phoenix, AZ - America West Arena

November 12 - Anaheim, CA - Arrowhead Pond

November 13 - Los Angeles, CA - Staples Center

November 15 - El Paso, TX - UTEP Don Haskins Center

November 18 - Washington D.C. - MCI Center

November 20 - New York, NY - Madison Square Garden

November 22 - Auburn Hills, MI - The Palace Of Auburn Hills

November 24 - Philadelphia, PA - First Union Center

November 25 - Uniondale, NY - Nassau Coliseum

November 27 - Montreal, QC - Bell Centre

November 28 - Toronto, ON - Air Canada Centre

November 30 - Boston, MA - FleetCenter

December 2 - Miami, FL - American Airlines Arena

December 10 - Barcelona, Spain - Palau Sant Jordi

December 12 - Cologne, Germany - Cologne Arena

December 16 - London, England - Wembley Arena

-- Jason Gelman, New York

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