Ricardo Arjona made a trip through his hits Wednesday night in New York, where he sang his nineties theme ‘If the north were south’ and gave topicality to its slogan “no more borders”, while showing on screen the Statue of Liberty dressed in a traditional Latin American costume.
Arjona is embarking on the “biggest and most ambitious” tour of his career, as he has described himself, and in the same way that filled all the functions of his historic residence in his native Guatemala, today came to Madison Square Garden to perform two consecutive nights in which he has already sold out.
It was the fifth stop of ‘Lo que el seco no dijo’, the ‘tour’ that follows his album ‘Seco’ ( 2025), from which he performed several songs, although he also reviewed classics such as ‘El problema’, ‘Historia de cab’ or ‘Desnuda’, and played different genres from pop-rock to flamenco and salsa, accompanied by a band.
The singer did not give political speeches but he did not need to, as some of his lyrics are a social commentary without taboos, as in ‘Si el norte fuera sur’, in which he ironized about the influence of the United States in Latin America and, almost premonitory, launched a jocular “Viva Wall Street and long live Donald Trump”.
More than twenty years later, he sang that song in front of images generated with artificial intelligence (AI) in which the Statue of Liberty turned into a food delivery man, Elon Musk or a superhero, and showed a paradise of fast food chains awaiting migrants after their crossing.
And is that Arjona not only sang: he told stories. He recalled his childhood in Guatemala, spoke of how before the ‘influencers’ were the parents, criticized the modern overprotection and reflected on how “the world became a cabaret”, precisely within a spectacular set that recreated a street in Paris.
Under a fictitious balcony that read ‘Cabaret Seco’, a singer with a powerful voice performed ‘La vie en rose’ by Edith Piaf and then gave way to the new song ‘Life is a cabaret’, which Arjona sang accompanied by some dancers with red overalls and feather crowns.
The Guatemalan star was close to the public at all times, calling his followers by their countries and receiving a great shouting from the Dominicans; reading the posters that were dedicated to him, and even bringing a fan who asked him to the stage; or encouraging them to “let loose a little bit” dancing to Latin rhythms.
Among the most emotional moments, he sang ‘Todo termina’, alone with his guitar and under a beam of light; a song dedicated to his children, which speaks of the passage of time and making the most of life, before visuals in which he went from being a baby, walking straight ahead, to an old man with white hair.
The 62-year-old artist had to take a break in 2023 after back surgery, but proved to be in top form during the two-hour concert, in which he moved all over the stage and even lent himself to walk across the stadium and stand in the background for a while so that everyone could get a good look at him.
Arjona, a Grammy and Latin Grammy winner, has sold more than 80 million copies during his more than 30-year career and is considered one of the most successful Spanish-speaking artists, reported Agencia EFE.
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