Kendrick Lamar and SZA, high-voltage preachers at the Olympic Stadium

Barcelona[The photographs in this report were provided by the promoter Live Nation. They are from a concert on the Kendrick Lamar and SZA tour, but not from the Barcelona concert because the artists did not credit photojournalists.]

The dance floor is a sea of raised arms that accentuates the words Kendrick Lamar recites angrily. From the stands of the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys, the effect is hypnotic: a funnel full of people shouting with one voice, a grand ritual. The rapper shares the night with SZA, the singer with whom he is making the Grand National Tour, a joint, unconventional tour that stopped in Barcelona on July 30th.

The show is divided into blocks, with separate and joint performances. Each one presents their material, but it was natural to do it in a joint show: Lamar and SZA are two Key figures in hip-hop and R&B of the last decade and they've been collaborating for years in the studio and live. On stage, everyone has their own space: Lamar spits out the words and moves defiantly. SZA is iconic and fun, her voice drawing the notes freely and the movement is exaggerated with a curly mane that bounces with every jump. They've found the perfect recipe, with just the right amount of intensity to avoid exhausting the audience that filled the stadium this Wednesday and constantly surprising them.

Kendrick Lamar opens the evening inside a black car that slowly rises and appears at the center of the stage, the same one on the album cover. GNX (2024). Everything lights up when he gets out of the vehicle with fire and firecrackers to play Wacceed out murals and Squabble upHe sings alone or with around twenty dancers who appear punctually to forcefully emphasize each syllable. The sound fluctuates and sometimes swallows the rapper's voice, which he manages to dominate with precision.

SZA enters sitting on the same car, now covered in leaves, like a mythological apparition. Together they sing 30 for 30 and Lamar disappears. If his visuals were in black and white, hers are tinged with color and giant insects and organic textures appear as if from another planet. She also brings in dancers, with whom she creates iconic figures that look at the camera and are broadcast on the giant screen. Of particular note is the moment when she sings about a giant ant from the center of the stage or when, while doing Nobody gets me dresses as a butterfly. Kiss me more, one of the most played songs on the radio, is a hit and comes with the gift of firecrackers that explode in sync with the song.

The shared moments work really well: Doves in the wind and All the stars They move forward in unison, with the protagonists giving each other space with respect and complicity. The scenery is ever-changing, and the screen that separates the blogs and organizes the journey rules. The structure is effective because the more than two and a half hours and fifty songs pass by as if nothing had happened. It's strange that there are no musicians playing live, especially at times when soul or R&B would like to be truly organic. The sound is sometimes chaotic and with a bass that overwhelms, but the energy of the recital manages to bury it: today it's not about precise listening, but about collective catharsis. The audience responds to everything, hits as HUMBLO and Family aunts and in Lamar's "Barcelona, I appreciate your love."

Not like us It's cathartic. Lamar is a modern preacher and the audience is loyal to him. The ovation when he finishes is unanimous. The encores are long in coming and will be joint: with a Luther that vibrates incredibly well and one Glory which is half deflated. With the words and bases exhausted, Lamar and SZA enter the black car that returns to the center of the stage to take them inside and close the ceremony.