ORLANDO, Fla. – UPDATED at 6:30 p.m. on June 6, 2025, to include more details about weather conditions on the night of the concert.
We know “Hips Don’t Lie,” but you know what else didn’t? The noise that came from Shakira’s concert this week at Orlando’s Camping World Stadium.
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Numerous complaints were posted online about the noise coming from the singer’s nearly sold-out concert Wednesday night.
News 6’s Justin Warmoth, who lives a few miles away from the stadium, posted on Facebook about the noise level.
“This Shakira concert at Camping World Stadium sounds like she’s playing in my driveway,” he wrote.
One News 6 viewer reached out and said in part, “Thanks for acknowledging the noise from the Shakira concert as a legitimate news story. I live in College Park, next door to Lake Silver Elementary, and it sounded like the concert was emanating from my neighbor’s back yard.”
The post garnered hundreds of comments, many of them from people saying they also heard the concert from their homes.
“I live 1/2 mile away and it was the loudest concert in the 6 years l have been here,” one person commented.
“I was wondering what was going on tonight. I live in College Park and it sounded like someone was having a party 2 streets over,” another person wrote.
“We live in SoDo/Thornton Park and I’ve noticed a correlation between cloudiness and any large concerts/festivals going on at Camping World. I really thought someone was driving down my street blasting music, I could hear it so clearly!” one person commented.
This Shakira concert at Camping World Stadium sounds like she’s playing in my driveway. I live three miles away & it’s rattling my windows. How is this okay?
Posted by Justin Warmoth News 6 on Wednesday, June 4, 2025
Saharan dust could have played a role in the noise being heard miles away from the venue. The blanket of dust traveled over 5,000 miles to get to Central Florida.
The Saharan Air Layer is made of dry, stable and warm air and resides 5,000 - 20,000 feet above the ground. Typically, in the part of the atmosphere where we live, temperatures decrease with height. This layer can cause temperatures to begin increasing again way above the ground.
This sliver of warm air where temperatures increase with height is called an inversion. Sound waves can bounce off of this ‘lid’ and be forced back down to the ground far away from the origin point.
The more likely reason for the sound of the concert traveling so far away was the cloud cover and humidity.
Rain had been around throughout the day, keeping moisture near the surface high. At the time of the concert, the Orlando International Airport reported scattered clouds between 500 and 800 feet with the dew point in the low-to-mid 70s, indicating a very humid airmass.
Sound waves travel more efficiently in humid air. There are several reasons why sound travels more efficiently in humid air. One of the reasons is humid air is less dense than dry air at the same temperature and pressure allowing for sound waves to travel further away from the source.
It is more likely to hear concerts or sporting events far away from the venue on a humid evening in the summer.
In this case, the low cloud deck likely helped to force the sound waves back toward the ground as they moved upward.
The combination of the high humidity and low temperature could have been the perfect storm to provide a lot of people a free concert Wednesday night.
Florida Citrus Sports is in charge of events at Camping World Stadium. News 6 has reached out for comment, but did not hear back by the time this story was published. We’ll update this story with their comment when we hear back.