Real Madrid Says Bernabéu Noise Case Over Taylor Swift and Karol G Concerts Has Been Thrown Out

Real Madrid says a provincial appeals court has thrown out the criminal noise case tied to concerts at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, clearing the club of liability over shows by Taylor Swift, Karol G and other major touring acts that turned the rebuilt arena into one of Europe’s most scrutinized live-music venues.

On Wednesday, May 13, the club said the Provincial Court of Madrid had issued a ruling that “definitively ending the criminal process” launched in 2024 after a complaint from residents in the upscale Chamartín neighborhood. In its official statement, Real Madrid said the decision “clearly and categorically concludes that neither José Ángel Sánchez Periáñez, the club’s general director and member of its Board of Directors, nor Real Madrid Estadio S. L. are responsible for any criminal offense in relation to the concerts held at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium.” The club added that the complaint was “absolutely unfounded and instrumental.”

The case has become a messy off-field consequence of Bernabéu’s attempt to reinvent itself as a live-entertainment hub. After years of renovation, the stadium staged a run of blockbuster concerts in the summer of 2024, including Swift’s Eras Tour and Karol G’s Mañana Será Bonito Tour. But by September, Real Madrid had suspended all concerts there, citing concerns about sound levels, and the legal pressure quickly hardened into a formal criminal investigation.

That investigation began after a Madrid judge accepted a noise complaint filed by Asociación Perjudicados por el Bernabéu, a residents’ group whose name translates as Neighborhood Association of Those Affected by the Bernabéu, according to the New York Times. The club’s director, Sánchez, later testified in October 2024, saying any noise problems were the responsibility of concert promoters rather than the stadium itself, the Times reported.

In January, Judge Monica Aguirre de la Cuesta completed her investigation and said the case should go to trial over evidence of a possible “crime against the environment, in its form of noise pollution,” according to the Times. Real Madrid appealed, and the club now says the higher court sided with its position, ending the criminal case entirely. According to Real Madrid, the Provincial Court found that this kind of environmental code dispute did not merit a criminal proceeding and agreed that promoters are responsible “for ensuring compliance with the decibel limits for ambient sound transmission.”

A representative for the court did not immediately respond to a request for the ruling, and Asociación Perjudicados por el Bernabéu also did not respond to Billboard’s request for comment. It remains unclear whether the stadium will host concerts again, even as construction continues, including soundproofing work. Real Madrid said last year that it expected that work to be finished in 2026.

For now, the Bernabéu sits in a strange in-between place: still a football cathedral, still a site of enormous ambition, but also a reminder that the live-music world does not always fit neatly inside stadium architecture, especially when the neighbors are watching.

General view outside the stadium prior to the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 League Knockout Play-off Second Leg match between Real Madrid C.F. and SL Benfica at Estadio Santiago Bernabeu on February 25, 2026 in Madrid, Spain.
Clive Brunskill/Getty Images