Weâre heading to Dunkinâ â and weâre taking Shakiraâs purple Lamborghini.
Itâs an airless, parched afternoon in Miami, and weâve just left the Sony Music offices, where Shakira took a bunch of calls and meetings. Now, sheâs got some free time before she has to pick up her kids at school, so weâre in the Lambo â easily the flashiest car Shakiraâs ever owned: âThereâs nothing subtle or chic about it,â she chirps happily. The interiors are tricked out in Hulk-bright neon green because itâs a color one of her sons liked. Sometimes, if sheâs running errands with them, she relies on her modest Toyota Sienna. But often, sheâs out in this unapologetic spectacle of a ride, zooming down the street like sheâs doing now, her security guard driving in another vehicle behind her, trying to keep up.
No one really remembers whose idea it was to stop by Dunkinâ, but Shakira wanted to go and she knows the way. When we pull up, she steps out of the car and walks inside, long blond hair flowing past her shoulders, oversize Versace glasses covering her face.
As she heads toward the counter, thereâs a rustle as a few customers swivel around: Did Shakira, the pioneering, chart-topping, belly-Âdancing powerhouse from Colombia, whoâs brought her instantly recognizable, often imitated voice to some of popâs most beloved staples, really just saunter into this specific Dunkinâ? Could that actually be the Shakira who graced nearly every household television as a judge on The Voice, as a performer at the 2020 Super Bowl halftime show, and as a Video Vanguard Award winner at the 2023 VMAs? Is everyone chanting, âShakira, Shakira,â in their heads right now?
Some people seem to clock her and confirm immediately: Yes, duh, that is indeed Shakira, the fucking superstar and global icon, widely considered the most successful female Latin artist of all time, with 95 million records sold over her three-Âdecade career, getting ready to ask for three chocolate doughnuts and an extra-hot coffee. Most of the crowd at the Dunkinâ admires from afar, mouths slightly agape, nerves too jittery to go up and say hi.
But then one brave soul steps forward. As Shakira is wrapping up her order, sheâs approached by a green-eyed, twentysomething bodybuilder who looks like he can uproot tree trunks with his bare hands. The guy doesnât really greet her; he kind of just starts talking at her, telling her he works at a restaurant she visited recently. At first, Shakira just smiles lightly, hiding under her sunglasses. But then he mentions a few restaurant owners and a flash of recognition flickers across her face. Nearby, the guyâs influencer-looking girlfriend glances up from her phone and observes the interaction.
The musclehead offers to pay for Shakiraâs order, but she politely declines. Finally, he leans in closer and shoots his shot: âHere, take my number,â he says, holding his phone toward her hands. Shakira breaks into a grin and gestures toward her creative partner and choreographer Maite Marcos, whoâs standing nearby, and suggests that she take the phone number instead.
The guy isnât discouraged: âNext time, whatever you need, I got you. Shoot me a text and weâll stay connected,â he tells her confidently. Influencer Girlfriend narrows her eyes as Bodybuilder Boy sheepishly ambles back toward her. As they leave, even Shakiraâs security guard is laughing, pointing out how annoyed the girlfriend seemed.
Shakira is also pretty amused by the whole thing. âI still got it,â she says, smiling brightly.
And right now, at this moment, chocolate doughnut in hand, Dunkinâ patrons still gawking, itâs clear sheâs absolutely thriving. In this phase of her life, sheâs doing exactly what she feels like doing, moving with a kind of lightness and peace that you notice almost immediately, even when youâre just running into her at Dunkinâ. These days, sheâll tell you, sheâs at her most confident and unshakable.
And yet, if youâd bumped into her two years ago, you would have found Shakira during her absolute worst moment, a period so bad it almost shattered an icon whose tenacity and longevity has made her seem indestructible. Sheâd just been pummeled by a wave of heartbreak and loss, by far the most intense pain sheâs ever been through. âThe suffering I felt was probably the greatest I had ever experienced in my entire life, and it kept me from functioning at times,â she says. âIt felt like someone had stabbed a hole in my chest. And the sensation was so real, almost physical. I physically felt like I had a hole in my chest and that people could see through me.â
At the beginning of 2022, rumors had swirled that Shakira was ending her 11-year relationship with Spanish soccer player Gerard PiquĂ©, the father of her two children, whom she met on the video set for her 2010 World Cup anthem âWaka Waka.â That June, they jointly announced they were splitting up, and the tabloids exploded with rumors that heâd cheated on her with the 23-year-old woman he began dating shortly after their breakup. Soon, the paparazzi were swarming Shakiraâs house and her kidsâ school in Barcelona, turning a painful family separation into a full-on media circus.
Around then, her then-90-year-old dad â whoâs also her best friend â flew in from Colombia to check on her and suffered a horrific fall. At one point, doctors told Shakira he was probably going to die; thankfully, he pulled through and is recovering after six surgeries. At the same time, a complicated legal case, which opened in 2018 when Spanish prosecutors accused Shakira of evading roughly âŹ14.5 million in taxes, ramped up and made its way into headlines. For months, the possibility of a trial loomed over her. (Last November, she settled the tax case and agreed to pay a âŹ7.3 million fine, along with a âŹ432,000 payment to avoid a prison sentence. In a statement, she said sheâd made the decision âwith the best interest of my kids at heart, who do not want to see their mom sacrifice her personal well-being in this fight.â)
âWhen it rains, it pours,â she says now, thinking of that gut-wrenching period. âIt was crazy, how many things I had to deal with at the same time.â
But as bad as it was, despite all of the heart-pulverizing grief and agony, there were signs early on that she wasnât just going to roll over and crumble. Will.i.am, her close friend since 2005, says that in early 2022, they had plans to shoot a video in Barcelona for âDonât You Worry,â Shakiraâs collaboration with the Black Eyed Peas and David Guetta. Just before the shoot, which was going to be outside, Shakira called him and asked to move it inside. She didnât say why, just stressed that she didnât want to be outdoors. Will.i.am immediately had her back: âI was like, âLook, we gotta move this video indoors on a green screen.â And then everybody was like, âGreen screen? But weâre set up for the outside!â I was like, âI donât care what you guys say.âââ
When the shoot finally did happen, Shakira, Will.i.am says, showed up âa trillion percent,â performing with everything she had. âThe last day of the video is when she tells me what sheâs going through with her ex,â he says. She told him that if theyâd shot the video outside, paparazzi might have made things difficult. âIâm like, âYou are a different breed of people,ââââ he says. â[Some] people would have found any excuse to not work. But she muscled through, spirit on high, vibes on high.â
It felt like someone had stabbed a hole in my chest. The sensation was so real.
After that, he made it a point to keep making sure she was OK. âShe [is] superhuman, but even superhumans need, like, âHey, checking in on you. Is everything all right?âââ Will.i.am sent her texts and voice notes with prayers. âShe went through a lot, one [crisis] after another. Boom, boom, boom.â
Other artists stood by her, too. Shakira says John Mayer and Adele called her, and she had support from longtime friends like Carlos Vives and Juan Luis Guerra, particularly after her fatherâs accident. Coldplayâs Chris Martin, whom sheâs known for around a decade, messaged her often. At one point, he sent her a photo of a shattered vase glued together with gold laminate: âKintsugi â youâre going to be so much stronger once this is over,â he told her, referring to an ancient Japanese style of art heâs often inspired by. âThatâs the Âmetaphor,â Martin explains. âThat you break and then you get fixed with gold, and youâre more beautiful than you were before. For anyone going through a hard time, me included at times, thatâs a really powerful thing to hold on to.â
But there was still so much heartache to overcome, and Shakira started pouring it all into her music. All of a sudden, songs started to crystallize out of the dark. âI had this urge to express myself through my art, my visions, my music, Âtransferring all that pain, all those sharp Âemotions to a space outside of myself,â she says. The music painted a pretty clear Âpicture: The first clue that her love life was in turmoil came in April 2022, when she released âTe Felicito,â an electro-pop kiss-off to a cheating ex that featured Puerto Rican singer Rauw Alejandro and topped Billboardâs Latin Airplay chart. Then, in October, she tapped reggaeton star Ozuna for âMonotonĂa,â a weepy bachata ballad that mourns a failed relationship.
In the music video, Shakira is standing in a grocery store when an old lover shoots her directly in the chest. She spends the rest of the video walking around with a gaping hole, chasing a bleeding heart around the floor. She chuckles darkly when she remembers running the images by her team. â[They] raised their hands and rang the alarms and tried to stop me, like, âThink about it a little. No, why are you going to expose yourself like that? Thatâs way too gory.âââ But she insists itâs what she needed to say at the time. âThey were tough images, yeah? But they were genuine. Thatâs how I felt.â
Nothing, however, was as wildly freeing as âBzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53,â the unforgiving, unexpected session she did with Argentine producer Bizarrap. On it, Shakira lands line after line, laying out the full extent of the betrayal she experienced. She blasts an ex for his deception, jokes that he should work on his brain instead of spending time at the gym, and tells him heâs trading âa Rolex for a Casio.â She even includes a few double entendres, playing with PiquĂ©âs name and the name of his girlfriend. The song shocked a lot of fans, and she has zero regrets about it.
âYou donât know the maximum relief I felt. It was like âŠâ She lets out a giant exhale. âRelief. And then I remember my manager at the time telling me, âPlease change the lyrics.â Of course, I was trying to calculate the possible contingencies and the risks, but I said, âIâm an artist. I am a woman. And Iâm a wounded she-wolf. And no one should tell me how to lick my wounds.âââ
Even she was surprised by how gigantic âBzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53â got. âI started to see that my fans were there for me,â she says. Something about its raw-nerve energy, the bloodletting of it all, energized the masses around the world and shot the song to Number One on Spotifyâs Global 200 chart, collecting 3 billion streams in the process. âWeâre in a society thatâs used to seeing women confront pain in a submissive way, and I think thatâs changed,â Shakira says. She was especially excited that the song charted at the same time that Miley Cyrusâ âFlowers,â an anthem of self-love and independence after a breakup, was blowing up: âWe were both thinking the same thing, and the reaction was similar.â
âBzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53â went on to win Song of the Year and Best Pop Song at the Latin Grammys in 2023, and became a cornerstone of her album Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran, which she released this March. The record, her first in seven years, hit the top of Billboardâs Latin charts and is still riding high. People hailed this chapter of her career as a comeback, a homecoming, a victorious return. And the momentum hasnât stopped: Now, Shakira is getting ready to launch a tour that kicks off in November and winds its way through arenas in North America before reaching the rest of the globe. Itâs her first since 2018. âI think this is going to be the biggest in my career so far, the most extensive, with the most range. Itâs also going to be the longest,â she says, noting that her concerts usually clock in at 90 minutes â she sees this one going on for a little over two hours.
To Will.i.am, Shakiraâs latest act is particularly impressive viewed through the lens of the ever-changing pop cycle. âItâs one thing to be like, âYeah, Iâve been here for a minute,â and youâre not being played on Top 40 or youâre just like a legacy act,â he says. Shakira is moving differently: âSheâs competing. Sheâs not just flexing her legacy. Itâs like, âIâm out here out-punching, out-swinging, out-basketmaking, outperforming my old self and new artists.âââ Martin points out that Shakiraâs the rare artist whoâs been a gigantic star her whole career: âIâve always seen her thrive. In my pantheon of great people, sheâs never really left for a long, long time.â
But Shakiraâs real triumph is less about topping charts or beating the competition and more about something deeply human â about finding the inner mettle that lets you keep moving, even when it feels inconceivably hard. And she didnât just flourish as an artist; she discovered a new version of herself, particularly impressive in an industry that constantly tells women their best years are behind them. âIn finding this freedom, I also found myself,â she says. âThis has been a journey back to myself, and the way there was through my music. Iâm in a moment where the worst has happened, and this process woke up a new sense of autonomy and independence in me.â
THE FIRST TIME I meet Shakira, weâre in the studio where she recorded part of Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran. Sheâs handling a few calls before we sit down to talk, speaking in Spanish at warp speed and discussing what sounds like serious business dealings â until I catch the words âtae kwon do.â
It turns out, sheâs planning the afternoon for her kids, Milan, 11, and Sasha, 9. Theyâre wrapping up after-school activities and then heading to the studio to record a childrenâs album put together by the music school they attend. Sasha is going to sing, and Milan is going to play the drums. Shakira enrolled Milan in lessons after her friend PenĂ©lope Cruz sent her a video of her own son, whom Shakira calls a talented percussionist. âI was like, âI need to get Milan in lessons!âââ she says. Shortly after, she shared a video of Milan at the drums with Alejandro Sanz, her close friend and collaborator on hits like âLa Torturaâ and âTe Lo Agradezco, Pero No.â âThen he put his son in lessons too!â
Society is used to seeing women confront pain in a submissive way. I think thatâs changed.
Shakira and her children have been living in Miami for roughly a year. The move made sense; she has siblings and extended relatives in the city, and itâs much easier to record here compared with Spain. âWhen I was in Barcelona, it was a huge sacrifice for me and for my career,â she admits. âIt was hard to keep up that continuity. It was extremely complicated to bring people to Barcelona. Every time I wanted to do a session, I had to plan it months ahead.â
She had imagined a trade-off, where sheâd put her career on pause for a few years and support her partnerâs soccer commitments. But eventually, they were going to move back to the U.S. âThe plan was always that when my ex retired from professional soccer, weâd go to the States and live there and finish Âraising our kids there, because of all the Âsacrifice Iâd made all those years accompanying him to play. The idea was to come here, but that moment coincided right with the separation.â
She pauses for a second. âIn the end, the plans all come true. Just in a different way.â
An intercontinental move, she admits, was completely nerve-wracking, especially because she worried about how well her kids would adjust. âIâll never forget, the first day of school, Iâd been super nervous, and when I picked them up, they jumped on me and hugged me and said, âWe love it!âââ Shakira remembers. âMy eyes had been as wide as saucers all day, waiting for the worst news, and they came out running and jumping with joy.â Sheâs intensely close to Milan and Sasha and picks up and drops them off most days. Often, sheâll rearrange travel plans to put them to bed at night.
Still, finding her own place and her own set of friends in a new city hasnât been so easy, given that sheâs one of the biggest celebrities on the planet. âWhen kids find a good environment at school, itâs just easy. Meanwhile, us adults also have to find friends, but thereâs no school I can go to at my age,â she says, laughing. Instead, sheâs gotten tight with some of the moms at the kidsâ school, including a few who are also from Barranquilla. When she has time, sheâll try to get together with other artists; she might call up Rauw Alejandro or Ozuna and try to get them to go wakeboarding with her. Sheâs into a lot of water sports these days, a change from Barcelona, where she used to play a lot of tennis.
I ask her if sheâs seen the Luca Guadagnino film Challengers yet, and she frowns, shaking her head: âNo, no, what is it?â I tell her that it stars Zendaya and has an insane soundtrack by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Within seconds, she pulls up the trailer on her phone.
She watches silently for a little while. âThis is a really good trailer,â she blurts out. âI usually think theyâre the worst. They completely turn me off. I donât want to see any movie after the trailer. Iâm like, âOK, I get it. Now I know what the whole movie is about.â But this trailer is so good.â She looks at her manager, whoâs sitting nearby. âIt left me thinking this is how we have to promote my tour, just like this trailer. This is good marketing.â She drops a link to the trailer into a group chat she has going for upcoming tour plans.
Sheâs super excited to get back onstage, especially after an ultra-successful pop-up concert in Times Square, right after Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran came out. Shakira admits she had a minor freakout because fans didnât start filling the space until the last minute. âOh, my God. An hour before the show, I was like, âThereâs no one in the street! This is going to be the end of my career!âââ she recalls, laughing. âI was in my hotel getting ready for the performance and through the window, I couldnât see anyone! I just saw like 10 people. It was my biggest nightmare, to think I was going to come out and there was not gonna be anyone on the street to watch.â
In the end, 40,000 people came out, and a few weeks later, she surprised fans at Coachella by popping out to perform with Bizarrap. There, she announced the tour for the first time, and sheâs been hard at work planning it since. (She has a few other surprises lined up: At one point, I ask how many tracks from Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran were left on the cutting-room floor. âThereâs a few songs we have laying around,â she says, smiling cryptically. âTheyâve been tucked away. I donât have a new album, but letâs just say thereâs a new project.â)
Her upcoming tour is the culmination of her career so far â which is saying a lot when someone has spent almost three entire decades in the limelight. She started out in the music business when she was just 13 and got signed to Sony Music Colombia. Born to a Lebanese father and a Colombian mother in Barranquilla, sheâd been a natural performer her whole life, taking up belly dancing and singing as a kid. Still, her first two albums, Magia and Peligro, flopped, selling less than 1,000 copies each. For a while, she shifted her energy to acting, starring on the Nineties soap opera El Oasis, which made her a household name in Colombia.
The whole time she was acting, she kept writing music, and she finally broke through the Spanish-language market in 1995, with Pies Descalzos, a rock record that set her up as a precocious, raven-haired earth girl with a knack for confessional poetry. When I note that the album â my personal favorite and the first of hers I ever owned â is turning 30 next year, she looks at me incredulously. âItâs turning 30?â she says with a gasp. âWhat? Next year?â She reaches for her phone to fact-check before her manager confirms that itâs true.
I had to go from radio station to radio station and persuade the gatekeepers.
In 1998, DĂłnde EstĂĄn Los Ladrones made her a huge name across Latin America. Executive-produced by industry titan Emilio Estefan, it went platinum in multiple countries and helped Shakira start crisscrossing the U.S. and Latin America on tour. No one sounded like her at the time. In addition to her exposed, diaristic approach as a lyricist, her vocal tone was totally unique, too â a thick, powerful style full of breaks and cries that could approximate the depth of Mercedes Sosa and the crackle of Alanis Morissette while bringing a timbre and elasticity all her own. She made stardom look easy, but when she looks back at it all, she recognizes it was incredibly tough â a totally different landscape that required her to move the music industryâs tectonic plates when she was barely in her twenties.
âIt was up to me, in that moment, to go from radio to radio, station to station, and convince and persuade the gatekeepers, the guys who controlled the music industry,â she says. âTheyâre the ones that would say, âYes, you,â âYour music will play on my station,â âNot you.â It was hard, and it was difficult. More doors would close, a few would open after banging on them and insisting. It was arduous, arduous work.â
If that werenât challenging enough, Shakira then set her eyes on the English-language market. These days, the idea of a crossover feels outdated; artists from Bad Bunny to Karol G have proven the massively global appeal of music in Spanish. But Shakira points out how wildly different the industry was back then, and she also says she wanted to become fluent in English. (While touring in Latin America, she learned Portuguese so she could play in Brazil; she also speaks French and Italian.) âI wanted to write in English, to think in English, to feel in English, because I felt that was my way of broadening my horizons,â she says. The first time she wrote a song in English, she armed herself with a thesaurus and a Leonard Cohen book. âThis Colombian girl who had just started singing all of a sudden appears on the scene [in the U.S.], and it was this exhilarating moment. It was so strange, and thatâs where I saw I was capable of doing it.â
Still, blazing that path was fraught. Estefan remembers a lot of consternation around what Shakiraâs first single would be ahead of Laundry Service, her English-language album, from 2001. In his recollection, they were leaning toward a translated version of her 1998 song âInevitable,â which Shakira played on The Rosie OâDonnell Show, in her first English-language performance. âWhenever, Whereverâ wasnât part of the plan until they tested it with a few radio stations. âShe wanted a different single. But we went to play it for the stations. I said, âShaki, thatâs the one they want,â and she said, âLetâs put it out,âââ Estefan remembers.
Chris Martin says âWhenever, Whereverâ was his first introduction to the singer, whoâd eventually become his close friend. âI definitely remember when I first heard of her because I was like, âWho has a song where they say âMy breasts are small and humble?âââ I was just like, âThis personâs mind is unbelievable.âââ
Later, he saw how Shakira seemed to be at the forefront of global sounds and genre fusions. âNow, with streaming and everything being so international, thereâs way less tribalism and borders in music, and itâs wonderful,â Martin says. âBut if I think back to 2000 or something, it wasnât really like that. She was one of the first people to start crossing the invisible barriers that were in between genres of music.â He points to her 2005 song âLa Tortura.â âI was just listening to âLa Tortura,â which had that reggaeton beat on it years ago.â (Shakira also points out that song, a team-up with Alejandro Sanz, was one of the first examples of a major collaboration in Latin music: âAt that time, there werenât collaborations, and they started, I dare to say it, with âLa Tortura.âââ)
Despite the success, Shakira still had to deal with an industry that sometimes didnât know what to make of her. Often, she was exoticized or reduced to stereotypes. âI remember it was really frustrating for me,â she says. âIt was really, really disappointing when headlines would be like, âThe second major export from Colombia!â referring constantly to the drug trade and not the beauty of my country or the talent of its people. But slowly, with time, thatâs been changing.â
She was also grappling with the insecurities that come with being a young woman in the spotlight. Shakira remembers how tough she was on herself in those years. âI didnât like my photos, I didnât like my face, I wore too much makeup,â she says. In some ways, she thinks, some of that self-criticism might be the natural inclination of artists, who are constantly striving for more. But still, sheâs found a lot of peace within herself, especially recently: âItâs a process. You start like an onion and start peeling layers until you are happy with the core.â
Shakira had her first child in 2013, before a gig hosting The Voice made her a fixture in peopleâs homes. She felt early on she was meant to take care of people. âIâve always seen myself in that role,â she explains. âI think a lot of women are mothers before actually going through pregnancy. I already felt like a mother, and I think I showed it in many ways, taking care of the people around me, taking care of my family. Iâve always been like the matron.â
In Barcelona, she focused on her relationship and on raising her kids. Looking back now, her life suddenly became more muted, her career quieter. âI was in sweatpants in Barcelona!â she says, touching the side of the silky pants she has on now. âI mean, these are sweatpants, but theyâre Amiri. In Barcelona, I was wearing sweatpants from the Gap, with my hair in a bun.â
She laughs, but sheâs touching on something deeper. âThis happens, Iâve noticed. When you leave a relationship of many years, there are things about yourself that seem to have been lost along the way,â she says. âThereâs things about yourself that you change for the other person or give up. When that relationship breaks down, you feel like youâre left with nothing and you have to heal, search for yourself, and travel back toward the center of yourself.â
Itâs kind of a surprise to hear an artist as big as Shakira name that feeling, the way some relationships can be endlessly nurturing and comforting but also involve compromises that make the older versions of yourself feel further away â even if that older version is a superstar who everyone knows. Sometimes itâs hard to see how much of yourself gets chipped away until you come up for air, and adding motherhood, as transformational and transcendent as it can be, might only make things more complicated. I tell her that in my own experience, it seems like a constant, exhausting balance and negotiation, and I wonder out loud if she felt like she was making sacrifices at the time.
âWhen weâre mothers, we never dial it down,â she says softly. âWe can keep working, but our commitment as mothers is nonnegotiable. Sometimes achieving a balance is difficult, right? How much time do you dedicate to yourself, to your work, to the children? But children always come first and what consumes us the most.â Still, thatâs not something sheâd trade for anything; sheâs the kind of mom who parents loudly. She took Milan on tour when he was months old, and now, the kids are her plus-two at events and awards shows. At the Latin Grammys, they were filmed in the crowd, cheering for their mom as she performed a medley that included âBzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53.â
Her feelings on motherhood have a lot to do with this entire journey sheâs been on. âI never had to rely on myself as much as I have fighting for my survival and the survival of my kids,â she says. There are lessons for them sheâs wanted to emphasize. âI think theyâve seen their mother cry. I think theyâve seen her celebrate. I think theyâve seen her laugh. I think theyâve seen her work tirelessly,â she says. âAnd thatâs it: I want to show them that life isnât linear. Itâs not how people picture it in the movies. Things donât turn out the way we want them to and you have to deal with disappointment. Thatâs part of the human condition. Itâs why weâre here.â
My accent is back, thank God. I got my swag back. And I got my sexy back.
And now, after so much time spent searching for all those lost parts of herself, I ask her what she ended up finding.
âPerspective,â she says slowly. âThe ability to differentiate whatâs important from whatâs not so important. I found âŠâ She trails off and then bursts out laughing: âMy accent! My Caribbean accent is back now that Iâm out of Spain.â Her accent was more neutral when she was living in Barcelona, where she also picked up a good bit of Catalan. Now, in Miami, itâs reverted back to the costeño melody of the port city she grew up in. âNow Iâm hanging out with Barranquilleras from my kidâs school and surrounded by Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Colombians. Yeah, my accent is back, thank God.â
Thereâs more: âMore swag. I got my swag back. And I got my sexy back.â
A WEEK LATER, Shakira is back at the Sony offices, sitting with members of her creative team to outline plans for the tour. Sheâs in a black hoodie, her blond hair draped over her shoulders, and an IV jutting out of her arm. After a packed week, she felt like she was getting sick, so a health technician is pumping her with a dose of vitamin C.
She attended her first Met Gala a few days ago. Though sheâd been invited before, she could never make the trip work from Barcelona. (She wore Carolina Herrera â she tells me later sheâs become much more interested in fashion lately, despite always seeing herself as a jeans and a T-shirt girl.) Her inaugural appearance was full of encounters with people sheâd loved and admired from afar. She was particularly excited to finally meet Ed Sheeran face-to-face. âWeâve even made music together, weâve done stuff together, but weâve never been able to finish because we havenât seen each other,â she says. âWhen I saw him, I hugged him like Iâd known him my entire life.â
Chris Hemsworth and his wife, Elsa Pataky, also said hi and let her know that their kids love her music. She was so touched by the comment that, while at the Sony offices, she signs a copy of Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran pressed on diamond-clear vinyl for them. Shakira grabs a pen and lets it hover over the cover for a second, wondering out loud. âHemsworthes? Hemsworths?â Finally, she signs it to âThe Hemsworth family.â
The album is one of Shakiraâs most commercial, reflecting the current trends in Latin music. She riffs on mĂșsica mexicana on tracks with Grupo Frontera and Fuerza Regida; âPunterĂa,â with Cardi B, topped Billboardâs Latin Airplay charts. Shakira raves about working with Cardi: âI love what she did on âPunterĂa.â Itâs my favorite part of the song. I love her sense of humor, her ingenuity, and her creativity. For me, sheâs a woman who doesnât ask permission.â And the Bizarrap collaboration is something Shakira credits her kids for, since it was their idea for her to work with the producer. In fact, she regularly stays up on whatâs popular through them. She notes Milan is currently into rappers like Central Cee, while Sasha loves Camilo and recently performed one of his songs at a school talent show.
But not all fans loved the albumâs pop turns, wishing instead that Shakira had put the unvarnished rock energy of Pies Descalzos or DĂłnde EstĂĄn Los Ladrones into this project. When I ask what she thinks about people who wanted a different Shakira here, she pushes back, noting the diversity of sounds on the record. âOne of the things I like the most about this album is that it actually evokes other stages of my musical journey, like the girl with the dark hair and the leather pants and bare feet. So there are songs like âCĂłmo, DĂłnde y CuĂĄndoâ that are very close to my essence and who Iâve always been musically, but it clearly shows an evolution in the way I feel.â She highlights a few others: âââTiempo Sin Verte,â âĂltima,â even, or âAcrĂłsticoâ are singer-songwriter songs, some just made of piano and voice.â
Plus, in addition to letting her bounce around the charts, such a big-sounding pop approach gave her a lot of room to experiment. âIt gives me so much flexibility to go in any direction I want. I can do Afrobeats, I can do reggaeton, I can do ska or EDM. Thereâs something about the purity of just an electric guitar and an electric bass and drums that takes me back to the type of music that Iâve always been a huge fan of, those rock bands that made me fall in love with music.â
During the tour meeting, Shakira reads a few different things she pulled together for inspiration: Thereâs a long text about the power of the she-wolf that she has in front of her. She also goes through a few statistics about the economic power of women and, specifically, the contributions of Latinas. The goal of the show, she says, is to empower people, to remind them that despite whatever trials they go through, they can come out the other side.
She keeps brainstorming different stage designs and ways to get closer to the audience during the show, as a way of deepening a Âconnection sheâs felt with them from the beginning of this project. âMy fans have been having a dialogue with me: Iâve spoken and theyâve listened, and they speak and I listen and learn from their experiences. Because just like me, thereâs a million she-wolves in the world, getting ready to go into battle and finding their way.â
Other details have been on her mind: the visuals, the wardrobe, her entrance. At one point, someone brings up a fluffy pink dress she wore during her Sale El Sol tour, and she cringes slightly, dismissing it as cheesy. âMy path is a path made of cheese,â she jokes. Someone on her team assures her that sheâs now in her fashion era, and on some level, there does seem to be an extra focus on heightening the show. During the meeting, she references BeyoncĂ©âs Renaissance tour and Taylor Swiftâs Eras tour, noting moments she loved during both. Later, she tells me she recently spent hours in the studio going through the songs that might make it on the setlist, analyzing âthe key and the speed and the arrangements.â âPreparing a show is one of the most intricate, complex things I can do as an artist,â she says.
She has one other inspiration sheâs turned to for the tour. Her manager pulls up a clip of Issa Rae receiving the Emerging Entrepreneur Award at the 2019 Women in Film Annual Gala. In the speech, Rae explains that sheâs channeling some of her favorite rappers and throwing humility out the window. Her voice fills the office as everyone listens in: âIâm Âclosing all doors behind me, so if you didnât make it in, oops, your bad. Figure it out. Entrepreneur means âI did that shit by myself.âââ Shakira starts howling with laughter and recites Raeâs final line along with her: âIn conclusion, entrepreneur till I die. I deserve this, bye!â
The message is a playful one, but it seems to resonate so much with Shakira because sheâs fiercely independent these days. That independence extends to her romantic life: Though sheâs been seen out with F1 driver Lewis Hamilton, basketball player Jimmy Butler, and actor Lucien Laviscount over the past year, dating seriously feels like a foreign concept right now. âIâm not thinking about that.⊠What space do I have for a man right now?â she jokes. I ask if she sees that changing down the line. âWhat can I tell you, I like men,â she says, laughing. âThatâs the problem. I shouldnât like them with everything thatâs happened to me, but imagine how much I like men that I still like them. But having a formal relationship, I think my kids would have to be very prepared for that, and their emotional and psychological well-being is the priority.â
She pauses for a second before adding mischievously, âBut, hey, Iâm not opposed to having friends.â
All she really wants to do is keep having a good time and seeing just where else her career takes her. More importantly, sheâs still sitting in all of the lessons she picked up after going through hell and back. âIâm so much less fragile than I thought,â she says. âI was always so scared of pain, because I thought I wouldnât survive it.â
She no longer feels that way: âThrough this process, I became stronger than I thought I was. I became a more independent person, one who doesnât rely on anyone but herself and her wolf pack.â
Production Credits
Photography Direction by EMMA REEVES. Styling by DENA GIANNINI at A CREATIVE PARTNER. Hair by JHONATAN RENDON at THE ONLY AGENCY using DYSON. Makeup by JOANNE MARCHEVSKY at THE WALL GROUP. Tailoring by RUCHT D`OLEO-SCHWARTZ at THE FASHION INSTITUTE OF FLORIDA. Lighting direction by ZACK HUGHES. Photographic assistance by DAVID DOMNICK. Digital technician: SIMON DALE. Styling assistance by ASHLEY WELLER and SOPHIE FAITH. Production assistance: SILVANA AVIGNONI. Photographed at APERTURE STUDIOS.
From Rolling Stone US