It’s been less than a year since Shakira separated from her partner of 11 years, Spanish soccer player Gerard Piqué, amid cheating rumors that bizarrely involve a jar of strawberry jam. As so many artists do, the Colombian singer seems to have channeled that pain into her music, and the work has paid off. Shakira made reference to her painful split at Billboard’s Latin Women in Music gala, as she accepted the Woman of the Year Award, speaking to women’s strength, bravery and independence.
Shakira References Year Of ‘Seismic Change’ In Acceptance Speech
Fellow Colombian artist Maluma presented the former coach of The Voice with her Woman of the year Award on May 6, acknowledging Shakira’s recent achievements, which include her song “Monotonia” (featuring Ozuna) being the biggest Spanish-language debut of 2022, per Billboard, and breaking 14 Guinness World Records with “Shakira: BZRP Music Sessions #53.” But there’s no doubt it’s been a bittersweet time for the singer, who announced her split from Gerard Piqué in June 2022, and she said as much in her acceptance speech:
This has been a year of seismic change in my life where I’ve felt more than ever and very personally what it is to be a women. And what it means. It’s been a year where I’ve realized we women are stronger than we think, braver than we believed, more independent than we were taught to be.
Shakira showed off that newfound strength in her music video for “TQG,” a collab with Karol G — who had also experienced a public breakup that involved cheating allegations — in which the “Waka Waka” singer was the picture of confidence in a tiny sheer dress.
In the acceptance speech, she went on to say there comes a time when women stop looking elsewhere for acceptance and find that within themselves, when “finding someone who is faithful is less important than being faithful to ourselves.” She continued:
It’s true that when I felt most lost, music put me in the road back to myself. But the most important lessons I learned from other women, and for them I wrote what I wrote and I sang what I sang. Because only a woman can love until she’s ripped apart; can speak with the most brutal honesty; can sing with anger; dance in ecstasy and be brought to tears with emotion. Only a woman can do that.
Shakira has definitely had to find her strength this year, after discovering her longtime partner was cheating in the most bizarre of ways.
How Did Jam Factor Into Shakira’s Breakup?
Shakira met Gerard Piqué in 2010 on the set of her official World Cup song "Waka Waka." They began dating a year later, before she gave birth to two sons in 2013 and 2015. Last year the artist, who shared the stage with JLo for the Super Bowl LIV halftime show, told ShowNews Today that upon returning from a trip to promote her music, she noticed that someone had been eating the strawberry jam in her refrigerator. She knew it wasn’t Piqué, because he didn’t like it. This apparently led to the revelation of a mistress. (She took her man and her jam? That’s pretty cold.)
While there’s no doubt it’s been a tough year for the singer and her children, it’s good to see Shakira finding an outlet for that emotion, gaining confidence through it and — as indicated by her recent award — continuing to contribute in big ways to the music world. The Billboard Latin Women in Music Awards can be streamed with a Peacock subscription, and be sure to check out our 2023 TV schedule to see what premieres are coming soon.
