Shakira talks about releasing music that directly addressed her high-profile split, and if she's open to dating again.
Shakira feels no shame about her candid breakup song following the end of her 11-year relationship to soccer star Gerard Piqué.
In "Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53.," Shakira talks about a lover who betrayed her and moved on with a younger woman, leaving her with the brunt of heavy debt. Piqué 37, and Shakira, 47, split in 2022 and are parents to Milan, 11, and Sasha, 9. He is currently dating 25-year-old Clara Chia Marti.
"You left me as a neighbor to the mother-in-law, with the press at the door and the debt at the IRS," Shakira sings in lyrics translated to English, seemingly addressing her tax fraud case in Spain.
The GRAMMY-winning songstress opens up to Rolling Stone about how recording the track brought a sense of relief and empowerment to her.
"Relief," Shakira says of what she felt after penning the song. "And then I remember my manager at the time telling me, 'Please change the lyrics.' Of course, I was trying to calculate the possible contingencies and the risks, but I said, 'I’m an artist. I am a woman. And I’m a wounded she-wolf. And no one should tell me how to lick my wounds.'"
Shakira notes that she is finally getting back to feeling like herself after spending over a decade with the international soccer star, stating that she sacrificed her career by living and working in Spain where he is from. The "Whenever, Wherever" singer says that she always had a plan to relocate to the states and raise her children after Piqué retired, but the split put the plan in motion ahead of schedule and has allowed her to embrace the change.
"This happens, I've noticed. When you leave a relationship of many years, there are things about yourself that seem to have been lost along the way," she tells the magazine. "There's things about yourself that you change for the other person or give up. When that relationship breaks down, you feel like you’re left with nothing and you have to heal, search for yourself, and travel back toward the center of yourself."
Shakira adds, "This has been a journey back to myself, and the way there was through my music. I’m in a moment where the worst has happened, and this process woke up a new sense of autonomy and independence in me."
In the years since her split, the "Hips Don't Lie" singer has remained single although she's been spotted out with NBA star Jimmy Butler, Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton and Emily In Paris actor Lucien Laviscount. However, she tells Rolling Stone that she's not focused on dating seriously at the moment.
"What can I tell you, I like men," she says of her outings. "That's the problem. I shouldn't like them with everything that's 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."
Shakira notes that her breakup from Piqué ushered in a sense of independence and survival that she has not been ashamed to show Sasha and Milan.
"I never had to rely on myself as much as I have fighting for my survival and the survival of my kids," she explains. "I think they've seen their mother cry. I think they’ve seen her celebrate. I think they've seen her laugh. I think they’ve seen her work tirelessly. And that’s it: I want to show them that life isn't linear. It's not how people picture it in the movies. Things don’t turn out the way we want them to and you have to deal with disappointment. That's part of the human condition. It’s why we're here."
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