Entertainment
Shakira Recalls Putting Her Career “On Hold” for Her Ex-Husband Gerard Pique
Shakira claimed that she placed her “career on hold” to spend more time with her ex-boyfriend Gerard Pique while he pursued his football career.
The former professional Spanish footballer and Colombian pop sensation, who are parents to 11-year-old Mila and nine-year-old Sasha, announced their separation in June 2022, after 11 years of marriage.
The 47-year-old Grammy winner talked about how it helped her “exorcise a lot of the demons” before recording her first album in seven years.
Considering the time that has passed since her 2017 album El Dorado was published, she said to The Times, “I put my career on wait for a long time to be next to Gerard, so he could play football.
“There was a lot of sacrifice for love.”
In recent years, the singer has also been involved in a tax dispute issue with Spanish authorities, who claim she did not pay more than €14.5 million in taxes between 2012 and 2014.
She accepted the charges in November, ending the protracted legal battle, and was hit with a fine of more than €6 million.
In a statement at the time, she claimed that she had resolved the case to protect her children. She said, “While I was determined to defend my innocence in a trial that my lawyers were confident would have ruled in my favor, I have made the decision to finally resolve this matter with the best interest of my kids at heart who do not want to see their mom sacrifice her personal wellbeing in this fight.”
Talking about her next album, Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran, which means Women No More Cry, she stated that it symbolizes “the transformation of suffering into creativity, aggravation into output, rage into love, and vulnerability into fortitude”.
She added: “There were so many pieces of my life that crumbled in front of my eyes and I had to rebuild myself in a way, picking up the bones from the floor and putting them all together. And the glue that kept it all together was music.”
According to The Times, she can also be heard singing the line, “Surely with time you’ll regret it/ And someday you’ll want to come back to my door,” on the album’s other song, Ultima (Last).
When asked if this also had to do with Pique, she said, “Voldemort, that one that’s best left unsaid? Hopefully, this will be the last song I write about it.
She added: “I felt that there was still something there, stuck in my throat, and I needed to get it out.
“I played it to the marketing head at Sony and he started crying. I’d never seen a man cry in my studio before.”
She also said the new album had helped her “exorcise a lot of the demons that were tormenting me”.
With over 95 million records sold worldwide, the singer—who is well-known for singles like Hips Don’t Lie and Waka Waka—has been acclaimed as one of the most successful Latin musicians of all time.
She has also hosted Latin Grammy Awards and won three Grammys over her career.
