Shakira revealed that she paused her career for an extended period to prioritize being with her former partner, Gerard Pique, during his football career.
The Colombian pop sensation and retired Spanish footballer shared 11 years together before publicly announcing their split in June 2022. They are parents to two children.
Shakira is set to unveil her debut album in seven years titled “Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran,” translating to “Women No Longer Cry.”
Recounting the interval since her last release, 2017’s “El Dorado,” she shared with The Times, “For a long time I put my career on hold, to be next to Gerard, so he could play football. There was a lot of sacrifice for love.”
The forthcoming album symbolizes “the transformation of pain into creativity, frustration into productivity, anger into passion, vulnerability into resilience,” she explained.
She further elaborated, stating, “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.”
The album features her popular track Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53, which has been characterized as a pointed song directed at the 37-year-old former Barcelona footballer.
Additionally, another song titled Ultima (Last) on the album contains lyrics such as “Surely with time you’ll regret it / And some day you’ll want to come back to my door,” as reported by The Times.
When questioned if this was also about Pique, she responded, “Voldemort, that one that shouldn’t be mentioned? It’s hopefully the final song I’ll write on this subject, and regarding him.”
She elaborated, saying, “I felt that there was still something there, stuck in my throat, and I needed to get it out.”
She added, “I played it to the marketing head at Sony and he started crying. I’d never seen a man cry in my studio before.”