Category: Shakira

Shakira covers the latest issue of Allure, all to promote her new album, Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran. This is her first studio album since 2017, and obviously, there’s a lot in this album about her split from Gerard Pique and her newfound independence. She moved from Spain to Miami with her two sons and she’s moving on in every way. This Allure piece is mostly good, mostly rah-rah-feminist, up until the point when Shakira complains that the Barbie movie emasculated men. Whoops. So close and yet so far. Some highlights from Allure:

Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran: “I want this music to build bridges, to empower people, to help women discover their own strengths. I was in the mud,” she says, referring to her very public and messy breakup with Piqué, “I had to reconstruct myself, to reunite all the pieces that had fallen apart. Making this music has shown me that my pain can be transformed into creativity.” (She is crying diamonds on the cover.) “The songs are full of anecdotes and some very intense emotions I have experienced in these two years. But creating this album has been a transformation in which I have been reborn as a woman. I have rebuilt myself in the ways I believe are appropriate. No one tells me how to cry or when to cry, no one tells me how to raise my children, no one tells me how I become a better version of myself. I decide that.”

No one will control women: “In the past, when women went through a difficult situation, they were expected to mind their manners, to hide the pain, to cry in silence. That’s over. Now, no one will control us. No one will tell us how to heal, how to clean our wounds.”

The story of Adam and Eve. “Eve was a story created by misogynists to put women in the little box where we have to remain silent, not speak our minds, and not be a catalyst for change. To keep things as they are. I think there’s something refreshing about women when they get to be themselves and be unapologetic. Because we’ve had to apologize so many damn times in the past.”

Growing up in Colombia: “My idol was Wonder Woman. I think I was drawn to her because she had black hair like mine, but also because she was a symbol of empowerment and strength in a decade where women were not playing the most important roles. I remember my mom stopped working at some point. She stopped wearing miniskirts, and the length of her skirts got longer because my dad said so.”

Her thoughts on ‘Barbie’: “My sons absolutely hated it. They felt that it was emasculating. And I agree, to a certain extent. I’m raising two boys. I want ’em to feel powerful too [while] respecting women. I like pop culture when it attempts to empower women without robbing men of their possibility to be men, to also protect and provide. I believe in giving women all the tools and the trust that we can do it all without losing our essence, without losing our femininity. I think that men have a purpose in society and women have another purpose as well. We complement each other, and that complement should not be lost… Why not share the load with people who deserve to carry it, who have a duty to carry it as well?”

[From Allure]

“I like pop culture when it attempts to empower women without robbing men of their possibility to be men, to also protect and provide. I believe in giving women all the tools and the trust that we can do it all without losing our essence, without losing our femininity.” All of this about a film where the heroine wears cute pink outfits, is traditionally beautiful, gets so frustrated with patriarchy that she briefly gives up, then works with other women/Barbies to reclaim their power within a female-centric fantasy Barbieland. Like… what movie did Shakira think she was watching? Who goes into Barbie and thinks “I wish there were better roles for men?” Or: “I wish the Kens were more three-dimensional?” And even then, everyone feel all over themselves to PRAISE RYAN GOSLING for his bold “take” on Ken, all while minimizing what Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie did! Anyway, I’m not going to write another treatise about Barbie again.

The rest of the interview is meh… Shakira says so much about female empowerment, but really, she’s all about heteronormative gender roles and she has absolutely said sh-t like “Not All Men” in her life.

Cover courtesy of Allure, additional photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Shakira has had a rough few years. In 2022, she learned that her longtime partner Gerard Pique was cheating on her with Clara Chia Marti in their shared home in Barcelona. Shakira left Pique soon after, and he turned his side-chick into his official. Shakira left Barcelona and moved to Miami, but not before the Spanish tax authorities claimed she owed them millions. Shakira made a lot of noise about fighting until the bitter end, but she ended up settling and taking a suspended sentence. Presumably, she’s done with Spain completely now. There was some good news though – she released a diss track about Pique which became a huge crossover hit, and now she’s releasing a full album, Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran. Shakira chatted with the Times of London about leaving Pique and Spain, and her fresh start in Miami.

The pressure to sing in English back in the day: When she crossed over to the anglophone market in 2001, she says, “it was a true challenge for me to export my music in Spanish. There wasn’t so much receptivity from any gatekeepers in the industry and I felt sometimes that I was carrying a whole mountain on my shoulders, like Atlas. It was really hard to gain the respect of a very male-oriented industry that was also very prejudiced against Hispanic artists. All of that has changed. It’s a much more democratic world in which people make their own decisions about who they want to listen to.”

Her diss song, “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53”: “It helped me exorcise a lot of the demons that were tormenting me. And it felt good.” She won a Latin Grammy for the song, which was presented to her by Sergio Ramos, formerly of Real Madrid, the sworn enemies of Piqué’s Barcelona. That was mischievous of the organisers. “Or a cosmic joke,” she says with a smile.

What her sons think about her diss track: “They know that there’s only one way to live life and it’s accepting the pain. And each one of us has different ways of doing that.” For her it’s writing songs, and the same goes for Milan. “When his father and I were going through separation, he wrote two amazing songs, the kind that will bring you to tears.”

Putting her career on hold for Pique: “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.”

She hangs out with the Beckhams in Miami: “I’ve talked to Victoria quite a few times since I arrived. We’re always talking about when I’m going to go watch a match and I know Milan wants to. We haven’t been able to meet up yet, but we’re on WhatsApp. I met David a long time ago, when he used to play for Real Madrid. That was before I started my relationship with one of the Barca players.”

She thinks Pique will regret his choices: She’s more forthcoming about Ultima (Last), a pretty piano ballad on which she sings: “Surely with time you’ll regret it/ And some day you’ll want to come back to my door.” Is that about…? “Voldemort, that one that shouldn’t be mentioned? It’s hopefully the last song that I will write about this, and to him.” It was the final song she wrote for the album. “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.”

Whether she learned of Pique’s affair through missing jam: Did she discover Piqué’s alleged infidelity via a pot of jam? It was claimed in the Spanish media that some of her jam disappeared from their home in Barcelona. She knew that Piqué and their children hated jam and the suggestion was that another woman had eaten it. It’s an outlandish story, but, well, this is Shakira. She claims not to know what I’m talking about, which seems unlikely, and insists it’s “not true”.

[From 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.” In 2022, Shakira gave a cover interview to Elle, where she went in further detail – in a raw way – of the sacrifices she made to live in Spain, to be with Pique, to put her career on hold to have children. While I know she has no regrets and she loves her sons very much, I’m just reminded yet again that Gerard Pique is a selfish douchebag and that women should always avoid these one-sided sacrifices. Pique got a global superstar to give up her career and be a stay-at-home mom without having to “sacrifice” anything himself. Then he cheated on her and bad-mouthed her to all of his friends and on and on. Normalize sending your exes to prison.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.

For five years now, the Spanish tax authorities have been on Shakira’s ass. They’ve opened up several investigations, charged her with tax fraud in several jurisdictions, made public statements about Shakira, and it all had the feel of a targeted campaign. Especially after Shakira gave a sort of epic interview last year, where she explained, in detail, why her relationship with Gerard Pique fell apart and why she has every confidence in her accountants at PricewaterhouseCoopers. She talked a lot about how she was sick and tired of being the latest celebrity targeted by the Spanish tax authorities and she promised to fight back with her extensive record-keeping. But she moved to Miami and she’s basically like “nah, I don’t want to deal with this sh-t anymore,” so she made some kind of plea deal.

After having maintained her innocence for nearly five years, pop star Shakira struck a last-minute deal on the opening day of her tax fraud trial in Barcelona to avoid the risk of going to prison.

Shakira told the presiding magistrate, José Manuel del Amo, on Monday that she accepted the agreement reached with prosecutors. She answered “yes” to confirm her acknowledgment of six counts of failing to pay the Spanish government 14.5 million euros (about $15.8 million) in taxes between 2012 and 2014. The trial, which was expected to include more than 100 witnesses over several weeks, was instead called off after just eight minutes.

Under the deal, Shakira is to receive a suspended three-year sentence and to pay a fine of 7.3 million euros ($8 million) in addition to the previously unpaid taxes and interest. She will pay another fine of 432,000 euros ($472,000) in exchange for having her prison sentence waived.

However, she now has it on her legal record that she was found guilty of tax fraud, which could affect another pending tax case.

The fraud allegations had hinged on where Shakira, now 46, lived during 2012-14. Prosecutors in Barcelona alleged the Colombian singer spent more than half of that period in Spain and therefore should have paid taxes on her worldwide income there even though her official residence was still in the Bahamas. Tax rates are much lower in the Bahamas than in Spain.

Shakira said in a statement provided by her public relations firm that she had wanted to fight on but put her family, career and peace of mind first.

“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 well-being in this fight,” she said. “I need to move past the stress and emotional toll of the last several years and focus on the things I love, my kids and all the opportunities to come in my career.”

[From The Associated Press]

I’m kind of bummed that she didn’t fight, which is what she promised to do. She made the Spanish tax authorities sound corrupt and desperate and she made it sound like she would fight the good fight. But I also understand why she would just feel like putting an end to her Spain chapter. She lived in Spain for years to support Pique and all he did was cheat on her and treat her like garbage. She wanted a new life and a new chapter. I mean, I wouldn’t want to give up $24 million for a situation I found so dodgy, but maybe this speaks to what kind of extensive wealth Shakira really has.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

Last year, Shakira gave a rather legendary Elle interview. She spoke at length about just how much she did to make her relationship with Gerard Pique work, and she also spoke at length about how the Spanish tax authorities are trying to jam her up. For years, Spanish authorities have claimed that Shakira didn’t pay enough taxes given her part-time residence in Barcelona. Shakira has long employed PricewaterhouseCoopers, the internationally renowned tax specialists and accountants. She has all of her literal receipts, she knows exactly how many days she spent in Spain, she knows how much she’s paid and what she owes. She also no longer lives in Spain – she moved to Miami shortly after Pique cheated on her in their home. Well, the Spanish authorities are still desperate to punish Shakira and get as much money from her as possible. I said before that the Spanish tax agencies are coming across like scammers, and I still feel that way.

Prosecutors in Spain have once again charged Shakira with tax fraud — this time linked to taxes filed on her 2018 income. In a statement obtained by the Associated Press, Barcelona prosecutors accused the Columbian singer, 46, of failing to pay about $7.1 million (6.7 million euros) in taxes in 2018. They alleged that she avoided paying the taxes by using an offshore company located in a tax haven.

They also noted that Shakira was informed of the charges in her current home city of Miami, according to the AP, who first reported the news. Shakira did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

The new charges come after a Spanish court said in July that it started an investigation linked to alleged fraud on the singer’s personal income tax and wealth tax in 2018. The court said it had no information on how much money was in question at the time, according to the AP.

The court, located in Esplugues de Llobregat near Barcelona, opened a second case as a result of a complaint made by the Barcelona Economic Crimes Prosecutor regarding Shakira allegedly defrauding the tax agency, per a translation from Spanish media outlet El Pais. Another local outlet, El Periodico, reported that the prosecutor’s office filed a complaint for two alleged tax crimes.

A representative for Shakira told PEOPLE in a statement at the time that she “defends having always acted in accordance with the law and under the advice of the best tax experts. She is now focused on her life as an artist in Miami and is confident that there will be a favorable resolution of her tax issues.”

[From People]

Shakira refused to “settle” one of the previous charges because, as she has said, she has confidence in her own records and her PwC accountants. I’ve seen comments on here and other places about how Shakira has tax shelters and residences in tax havens… and? It’s not illegal to have a residence in a tax haven. It’s not illegal to set up tax shelters. Tax loopholes exist all around the world. Of course Shakira has protected herself and protected her assets. I think a lot of people have big problems when it’s a successful Colombian woman protecting her assets and refusing to roll over for a government agency in the middle of a smear campaign.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.