‘My career on hold’ for ex-partner Gerard Pique – Shakira admits

Shakira has recounted how for a long time she put her ‘career on hold’ to be with her former partner Gerard Pique while he played football.

The Colombian music star and former professional Spanish footballer were together for 11 years before parting ways in June 2022.

Shakira is due to release her first album in seven years – Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran, which translates to Women No Longer Cry.
Reflecting on the time that has passed since she released 2017’s El Dorado, she told 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 upcoming album represents “the transformation of pain into creativity, frustration into productivity, anger into passion, vulnerability into resilience”, the 47-year-old popstar said.

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.”

The album includes her hit single Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53, which has been referred to as a “diss track” aimed at Pique.
Another track on the album titled Ultima (Last) also hears her sing, “Surely with time you’ll regret it / And some day you’ll want to come back to my door”, according to The Times.

Asked if this was also in relation to Pique, she replied: “Voldemort, that one that shouldn’t be mentioned? It’s hopefully the last song that I will write about this, and to him.”

Shakira 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.”