I size her up: wide, almond-shaped eyes, lined with smoky kohl, fearlessly unblinking; plush lips impeccably traced in a rich dark brown and finished off with a glossy nude center; skin smooth but not entirely devoid of lines. A cropped bustier reveals toned biceps and tight triceps, low-slung cargo pants hang off those famous hips. Mayyyyybe 5’4” in platform sneakers. “Tiny but mighty,” I whisper to myself. Her eyes grow wider. Oh shit, can she hear me? I grab my bag and stand by for the manager’s beckoning.
The three-time Grammy winner will tell you that appearance is not her superpower—“I didn’t think beauty was my forte,” she says. “I thought it was just one more thing that I could exploit” —yet there’s no denying that hips, well, they don’t lie. (And neither do her hair, face, and various other body parts.) But here’s the thing about the smash hit of the early aughts (“Hips Don’t Lie,” of course) that has garnered over a billion views and launched a million memes: Shakira did not only bring her famous curves to the party—she also wrote the lyrics, composed the music, choreographed the dance, and coproduced the video.
The artist recognized early on that while beauty could help get her out of Colombia to share her ideas with the world, Botticelli curls and belly dancing alone weren’t going to make her one of the best-selling music artists of all time or the first singer to perform at three of the biggest sporting events in the world (Super Bowl, FIFA World Cup, NBA All-Star Game). Today, over 30 years since she signed with Sony, Shakira, now 47, is still a viral sensation—and still revealing new superpowers.
Speaking of which, a superhero would be right at home cruising in her set of wheels. Anywhere else, a Lamborghini Urus, this wildly exotic SUV, would be a spectacle, but in Miami, where I’m a soccer mom, the Urus is a car I see at many sporting events. This one is tricked out in neon purple. (I’d later learn that the entirely nondescript gray minivan trailing is actually the car she uses to shuttle her kids—Milan, 11, and Sasha, 9—to practice.) Shakira is not your typical Miami soccer mom, sure, but she’s not your typical anything.
Seven years since the release of her last album, El Dorado, Shakira is back with Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran (Women No Longer Cry), 16 tracks (a few ballads, some rock, all dance floor bangers) with a simple yet ambitious mission: “I want this music to build bridges, to empower people, to help women discover their own strengths.” As the title suggests, the project comes after a period of personal pain. “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.”