Shakira was honored at Billboard’s first Latin Women in Music gala, and seemingly tapped into some of her recent personal struggles for inspiration in writing her acceptance speech — including her high-profile and contentious split from longtime partner, Gerard Piqu?.
The singer was honored with the inaugural gala’s first ever Woman of the Year award — which was presented by her friend and fellow Colombian singer Maluma — and delivered a memorable and emotional address on stage.
“This has been a year of seismic change in my life where I’ve felt more than ever and very personally what it is to be a women. And what it means,” Shakira shared at the event, per Billboard, which took place on May 6. Many felt her speech included numerous references to her split, and the cheating allegations surrounding Piqu?. “It’s been a year where I’ve realized we women are stronger than we think, braver than we believed, more independent than we were taught to be.”
“Because what woman hasn’t at some time in her life forgotten herself because she’s seeking the attention and love of someone else? It happened to me, more than once,” she continued.
“But there comes a time in the life of every woman where she no longer depends on someone else to love and accept herself just as she is. A time when the search for someone else is replaced by the search for oneself. A time when the desire to be perfect is replaced by the desire to be authentic, and where finding someone who is faithful is less important than being faithful to ourselves,” Shakira shared, in part.
“The most important lessons I learned from other women, and for them I wrote what I wrote and I sang what I sang. Because only a woman can love until she’s ripped apart; can speak with the most brutal honesty; can sing with anger; dance in ecstasy and be brought to tears with emotion. Only a woman can do that,” Shakira said.
The seismic shifts in Shakira’s life include more than the split, but also a big move. Shakira announced in April she will say goodbye to Barcelona, Spain, amid her split from Piqu?. The singer has lived in Barcelona with Piqu? and their two sons, 7-year-old Sasha and 9-year-old Milan, for over a decade.
The singer did not note where she will head next, though Deadline reported she is considering Miami, Florida, where she has lived previously.
Shakira and Piqu? first announced their split last summer, after Shakira allegedly discovered the soccer player cheating on her with the woman he is now dating publicly, Clara Ch?a.
In January, the singer’s new music seemingly referenced the scandal with the song lyric, “Las mujeres ya no lloran, las mujeres facturan,” which translates to, “Women don’t cry anymore, they send a bill.”
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