In an epic double-bill, pop superstars Jennifer Lopez and Shakira were tapped to team up for
the Super Bowl LIV halftime show.
The performance left fans curious about Shakira's long history in the spotlight.
Let's expose all the juicy details with the untold truth of Shakira.
Shakira and Gerard Piqué reportedly met after the musician filmed the video for "Waka Waka
(This Time for Africa)."
Piqué is one of the soccer stars who appears briefly in the video, and after Shakira spotted
the athlete, an associate took it upon themselves to introduce them.
Three years after syncing up, the couple welcomed their first son, Milan, in 2013, and their
second son, Sasha, arrived in 2015.
Amid all the happy news, some fans are curious whether the two will ever tie the knot.
The answer?
That's a hard no.
"Marriage scares the s--- out of me.
I don't want him to see me as the wife.
I want him to see me as his girlfriend.”
“Exactly!”
But even without rings, the two are incredibly close.
In fact, the singer revealed to Billboard in 2014.
"He's very territorial, and since he no longer lets me do videos with men, well, I have to
do them with women.
It's more than implied in our relationship that I can't do videos like I used to.
It's out of the question."
Although some people might label the soccer star's stance as problematic or controlling,
Shakira admitted she "likes" the rule.
She added:
"I like that he protects his turf and he values me, in a way that the only person he would
ever let graze my thigh would be Rihanna."
It's no secret celebrity parents often struggle to maintain a successful work-life balance,
and Shakira is no exception to this rule.
But not many people might know how long she is typically separated from her family, as
she lamented to Viva in September 2019,
"Sometimes it's very hard when you can not see your sons for a month or even more.
It is so hard.
But we call each other via FaceTime, so we are in constant communication, that helps."
Luckily for Shakira, she has Gerard Piqué to lean on when things get hectic.
She shared:
"We have never been a traditional couple.
We don't have a written deal to share the tasks or anything like that, but we both are
very involved in parenting and try to sort it out the best we can, we support each other
and we also find a huge help in our families.
We don't know a different way to do it!"
It sounds like these two are doing just fine!
Shakira encountered a serious roadblock in 2017 when she suffered a hemorrhage in her
vocal cords.
She opened up about the terrible experience in an interview with The Guardian, saying:
"I always thought there were going to be things in my life that would go away, like beauty,
youth, all of that stuff.
But I never thought that my voice would leave me, because it's so inherent to my nature.
It was my identity.
So when I couldn't sing, that was unbearable."
Not only was the musician devastated about her predicament, but she was also fearful
it would change her life forever.
After the Colombia native revealed her vocal hemorrhage was more like a "vascular lesion,"
she confessed a depressing possibility to the BBC:
"So you can imagine, there were times when I doubted I would ever be in front of a crowd
again singing my songs."
We can't imagine what the entertainment industry would look like without Shakira's influence.
The good thing is the singer was able to recover naturally without surgery.
Unfortunately for Shakira, in February 2018 she had to pay a huge sum of $25 million in
back taxes to the Spanish government following an investigation launched in December 2017.
The superstar was accused of not paying income tax between the years 2011 and 2014, which
is problematic because if a person spends more than 183 days in Spain, they're considered
a legal resident who is required to pay taxes on any and all income earned internationally.
Shakira's reported defense?
She argued her primary residence was the Bahamas during the period in question, which investigators
checked up on by reportedly questioning her hairstylist and studying, quote, "numerous
photos of the star out and about in Spain," according to People.
The mom ultimately coughed up the dough for 2011, and in December 2018, Spanish tax authorities
charged her with tax evasion for the other years.
Although Shakira changed her residence from the Bahamas to Spain in 2015, the Spanish
government claims she lived in Catalonia between 2012 and 2014, with the performer supposedly
being spotted around the area often.
Shakira countered this allegation, with her PR company stating in June 2019 that, quote,
"there is currently no debt whatsoever."
Either way, don't worry about Shakira going broke to pay her back taxes.
The "Try Everything" singer has a reported net worth of $300 million.
"Hips don't lie.”
“Don't do that.”
“Sorry."
Shakira might hail from Colombia, but the other half of her roots come from Lebanon.
The entertainer's dad is Lebanese and she's very proud of this ancestry.
In fact, according to the BBC, Shakira's dance style was influenced by her father's mother.
Apparently, grandma's hips don't lie, either.
The "She Wolf" singer has also visited and performed in Lebanon multiple times, telling
concertgoers at an event there in 2018, per Reuters:
"This means so much to me to be singing in the land of my grandparents.
I feel so proud of these cedars, so proud of my heritage and so proud of you."
Outside of Shakira's long list of accomplishments, she's just like any other person out there
with some interesting hidden talents.
Like what?
Well, she confessed to Marie Claire in 2014:
"I'm double-jointed.
I can put my legs over my head, which freaks people out."
Considering Shakira is an epic dancer, it's actually not all that shocking, but the singer
also had a few other confessions for the mag:
"I'm a closet nerd.
I love to study history and visit museums."
Perhaps the "Waka Waka" musician felt drawn to more serious subjects as an escape from
her career, which hasn't always been smooth sailing.
She's explained in interviews that she didn't sing in the school choir as a child because
the music teacher didn't like the way she sang.
Even her classmates sometimes mocked her.
"My classmates used to say that I sounded like a goat.”
“Sound like a goat?”
“Like a goat, yeah."
We think it's safe to say Shakira showed her naysayer teacher, especially since she was
chosen to perform at a Super Bowl halftime show.
You go, girl.
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