Editor’s Note: Ximena N. Beltran Quan Kiu is a communication specialist and author primarily based in Chicago. The views expressed listed here are hers. Read extra opinion on CNN.
CNN
—
Last week, Shakira did to her ex, former soccer star Gerard Piqué, what each one who’s been mistreated and underappreciated by their companion needs they might do. She knocked out his ego and within the course of she reminded herself—and the world—what she’s able to.
In 24 hours, “BZRP Music Session #53,” her newest single alongside Argentinian producer and DJ Bizarrap, racked up a record-breaking 63 million views on YouTube and 14.4 million streams on Spotify. The catchy pop ballad is a formidable addition to the canon of breakup songs, however it is greater than a diss monitor about her former companion and father of her two children. By airing out her grievances in such a public discussion board, Shakira made an explosive and important cultural assertion by refusing to hold any disgrace related to the tip of their relationship.
But therein lies the rub. Not everybody agrees together with her method. The headlines round her smash single have taken on a sexist tone calling her conduct “petty,” and labeling the track a “revenge hit.” Users on social media are questioning whether or not Shakira broke an unwritten rule between ladies by dragging her ex’s new flame. Others are glad to observe the drama unfold whereas they choose her for airing out her soiled laundry.
We’ve heard the stigmatization of ladies proudly owning their heartbreak earlier than. Most notably with Taylor Swift. In a 2014 interview, Swift responded to criticism that she income off of her exes.
“You’re going to have people who are going to say, ‘Oh, you know, like, she just writes songs about her ex-boyfriends,’” stated the singer. “And I think frankly that’s a very sexist angle to take. No one says that about Ed Sheeran. No one says that about Bruno Mars. They’re all writing songs about their exes, their current girlfriends, their love life, and no one raises the red flag there.”
And she’s proper. Just have a look at Bad Bunny. His Spanish-language album “Un Verano Sin Ti,” broke record after record and earned him the highest spot for Billboard’s album of the yr. The translated title means “A Summer Without You”—its heartbreak theme laid out proper within the title and reiterated within the majority of its 23 songs. And but on-line searches for the Puerto Rican singer, alongside together with his album title, don’t instantly yield critiques round him monetizing his love life—they applaud his genius and creativity.
In a viral tweet posted the identical day because the track’s launch, person Melany Mora Murillo broke down all of the delicate methods Shakira takes her intimate data of Piqué and weaponizes it, leaving little doubt (if there was any) to whom she’s referring. Highlights from the thread embrace: stating how Bizarrap samples beats from “Me Enamoré,” (“I Fell in Love”), a 2017 track Shakira made about her then-relationship with Piqué and highlighting how Shakira instances her lyrics to allude to numerology of their relationship. At the two:22 mark she sings “I’m worth two times more than a 22-year-old,” not simply a reference to Piqué’s younger reported girlfriend (now 23; he’ll be 36 subsequent month) however the former couple’s shared birthday of February 2, 10 years aside. She additionally makes use of Piqué’s signature gesture of holding two fingers up with each arms.
To actually recognize the warmth behind the track, you need to watch it paired alongside the video, the place Shakira’s physique language provides one other layer of complexity. The digital camera focuses on her when she assaults her former flame, she takes up area and throws her physique round, projecting confidence and energy. It’s a far departure from “Monotonía,” launched in October 2022. In Monotonía’s music video, she spends more often than not in tears, wanting matted and singing “it wasn’t my fault, neither was it yours, monotony was to blame.”
And this is the place we actually see Shakira flip up the jets, saying (with a very pointed play on phrases on her ex’s final identify as well) “I understand it’s not my fault if you’re criticized, I only make music, sorry if I get you dirty.” Facetiously downplaying her affect by saying she “only makes music,” is the one time she takes a demure method, appropriating gendered stereotypes of ladies as weak and gentle to her benefit.
She lays her troubles at his toes and supplies perception into what’s holding her up at night time—having his mom as a neighbor, the press hounding her not solely about the break-up but additionally a tax evasion charge the place if convicted, she faces an eight-year jail sentence and high quality of near $25 million (she has repeatedly denied the accusations against her). After working by the obstacles she faces after his departure, issues that might be crushing beneath regular circumstances, she doubles down on her religion in herself and brings different betrayed ladies into the fold by belting out “Women no longer cry, women cash in.”
This track might need been made as an act of survival – she calls it “cathartic” and sings she has to “undrown” herself of her ache – however there’s no denying it is a money-maker and exhibits the world she’s nonetheless acquired it. She’s cashing in for positive. But by being so open about what she’s going by, she’s stepped into her energy and is triumphing. She’s rejected societal expectations and pressures to behave in a sure method as a long-term relationship involves an finish. In the method she made the biggest Spanish language debut in Spotify’s historical past (fairly a feat within the post-Bad Bunny “Un Verano Sin Ti” period).
As a girl whose former life companion is now her ex – a painful reminder of what occurs while you settle for lower than you’re value – Shakira is reminding others of a universal truth. There is no playbook for the worst moments in your life. There’s a excellent likelihood you’ll be criticized by somebody for no matter you do as you heal, so that you may as effectively do no matter feels proper to you.