During her speech after receiving the inaugural gala's first ever Woman of the Year award, the Columbian singer talks about being a strong and independent woman.
- May 8, 2023
AceShowbiz - Shakira was among the honorees at Billboard's first Latin Women in Music gala. During her speech, the "Hips Don't Lie" hitmaker seemingly addressed her headline-making drama with her now-ex boyfriend Gerard Pique.
"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 said at the Saturday, May 6 event after receiving the inaugural gala's first ever Woman of the Year award. "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."
The Columbian singer went on to say, "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."
Shakira, who shares two kids with the soccer star, added, "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."
The "Waka Waka" hitmaker also noted, "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."
Following her split from Gerard, who cheated on her with his new girlfriend Clara Chia, Shakira moved from Barcelona to Miami alongside their two sons, 7-year-old Sasha and 9-year-old Milan. The move came after Gerard's dad allegedly served the singer with an "eviction notice."
