Shakira, Billboard’s Latin Woman of the Year recipient did not hold back when giving her inspirational speech noting the resilience of women at the awards. The inaugural Latin Women In Music 2023, hosted by Jacqueline Bracamontes and Ivy Queen, celebrated Latin women including the Colombian singer on 7th May at Miami’s Watsco Center. Presented by fellow Colombian singer Maluma introduced her by mentioning how she can “turn adversity into art, emotions and pain into music,’ making history with her lyrics resulting in the universal anthem “women don’t cry, women cash in!” Shakira emotionally accepted the award with a heartfelt speech riddled with alleged subtle jabs at her ex-partner, Gerard Pique.
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A career spanning 30+ years with hits from Hips Don’t Lie, to the recent Music Session #53 with Bizarrap, Shakira is irrevocably a force to be reckoned with. Her speech began with expressing gratitude to her mother Nidia del Carmen Ripoll, admiring her resilience in the face of recent adversities. Standing boldly in front of an audience of 2000, the 46-year-old did not shy away from acknowledging the “seismic changes” in her life the past year referring to her high-profile split from Pique, and how she believes that music brought her back.
The supposed thinly veiled attack on Pique’s alleged affair with current partner Clara Chia can be interpreted as the singer reassuring herself, and all women to rise above challenges. She articulates, “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.”
Keeping in theme with her empowering speech, the Billboard’s Latin Woman of the Year concluded by candidly expressing her gratitude to women, “But 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.” The two-time Grammy awardee is the highest-selling Colombian-Lebanese artist of all time inspiring a generation of Latinas as well as Arabs worldwide. Time and time again, she proudly brought Latin and Arab culture to the forefront. Shakira’s moving words were received with a standing ovation and roaring applause from fellow peers and fans.
