Shakira, one of the most famous pop icons in history, is making a comeback with her 12th studio album, Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran (Women No Longer Cry). The album comes seven years after the release of her last, El Dorado in 2017. The 47-year-old singer, who has acquired numerous accolades over her decades-long career, recently became the cover star for Allure magazine. In the cover story, the Hips Don’t Lie hitmaker gets candid about her messy break-up with football star Gerard Piqué and the she “reconstructed” herself after heartbreak.

Shakira gets candid about breakup with Gerard Piqué

In the interview with Allure, the Waka Waka singer confessed how her break-up with Piqué wrecked her. The duo, who share two children, Sasha, nine, and Mila, 11, called it quits in 2022 after 11 years together. “I was in the mud. I had to reconstruct myself. I had to reunite all the pieces that had fallen apart,” Shakira confessed.

“I have rebuilt myself in the ways I believe are appropriate. No one tells me how to cry or when to cry, no one tells me how to raise my children, no one tells me how I become a better version of myself. I decide that,” she added.

Ahead of her latest album, which was released on March 22, Shakira unveiled the single- Shakira: Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53 (with Bizarrap) in January. In the viral track, the Chantaje singer blasted her ex-husband with the lyrics, “A she-wolf like me ain’t for dudes like you / I’ve outgrown you, and that’s why you’re with a girl just like you.”

Shakira on her motivation behind new album

Describing her new album, Shakira told the magazine, “I want this music to build bridges, to empower people, to help women discover their own strengths.” She continued, “Making this music has shown me that my pain can be transformed into creativity. The songs are full of anecdotes and some very intense emotions I have experienced in these two years. But creating this album has been a transformation in which I have been reborn as a woman.”

“In the past, when women went through a difficult situation, they were expected to mind their manners, to hide the pain, to cry in silence. That’s over. Now, no one will control us. No one will tell us how to heal, how to clean our wounds,” the Loca crooner added.

Shakira slams Barbie film as ‘emasculating’

She also expressed her dislike over the Oscar-nominated Barbie film by Greta Gerwig, saying that her sons didn’t like it and thought it was “emasculating.” “And I agree, to a certain extent. I’m raising two boys. I want ’em to feel powerful too [while] respecting women,” Shakira said.

“I like pop culture when it attempts to empower women without robbing men of their possibility to be men, to also protect and provide. I believe in giving women all the tools and the trust that we can do it all without losing our essence, without losing our femininity. I think that men have a purpose in society, and women have another purpose as well. We complement each other, and that complement should not be lost,” she added.