Global pop superstar Shakira’s unique blend of Latin pop music infused with the dance moves of her Arabic heritage has blazed a trail in the music industry, bringing joy to millions of her fans around the world and heralding the boom in Latin music.

Her stature reached a pinnacle in 2010 when she wrote and performed the theme song for the World Cup in South Africa, where she met and fell in love with Spanish soccer star Gerard Piqué.

They eventually settled down together and started a family. In 2023, she told ELLE, “I even had lost my faith for a while…I started to think that there was no God. And suddenly I meet Gerard, and the sun comes out.”

Shakira’s astonishing rise began when she was a teenager in Barranquilla, Colombia, doing gigs in mining towns until, at the age of 14, she heard a music executive was in town and did an impromptu audition. She then taught herself English and ultimately crossed over to U.S. fame in 2001 with her album Laundry Service. Pᴀssionately committed to both her charity work in building and running schools in her homeland and her political activism, it’s music, she says, that is now her main inspiration and solace.

She sat down with ELLE to talk publicly for the first time about her long-awaited new music, the collapse of her relationship, and why she’s determined to have her say about her finances.