Shakira is putting herself first.
On March 22, the "Hips Don't Lie" singer will release her 12th studio album, "Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran," which comes seven years after she released “El Dorado” in 2017.
During a new interview with the Sunday Times, Shakira said her new album, which translates in English to "Women No Longer Cry," is a mix of pop, rap, reggaeton and more genres.
“Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran" represents “the transformation of pain into creativity, frustration into productivity, anger into passion, vulnerability into resilience," Shakira said in the interview published March 16.
“There were so many pieces of my life that crumbled in front of my eyes and I had to rebuild myself in a way, picking up the bones from the floor and putting them all together. And the glue that kept it all together was music," she said.
One hardship that Shakira experienced in her life was her public split from former pro-soccer player Gerard Piqué.
Shakira said she put her career on the back burner to be with him.
“For a long time I put my career on hold, to be next to Gerard, so he could play football,” she said. “There was a lot of sacrifice for love.”
In June 2022, Shakira and Piqué announced they were separating after 11 years together. A few months later, Piqué went Instagram official with Clara Chia Martí.
Shakira talked about her split with Piqué in the January 2023 song “Shakira: Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53," which won her song of the year at the 2023 Latin Grammys. "Las mujeres ya no lloran" is notably a lyric in the song.
In the Spanish-language track, Shakira sings, "I was out of your league, that’s why you’re/ With someone just like you, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh."
She also seemingly referenced her ex's new relationship and said, "I’m worth two 22-year-olds/ You traded in a Ferrari for a Twingo/ You traded in a Rolex for a Casio."
Shakira and Piqué share two sons, Milan and Sasha. When asked what her kids thought about the song, Shakira told the Sunday Times her sons "know that there’s only one way to live life and it’s accepting the pain. And each one of us has different ways of doing that.”
She noted that Milan also chose to express himself through music.
“When his father and I were going through separation, he wrote two amazing songs, the kind that will bring you to tears," she said.
Reflecting on "Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53," which many fans consider a diss track, Shakira said it helped her "exorcise a lot of the demons that were tormenting me. And it felt good."