This year’s MTV VMAs featured a few big moments, but Shakira’s thunderous performance, a 10-minute medley of classics including “Hips Don’t Lie” and “TQG,” was clearly the highlight of the evening.
She later gave an emotional acceptance speech for the Video Vanguard Award. “I want to share this with my fans, who always support me through thick and thin,” she said. “Thank you so much for being my army and helping me fight all my battles.”
Shakira has had a rough year. The actress, 46, broke up with her 11-year boyfriend, retired professional football player Gerard Piqué, in June 2022. (They have two kids, Milan, ten, and Sasha, eight.) Piqué, 36, is said to have cheated on her with his current girlfriend, 24-year-old Clara Chia Marti. Shakira afterward described the split as “the darkest hour of my life.”
According to various reports, the Colombian native, who moved to Miami in April and has been romantically linked to NBA player Jimmy Butler, 34, since the summer, is now seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. “It’s a new chapter for Shakira,” says one source, “and she’s feeling better than ever.”
She has been settling down in the United States, enjoying the 305, going to the Miami Grand Prix with Tom Cruise and taking wakeboarding lessons with her sons. An insider said, “Shakira loves Miami and the energy, music and people,” saying that the singer has been going out to dinner with famous friends like Gisele Bündchen. “She’s going surfing and experiencing the nightlife and everything else Miami has to offer.”