Shakira's latest album, Women Don't Cry Anymore, is the product of both a breakup and a breakthrough. The album, which arrived last week, was created following the dissolution of her relationship with Gerard Piqué in 2022. During a recent interview in tonight's show Starring Jimmy Fallondetailed the ways in which the end of her marriage gave her the freedom to explore more fulfilling paths.
“I didn't have time because of the husband factor,” Shakira explained about being able to focus on her creative efforts. “Now I don't have a husband. Yes, the husband was dragging me down. I'm free now. “Now I can really work.” With that weight lifted from her shoulders, Shakira crafted her first full-length studio album in seven years.
“Doing this work has been an alchemical process. As I wrote each song, I rebuilt myself,” Shakira shared in a statement when the album was first announced. “As she sang them, my tears transformed into diamonds and my vulnerability into strength.”
In a review of the album, Rolling Stone wrote: “In Women Don't Cry Anymore“Shakira can finally turn the page on these tempestuous last two years and reintroduce herself, not as Shakira the soccer mom, nor as Shakira the heartbroken, but as Shakira, the damn Mebarak, international pop icon and undefeated champion.”
With this album, Shakira was able to address her healing and overall reshaping of her narrative on her own terms. “For too long we have been sent to cry with a script in our hands and no ending just because we are women,” she said in tonight's show. “We have to hide our pain from our children, from society. We have to heal in a certain way.” Shakira shares two children, ages 11 and 9, with Piqué.
“I don't think anyone should tell us how to heal,” he continued. “No one's supposed to tell a wolf how to lick her wounds, you know? I think that now women decide when to cry, how to cry and until when. “No one is supposed to tell us how to deal with life’s difficulties.”