Bigger than the Rihannas, the Mileys and the likes, is a golden maned woman whose hips don’t like: Shakira. The Colombian beauty took some time off of the scene to celebrate the birth of her son, Milan, with soccer player Gerard Piqué, and quickly made a return to the spotlight with a chair on The Voice.
To this date, the 37-year-old Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll has sold more than 50 million albums all over the world and racked up a combined 10 Latin and American Grammys, and now she is ready to get back in the studio.
Glamour magazine tapped the woman whose hips don’t lie for the cover of their February 2013 issue, and talks everything from her body image, to having a thick skin in the music industry and working with Rihanna.
Shakira on her duet with Rihanna…
“[W]orking with her was utopia. She’s the sexiest woman on the planet. And at the end of the day, we’re both just basically Caribbean girls. The chemistry was so good and so real. She taught me dance moves. She was a sweet teacher.”
Working with fellow The Voice judge Adam Levine and other men in the industry…
“Dealing with boys at work and being the only girl can be challenging. I have my insecurities, but I’ve learned I have to be a good sport. I have to be able to take certain jokes and not take them personally. There are jokes made almost every second of the day. I had to develop a tough hide. You know, the music industry is dominated by guys. I work with men 98 percent of the time—producers, arrangers, musicians, engineers.”
Her vision for her life…
“I feel like I’m not on earth just to shake it and shake it endlessly, you know?”
Whether she has gotten any grief from Latin fans about her blond hair or being too thin…
“At the beginning. But my man, Gerard, prefers meat over bone. He doesn’t like too skinny. [Laughs.] That takes pressure off. I already have a lot to worry about. This month I’m not exercising because I have an album to finish and I have a baby. And I like these pastries in front of me.”
Whether the injustice she saw growing up planted the seed for her education charity…
“Being raised in a developing country opened my eyes to so much I cannot tolerate. In Colombia, education is sometimes considered a luxury, not a human right. And it’s not a priority in the agendas of many leaders. I feel a real sense of duty to use the voice and the platform I’ve been afforded by my fame to speak out for those whose voices don’t get a chance to be heard. [The Barefoot Foundation] provides education to vulnerable kids who live in extreme poverty. We’ve built six schools in Colombia and do work in South Africa and Haiti. We teach 5,000 students.”
SOURCE: Glamour
