Shakira releases her first album in seven years

Shakira, the boundary-breaking Colombian performer, has been remarkably consistent since beginning her career in the early '90s. Without fail, she toured, released albums, won awards, woven global, genre-defying sounds into her pioneering singles, performed at the Super Bowl halftime show and more. Then, things slowed. Or so it appeared.

In reality, the last few years haven't been kind to Shakira. In 2022, after 11 years and two children together, she separated from soccer player Gerard Piqué, leading to what she's called the "dissolution of my family." She faced charges of tax evasion in Spain; in November 2023, she received a suspended three-year sentence and paid a fine of 7.3 million euros in addition to previously unpaid taxes and interest.

On "Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran," her first new album in seven years, Shakira transforms her pain into art — from the bachata "Monotonía" to the electro-pop "Te Felicito" to the mega viral "Shakira: Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53" and beyond.

"I've been through so much in these past few years that I had to literally pick up the pieces of myself and put them back together," Shakira told The Associated Press over Zoom from Miami. "And during that process, I think that music was the glue." Miami. "And during that process, I think that music was the glue."

It has been seven years since your last album, "El Dorado." What did you learn about yourself, musically, in that time?

Well, in those seven years I've been raising kids, I've been learning a lot about myself as a mother, as a woman. But I've also been making music. It's just that it's been more of a sporadic thing, you know, here and there. Whenever I had a chance to put out a song, I did that. But I didn't have the time to...