Shakira is speaking out about the political convictions behind her upcoming Madrid residency.
In an op-ed published on Monday (August 31) in the Spanish newspaper El País, the 49-year-old singer wrote that the project was born from watching Latino communities suffer.
“This began with pain. It began when I saw that our people were being persecuted simply for being Latina, families obligated to live in fear,” she wrote in Spanish.
Shakira’s op-ed, the title of which translates to “In Madrid, we are all Latinos,” did not specify a specific country, region, or government as the source of that persecution. However, some commenters believed that the “Hips Don’t Lie” singer is referring to U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration cracking down on immigration through ICE enforcement.
“Facing that, the rage is legitimate,” she wrote. “But I chose to respond with a celebration: the largest that we were capable of imagining. Because the most powerful response to fear is existing with all of the strength, all of the joy, and all of the dignity in the world.”
She continued, “For that celebration, I chose Madrid. Because something happens here that deserves to be seen: Latin immigration isn’t tolerated, it’s celebrated. Spain has embraced [it], and that hug has made it younger, more vigorous, and more creative. That integration moves in its nature, perhaps because five centuries ago, the Spaniards were the ones who crossed the ocean. We share a language, a shared memory, gestures … The Atlantic, which lies between us, stopped being an ocean a long time ago. It is a bond. In Madrid, it’s said that someone who is from nowhere is from here.”
Shakira’s residency runs Sept. 18 through Oct. 11 at the 50,000-seater Shakira Stadium inside the Iberdrola Music complex in Madrid.
