Shakira drops video for her new single ‘Soltera’
‘Soltera’ is the Colombian singer-songwriter’s third release of the year, her first solo single in which she celebrates the joys of being footloose and fancy free.
On Friday, Shakira released the video for her latest single: Soltera, two weeks after it went on general release on 25 September. Soltera is the Spanish word for a female who is currently without a partner and judging by the lyrics of the song and the accompanying video, the Colombian GRAMMY-winning songstress seems to be enjoying herself - and a carefree life without any romantic ties.
In June 2022, Shakira and her partner Gerard Piqué announced their separation after being together for 11 years. Their relationship produced two children, Milan and Sasha. In April last year, she and her two sons relocated to Miami as part of her custody agreement with her ex.
Back in June, she told Rolling Stone: “When you leave a relationship of many years, there are things about yourself that seem to have been lost along the way. There’s things about yourself that you change for the other person or give up. When that relationship breaks down, you feel like you’re left with nothing and you have to heal, search for yourself, and travel back toward the center of yourself. This has been a journey back to myself, and the way there was through my music. I’m in a moment where the worst has happened, and this process woke up a new sense of autonomy and independence in me”.
The lyrics to Shakira’s new single ‘Soltera’
Time is a great healer, and in her lyrics for Soltera, Shakira says she is now well over the pain of the breakup and enjoying her new freedom. “I went out to clear my head/tired of being down in the dumps/I decided to let myself go” she sings. “I’m free now and I can do what I want/It’s great to be single/I have the right to behave badly and enjoy myself/the queen bee is spreading honey”.
Shakira lets her hair down on a girls’ night out
The accompanying video starts with a shot of the morning after a wild night out. Shakira wakes up in her hotel bedroom strewn with the evidence of a night on the tiles - a half eaten pizza in a box, discarded underwear and her mates (Anitta, Danna Paola, Lele Pons and model Winnie Harlow) asleep and crashed out around the room.
Still only half-awake, a few fleeting flashbacks remind her of the fun they were having just a few hours earlier - after a spot of surfing and lazying about on a yacht, the girls hit the Hard Rock Cafe in south Florida. It’s Shakira’s lucky night - she her numbers come in at the casino, and the girls spend the rest of the night partying.
“My boy’s telling me: ‘It still smells of summer here’ / Nothing’s bad / So let’s make the most of it” Shakira sings towards the end. A girls’ night out signing, dancing, laughing and getting some male attention.
And with a reference to her ex, Shakira has a pop at unfaithful men and the mistrust they have caused her in her own life.