A 20-foot-tall statue of Shakira has been unveiled in the pop star's hometown of Barranquilla, Colombia. It depicts the multiple Grammy and Latin Grammy winner in one of her famous belly-dancing outfits, with her hips swaying to her right and her arms raised gracefully toward the sky.
Billboard reports there's a plaque under the statue that says on February 2, 1977, the town of “Barranquilla and the world witnessed the birth of a heart that composes, hips that don’t lie, a voice that moves masses and a pair of bare feet that walk for the good of children and humanity.”
The statue, located on a recently built promenade along the Magdalena River that runs along the edge of the town, was unveiled in a small ceremony on Tuesday (December 26) attended by Shakira’s parents and mayor Jaime Pumarejo. However, the bronze artwork is not the Colombian town’s first Shakira statue. In 2006, Barranquilla unveiled a Shakira monument depicting the pop star in her early days, playing an acoustic guitar and wearing jeans and boots. That statue stands near the entrance of the local soccer stadium.
On social media, Shakira thanked sculptor Yino Marquez and his students at Barranquilla’s public art academy for the latest statue, which she described as proof of the “enormous talent” of Barranquilla’s citizens.
The Colombian pop star has had a big year. She won three Latin Grammys earlier in 2023, and made headlines in January, when she and Bizarrap collaborated on “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53”: a fiery rap song about Shakira’s ex-partner Gerard Pique that broke YouTube records. Her collab with Karol G, "TQG", also drew attention. Finally, she settled a tax-fraud case in Spain with a $7.5 million dollar payment this year, and recently moved to Miami with her two children.
See Barranquilla's bronze Shakira statue below.
Gracias al escultor Yino Márquez y a los estudiantes de la escuela distrital de artes por esta muestra del enorme talento artístico de la gente de mi tierra. pic.twitter.com/lR7ZQSO4Mx
— Shakira (@shakira) December 26, 2023
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Article Image: Close-up of Shakira at the 2023 VMAs. (imagepressagency via DepositPhotos.)
