Shakira’s Team Wanted Her to Change the ‘Sharp’ Lyrics to ‘Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53’

Shakira poured everything she had into her music following the tumultuous end of her relationship with former soccer star Gerard Piqué. “I had this urge to express myself through my art, my visions, my music, transferring all that pain, all those sharp emotions to a space outside myself,” she says in her new Rolling Stone cover story.

This creative burst undeniably reached its most revelatory and incendiary peak with last year’s record-breaking smash with Argentine producer Bizarrap, “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53.” The song found Shakira unloading on an ex for his lies and deceptions, telling him he’s traded a “Ferrari for a Twingo,” a “Roex for a Casio,” and even slipping in a few double entendres that played with Piqué’s name and the name of his new girlfriend.

Shakira recalls the “maximum relief” she felt upon releasing it, but also the wariness of some members of her team. “I remember my manager at the time telling me, ‘Please change the lyrics.’” 

Shakira admits that she, too, was “trying to calculate the possible contingencies and risks” but ultimately stood confidently behind the track. “I said, ‘I’m an artist. I am a woman. And I’m a wounded she-wolf. And no one should tell me how to lick my wounds.’”

Not only did “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53” mark a major personal and artistic moment for Shakira, it became a critical and commercial smash. The track shattered several records on the Billboard and Spotify Charts and went on to win Song of the Year and Best Pop Song at the 2023 Latin Grammys. (It also now appears on Shakira’s new album, Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran.)

“I started to see that my fans were there for me,” Shakira says of the reaction to “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53.” Going on to note that her song’s success coincided with that of Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers,” another self-empowered, break-up anthem, Shakira adds, “We’re in a society that’s used to seeing women confront pain in a submissive way, and I think that’s changed. We were both thinking the same thing, and the reaction was similar.”