Shakira has reached an agreement to settle a years-long legal dispute related to accusations that she had evaded taxes for the years 2012, 2013 and 2014.
The tax evasion trial for Shakira was set to begin in Barcelona but took a turn when it was announced that she had reached to settle the years-long legal dispute. She had initially faced an eight-year prison sentence and a fine of 24 million euros related to accusations that she had evaded taxes in the years 2012, 2013, and 2014.
Shakira, whose full name is Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, was born in Colombia in 1977. Her debut album, Magia, hit the charts in 1990 when she was just 13 years old. Within a decade, she had sold millions of albums and became a household name.
In 2010, Shakira recorded the catchy “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa),” the official song of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. She met then-FC Barcelona footballer Gerard Piqué while filming the video for the song (he retired from FC Barcelona in 2022).
Before that, the singer—perhaps more synonymous with soccer than any other pop star—made her World Cup debut in 2006, performing her hit song, “Hips Don’t Lie,” during the closing ceremony in Germany. She subsequently appeared in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil to sing the anthem, “La La La (Brazil).” (Fun fact: Piqué also made an appearance in Shakira’s video for that song).
Shortly after, the pair were officially an item. Shakira gave birth to the couple’s first son, Milan, in Barcelona in 2013. At the time, news agencies reported that the baby “was born in Barcelona, Spain where Shakira and soccer star Gerard Piqué currently reside.” Two years later, Pique and Shakira announced the birth of another son, Sasha.
The children were largely raised in Barcelona, a fact Shakira appeared to acknowledge in a 2022 Instagram post where she wrote, “Me establecí en Barcelona para darle una estabilidad a mis hijos, la misma que ahora buscamos en otro rincón del mundo al lado de familia, amigos y el mar.” That translates loosely to, “I settled in Barcelona to give my children stability, the same we are now looking for in another corner of the world next to family, friends and the sea.
