After 22 years at the top of her profession, numerous awards, several number one hits and a title as the ‘Queen of Latin Music’, there is not much that Colombian singer Shakira is yet to achieve.

In the public eye over the past four decades, the 46-year-old has provided iconic songs such as Hips Don’t Lie, Beautiful Liar and Waka Waka (This time for Africa).

Her time in the limelight has extended to her romantic life too, with the singer together with former Barcelona and Spain defender Gerard Pique for 11 years until their split in June 2022.

Shakira and Pique have two children together, with the former Barcelona favourite now with Clara Chia Marti.

Since their split, things haven’t been plain-sailing for Pique however, with the 36-year-old – who is considered one of the greatest defenders of all-time – having retired from the game last year after slipping down the pecking order at the Nou Camp.

His business interests have also been hit, while he has been constantly trolled by his ex-partner.

This included a tune she developed which recently won Best Pop Song at the Latin Grammy Awards in Seville last week.

The song, called ‘Shakira: Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53’, has been dubbed a ‘diss track’ towards Pique.

This also targeted his new 24-year-old lover Clara Chia by claiming Pique had traded a Ferrari for a Twingo and a Rolex for a Casio, while the lyrics included ‘I’m too good for you — and that’s why you’re with someone just like you.’

To add insult to injury, the award was handed out by Pique’s former Spanish team-mate Sergio Ramos, with the pair forming a formidable partnership as La Roja won the 2010 World Cup and 2012 Euros.

Ramos then posed with his arm around Shakira which led to the singer’s lawyer claiming she would have saved herself ‘more than £100million’ if she had fallen in love with the former Real Madrid star instead of Pique, after she agreed to pay a £6.4million fine to settle a tax fraud case in Spain.

After receiving the aforementioned award, Shakira – who moved to Miami from Barcelona after their split – then thanked her fans for the support, while also aiming a subtle dig at Pique in the process.

‘I also want to share this (awards) with my Spanish public,’ she said.

‘You have been there accompanying me through the good and the bad, in difficult moments.’

Pique also suffered the embarrassment last month when he fell down a hole by the stage at the launch of his Kings League Americas competition – a seven-a-side tournament established by Pique.

Meanwhile, although the Kings League had success during its launch in Spain, another of Pique’s entrepreneurial ventures catastrophically fell apart.

In 2018, Pique offered the International Tennis Federation (ITF) $3billion (£2.4bn) over a 25-year period to take control of the Davis Cup – which is effectively the tennis World Cup.

He implemented a new model which was unpopular with traditional fans of the tournament, while several of its major sponsors also quit.

There were also low attendances at the new format, while other big-name players didn’t take part.

Kosmos, the company Pique founded, subsequently began to struggle to justify the investment, with reports claiming they lost tens of millions of dollars on the 2019 event alone.

Pique – who is a huge fan of the sport and idolises Rafa Nadal – then saw the deal collapse in January, with the Times reporting how the former Barcelona star is in the midst a legal battle with the ITF at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Given all the misdemeanours Pique has suffered, this has led to fans questioning whether Shakira has cursed him.
This comes after fans speculated the singer – who left Barcelona earlier this year to start a new life with her two children – has a history for curses.

For example, at the 2022 World Cup, Spain badly underperformed and exited the tournament at the last-16 stage after losing to Morocco.

La Roja dominated the clash with 77 per cent of possession but couldn’t find a way through before they lost on penalties. Spain failed to even score a spot kick in what was an embarrassing exit.

Following the conclusion of the tournament, Mhoni Vidente, a renowned psychic, claimed she had been paid by the Colombian singer to do a ‘ritual’ on Luis Enrique’s side.

‘The one that worked completely was Shakira’s curse, a curse that she put on the Spanish team,’ Vidente told Marca Magazine.

‘Shakira, the ritual you paid me for worked so that they would not do well,’ she added.

Shakira rubbished these reports and others suggesting she had a new partner, insisting her only focus was on looking after her family.

‘Out of respect for my children and the vulnerable moment they are going through, I ask the media to stop the speculation,’ she said.

‘I have no partner and nothing other than devoting myself entirely to my children and their welfare.’

Other reports of Shakira’s supposed curse also come from her former mother-in-law.

Reports claim that the singer – who lived opposite Montserrat Bernabeu, Pique’s mother – allegedly put a witch-like mannequin on her balcony at her home.

It turns out her Barcelona home faces the house of Bernabeu – who was also mentioned in Shakira’s diss track.

Bernabeu told reporters in Barcelona that a doll dressed in black and with wild grey hair, a pointy hat and mounted on a broomstick – akin to the design of witch – was propped up on Shakira’s terrace.

Reports in Spain also claimed Bernabeu had asked Shakira to remove the statue or turn it around, with fears it was being used for other reasons, such as a curse on her.

One local Barcelona reporter said that the ex-mother-in-law was worried the singer was doing something else with the doll.

‘Weeks ago, I got some information that Pique’s mother was worried about an alleged ritual that was done to her with a black witch,’ Marc Leirado Millan said.

‘(After originally ignoring the claims) I went to check if this information was true or not, and sure enough, there was a life-size black witch with a white beard.’

Given these reports regarding Pique’s mother and Spain’s underperformance at the World Cup last year, it raises the question over whether the former defender is the latest to suffer from the alleged curse of Shakira.