Every year-end, Spotify Wrapped becomes one of the most anticipated moments for those who consume streaming music. The platform offers each user a tally of what they listened to during the last 12 months: artists, songs, genres and playback habits.
In addition, as part of the experience, it is common for some artists to record messages of thanks to their listeners, which often touches fans as they feel directly acknowledged by their favorite performers.
This year, one of the artists who appeared with a message included was Shakira. However, what for many was going to be a special detail became a source of annoyance for part of her audience.
The viral complaint, “Neta Shakira?”
The discontent arose from a video posted on TikTok by user Jesica Valdez, who explained that Shakira was among her most listened artists of the year. The disappointment, she said, came when she saw that the singer’s message was recorded in English and not in Spanish, something she considered incongruous due to the artist’s Latin origin and the profile of her audience.
In his video, he claimed with a phrase that became part of the conversation:
“Neta Shakira? You are Latina, almost all your songs are in Spanish, most of your fans are Latino, you gave a lot of concerts in Mexico (…) and you send messages IN ENGLISH? You used to be cool”.
In addition, Jesica added a point that connected with many people: she mentioned that Shakira also appeared in her mom’s top, but that she could not understand the message precisely because of the language barrier.
The clip quickly went viral: it reached almost two million reproductions and over 270 thousand likes, driven mainly by users who identified with the creator’s discomfort.
As it usually happens with this type of controversy, the issue became a debate. On the one hand, there were those who defended Shakira, arguing that Spotify could impose certain conditions on global artists and that is why they would record messages in English as they are international figures. On the other hand, there were also comments attacking the singer and comparisons with other popular artists. Among the phrases that circulated -according to the text itself- were comments such as: “Ya ni Bad Bunny que es más famoso” or “Bad Bunny, being number 1 globally, thanks in Spanish”.
The text also states that Shakira appears in the top 20 most listened artists in the world on Spotify, with more than 67 million monthly listeners. It also points out that a significant part of that audience would be Spanish-speaking, and that Mexico City would be her number one city with more than three million monthly listeners, followed by Santiago de Chile, Bogota and Lima with averages above one million, and Buenos Aires in fifth place with more than 900 thousand.
Finally, the text indicates that, after more than six years away from the stage, Shakira returned with “Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour”, with 75 concerts around the world and more than 2.5 million tickets sold. A key point is also mentioned: much of the impact would have occurred in Mexico City, where she would have played 12 shows, equivalent to more than 780,000 tickets in the capital alone.
Here is Shakira’s message on Spotify Wrapped.
Find out more at ‘QueOnnda.com’.
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