Shakira, Shakira: The Significance of an Arab-Latin Half Time Show
(Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)
When I moved to the US from Yemen aged nine, lots of things were new to me; the language, the food, the weather. But it’s the subtler things that remind you you’re not at home. I had never seen blonde hair before. I was shocked to see people kiss in public.
I had to quickly adjust to the fact that despite America being the number one destination for immigrants from around the world, and New York City’s status as a hub for multiculturalism - that when I looked around me, I wasn’t represented.
In the media, on the TV, on the radio, in the newspaper, even down to simple things like the hypothetical names used in math questions at school - I wouldn’t see a Middle Eastern girl named Amal, or any semblance the culture I had come from. I certainly wouldn’t have seen a half Lebanese, half Colombian woman belly-dancing and chanting a zaghrouta on the Super Bowl Half Time Show.
Enter Shakira. Accompanying first generation Puerto-Rican, Bronx born superstar Jennifer Lopez at Super Bowl LIV in 2020. Their performance was fiery, sexy and entertaining, but also far more culturally significant than many people may realize.
If you’ve never been to an Arab celebration, you may never have heard such ululations before. The ‘turkey call’ or ‘tongue thing’ that blew up Twitter after the show is actually called a zaghrouta - it’s a traditional Middle Eastern expression of joy.
You may also not have realized that as Shakira was belly dancing to “Ojos Así”, one of her only songs to feature Arabic, you were listening to two Middle Eastern instruments: the mijwiz, a woodwind, and the doumbek, a type of drum.
Shakira, who speaks more than six languages including Arabic, French, English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Catalan, also danced the champeta and mapalé, two Afro-Colombian dance traditions.
Two of the biggest Latin artists in the world right now, Bad Bunny and J Balvin also joined J-Lo and Shakira onstage, delivering verses entirely in Spanish for the first time in Super Bowl history.
(Doug Mills/The New York Times)
But perhaps the most obvious statement came from J-Lo, who donned an incredible custom Versace coat that displayed the US flag on one side, and the Puerto Rican flag on the other. The performance aired a week after Democratic candidate and former Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, pledged to make Puerto Rico the 51st state should he become president.
J-Lo also included her 11-year-old daughter, Emme in the show; who appeared leading a choir of other children wearing white and US flags, some of whom were in cage-like structures (a possible reference to the treatment of immigrants at the border) singing J-Lo’s hit “Let’s Get Loud” and Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA.”
(Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)
J-Lo shouted “Latinos!” and Shakira shouted “Muchas Gracias!” at the end of their incredible performance. I was glued to my screen the whole way through.
This was more than just a show: the rhythms, dances, chants and music that J-Lo and Shakira performed for us at Super Bowl LIV were a mirror of America. A representation of some of our most under-represented cultures. I only hope that somewhere out there, is a little Middle Eastern girl with a name like Amal, who saw, and felt represented, even in some small way.