Shakira’s hips still don’t lie

SHAKIRA is sick of pictures being ‘photoshopped to hell’, so when she was asked to voice a character in the new Disney movie Zootopia she had one request.

NO ONE can accuse Shakira of not taking her image seriously.

In the upcoming animated movie, Zootopia, in which she voices the character of Gazelle, the Hips Don’t Lie songstress insisted on making some physical adjustments to her character.

“Poor Gazelle. She was too fit for me,” she told news.com.au. “She was too slim and stylised and so I told the directors she had to be a little curvier, she needed bigger hips if she was going to be based on my persona.”

The award-winning singer and judge on the US version of The Voice is angry about the inaccuracies of women’s portrayal in the media. “I’ve always been a big advocate of curves. I think that girls shouldn’t be too influenced by magazines.

“I speak the truth. A lot of pictures, well not a lot of them, all of them, are photoshopped to hell!

“We should be happy with who we are and with our own bodies. And besides, men like to have something to grab onto, right?” she says, laughing. “At least that’s what mine tells me, which is a great relief, because I will always have a little bit of extra fat here and there.”

Apparently her ‘extra fat’ is well appreciated. While she sings the praises of loving a younger man — Spanish football star Gerard Pique — her compliments aren’t what you might expect. “Gerard may be ten years younger than me but sometimes he’s ten years wiser,” she says, proudly.

The 39-year-old Colombian-born bombshell met the centre back for FC Barcelona, 29, in 2010 when he appeared in her music video for the song Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) and the two quickly became an item. Now they are raising their two sons together: Milan, 3, and Sasha, 1.

“As you live with a person, that person over the years begins to show you different facets of their personality as Gerard is showing me a lot lately.”

Usually footballers are associated with all things macho as opposed to the art of nappy-changing. But Shakira warns against stereotyping. “Since the kids were born, he is showing a tender side. He is the one who changes the diapers and the one who is also there for them, and also for me, too. He is a rock; he is the rock of our family.”

The couple live in his home town of Barcelona. With two famous parents, an artist and an athlete, Shakira is hoping the couple’s children are more influenced by their father than by herself.

“I want my kids to learn all about sports, even if they don’t do it professionally. There are so many advantages and the way it shapes the personality of children is just fantastic,” she says. “But whatever they want to do in life, I want to teach them to be disciplined and determined. I want them to be passionate and happy. I hope they inherit from us our passion we have for what we do and our true commitment.”

While Gerard has found his softer side since becoming a dad, Shakira says she’s become more spiritual since becoming a mother. “With my two boys at home, I find myself constantly praying again. It’s been a while since the last time I prayed but suddenly I’m doing it again,” she says.

“I pray that my boys will be really close to each other and I hope they’ll be united.” As for her professional dreams, she says, “I want to make great music again. Lately, I have been with bottles and diapers and pacifiers, but I’m a receptor of the miracle of making music. I have to wait for the muse to visit me but I want to share new music again with my fans, those who have been there for such a long time. They’re so loyal and patient with me.”

The former belly dancer, whose net worth is more than US$220 million, sees herself as a survivor. “I succeeded beyond my wildest dreams but my career hasn’t been a path of roses. I feel that the music industry tends to crush the idealists. It has its own mechanism of natural selection of the species and only the strongest and the most stubborn survive.

“For me, I have been perhaps a little bit more stubborn than strong, but I definitely believe that you have to have a certain aggressive approach to the realisation of your own goals.” But she’s had to fight with herself a little too.

“I’ve had to keep my own fears in check, my demons under control because sometimes you can be your own worst enemy,” she says. “Your insecurities and your fears can take over and that is really what I continuously have to battle against.”

Needless to say, Shakira is winning the battle.