Shakira, a Colombian diva who won eight honors for music, was the main winner at Premios Juventud's 20th anniversary celebration on Thursday night. At the same time, she is the subject of a fresh investigation into alleged income and wealth tax fraud in 2018, a Spanish court announced on that day as well.
Shakira WINS Big in Premios Juventud
Some of the biggest personalities in the genre congregated in Puerto Rico for the 20th anniversary of the awards honoring the finest of Latin music. Best female artist, best song, girl power, best urban track, best pop song, best pop/urban collaboration, tropical mix, and social dance challenge were all awarded to Shakira. Shakira was also given the Agent of Change Award by Puerto Rican musician Kany Garcia to round out the evening. The celebrity from Colombia was honored for her charity work with underprivileged children through her "Fundación Pies Descalzos."
Her foundation was established in 1997 with the intention of aiding low-income families and children by enhancing their access to high-quality education.
Her acceptance speech was quite poignant and eye-opening.
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An excerpt goes like this:
"We live in an ambiguous world, surrounded by good music, beauty, TikTok dances, filtered selfies. But there are realities that cannot be filtered or made up. There are places where people who are born poor die poor because they do not have the opportunity to receive a quality education."
She then also said:
"You don't have to have a foundation, you don't have to be a politician or even occupy a place of power, you don't have to be famous or rich. To be an agent of change you just have to differentiate what is right from what is wrong. You just have to believe that it is possible to change things and not let anyone tell you otherwise."
Shakira Faces More Jail Threats
Meanwhile, while Shakira was all smiles in her acceptance speech, legal troubles are certainly brewing for her.
in its statement, the court in the northeastern town of Esplugues de Llobregat, close to Barcelona, omitted to provide more information. The 46-year-old singer of "Hips Don't Lie" is scheduled to go on trial at the end of the year in a different case involving more than $14.3 million ($14.31 million) in unpaid taxes from 2012 to 2014. The diva, whose full name is Shakira Isabel Mebarak, is being sought by the prosecution in that case for a maximum eight-year prison sentence. A request for comment regarding the new case was not immediately answered by the prosecutor.
The legal counsel for Shakira promised to respond later in the day.
