Followers have been ready for this second for years: Colombian heavyweights Shakira and Karol G have lastly joined forces, combining their star energy for the long-awaited collaboration “TQG.” The observe is a biting break-up anthem that raises a center finger to crappy, untrue boyfriends whereas exhibiting Karol and Shakira at their most unapologetic.
The music is off of Karol’s new album, Mañana Será Bonito, which drops on Feb. 24. On it, the 2 singers commerce lyrics a couple of man who’s completed them incorrect over a down-tempo beat. They every allude to high-profile relationships from their previous: Karol, who introduced her cut up from the rapper Anuel AA in 2021, talks a couple of important different she helped degree up. Shakira, in the meantime, mentions somebody who strayed away from her, a reference seemingly about her public break-up with soccer participant Gerard Piqué following an 11-year relationship.
Karol tells Rolling Stone that she wrote the music final yr when she was in an emotional place. “After I began it, it had a private which means to me that advanced over time and although it doesn’t characterize issues now, it was a selected second in my life,” she says. She had wished to collaborate with Shakira for a very long time, however hadn’t considered asking her to leap on “TQG.” Then she heard “Monotonía,” Shakira’s collaboration with Ozuna, and she or he realized Shakira’s story match completely with what she was doing on her personal observe. “Listening to that story and the place she was at, ‘the music ‘TQG’ made plenty of sense,” Karol says. “I despatched it to her and she or he cherished it.”
For the video, which was shot in Barcelona, they rented out a whole constructing with sufficient room for six units. Each groups did their finest to maintain the whole lot utterly beneath wraps, however that proved troublesome, given the profile of every artist. “As a lot as we tried, it was inconceivable to maintain it a secret,” Karol says. “We wished to shoot it in a studio so we wouldn’t be out within the streets and have photos leak out.” Though snippets of the music got here out, Karol says she’s blissful nobody acquired to see the idea and imaginative and prescient till the large premiere.
Karol’s different collaborations on Mañana Será Bonito embody Romeo Santos, Sech, and Carla Morrison, amongst others. Like “TQG,” the album is a significant one which captures a tumultuous interval for her. “This positively represents a selected section of my life,” she informed Rolling Stone earlier this yr. “The title of album is a a phrase I saved repeating to myself when nothing felt nice. I imply, I used to be going by way of the most effective second of my profession, however personally I used to be actually disconnected from myself and from my buddies. I wasn’t sad, however I wasn’t blissful both. So every single day I’d say to myself, ‘It’s okay, mañana será bonito — tomorrow will likely be stunning.’”
“TQG” follows Shakira’s mega-viral Bzrp Music Periods, Vol. 53, which broke the document for the Latin observe with the most-streams in a single day on Spotify. The music, which incorporates a number of veiled references to Pique, at the moment has 350 million views on YouTube. Earlier than that, Shakira had dropped “Monotonía” and “Te Felecito” with Rauw Alejandro.