A trio divided. Gloria Estefan has formed separate friendships with Jennifer Lopez and Shakira — which made headlines due to a performance at the 2020 Super Bowl.
After being named co-headliners for the sporting event, Lopez and Shakira both opened up about their plans to celebrate their Latin culture on the big night. During an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in December 2019, the New York native teased that she and Shakira would “bring the flavor” to the Super Bowl.
The Hustlers actress also explained how having the career milestone on her birthday added a level of importance to the performance. “I feel that’s going to be great because [Shakira] also represents a really important part of the Latino community who lives in the U.S. — who’s being born and raised in the U.S. — and in a way, I feel that I’m representing another part of the Latin world, which is all those people around the globe who barely speak English and a huge portion of the demographic that also arrived in the U.S. with the American dream,” Lopez told Zane Lowe on Apple Music’s Beats 1 at the time.
She added: “I think this is gonna be an event to celebrate Latin culture and the importance of women also in the industry.”
Estefan, for her part, publicly supported Lopez and Shakira ahead of the accomplishment. “I think it belongs to younger generations to come out there and kick some butt, and I think they’re going to do amazing. I mean, J. Lo and Shakira — it doesn’t get better than that,” she exclusively told Us Weekly in December 2019. “I think it belongs to younger generations to come out there and kick some butt, and I think they’re going to do amazing. I mean, J. Lo and Shakira — it doesn’t get better than that.”
In June 2022, Lopez addressed the challenges that she faced with the Super Bowl performance in her Halftime documentary.
“We have six f—king minutes. We have 30 seconds of a song, and if we take a minute, that’s it, we’ve got five left. But there’s got to be certain songs that we sing, though. We have to have our singing moments. It’s not going to be a dance f—king revue,” the actress said in the film. “We have to sing our message. … This is the worst idea in the world to have two people do the Super Bowl. It was the worst idea in the world.”
During the Halftime film, viewers were also offered a glimpse at Lopez and Shakira’s collaboration process. “They said 12 minutes. I got kind of a good confirmation that we could have an extra minute or two, so now we’re at, like, 13, 14 minutes,” the Marry Me star detailed. “I think, Shakira, what we should have is you should have half the time and I should [have half]. If it was going to be a double headliner, they should have given us 20 minutes. That’s what they should’ve f—king done.”
That same month, Estefan seemingly threw some shade at Lopez’s comments about having to split her time on stage. “OK, and imagine what J. Lo would have said if I was the third [performer]! I literally would come out, done ‘Shake Your Body’ [and ‘Conga’] and out. It was their moment. Plus, I didn’t want to go on a diet in December,” Estefan said on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen after confirming that she rejected an offer to be involved.
Scroll down for a breakdown of Estefan’s friendships with Shakira and Lopez respectively:
Source: Source: Cinema Blend
