As she prepares to the play the Super Bowl alongside Jennifer Lopez, Shakira is reflecting on the moment two years ago that nearly ended her career and resulted in her going into depression.
In 2017, the pop star suffered a vocal cord hemorrhage and had to postpone much of her "El Dorado" world tour.
"I always thought there were going to be things in my life that would go away, like beauty, youth, all of that stuff," she told The Guardian. "But I never thought that my voice would leave me, because it's so inherent to my nature. It was my identity. So when I couldn't sing, that was unbearable. There were times I couldn't even get out of bed – I was so depressed."
There were times when she couldn't speak at all and had to use her hands to signal things, especially since her two young children couldn't read at the time.
"I had to communicate through signs and nobody could understand me," she said adding that her husband, soccer player Gerard Piqué, saw "the worst" in her during that time.
"He jokes that you would think you would want your wife to shut up – but when I had to remain quiet, he felt like one of those ex-convicts who are given their freedom and don't know what to do with it," she said. "I was not positive. I was so pessimistic. I was a bitter person to be around."
She worried that her voice would never return and that she needed "divine intervention." When her voice eventually came back without surgery, "it felt like I was having some kind of religious experience," she said.
When asked how that experience changed things for her, she said she now approaches every performance like it's "a gift."