Happy weekend to everyone!. Here it's still Friday, but it's not just any Friday, today is the birthday of Colombian Shakira 🥰 I think everyone who knows me on Hive knows the obsession I've had with this woman since I was a kid. She was my motivation to start working in my teenage years and now she shares my adult life with the love triangle between 
I knew that today I was going to write about Shakira, but to my surprise it will be in the Weekend-Engagement, one of my favorite communities, but it turns out that Galen invites us to share a little about our obsessions, and yes, Shakira is an obsession for me, and the passing of the years what has done is strengthen it because now I even spend a lot of money to have every book, album, magazine, photos and so on... I just need to see her more often, but for her to visit Venezuela is very complicated, just as it is for me to leave Venezuela just for a concert. My story as a fan of Shakira is very nice, but it has not been easy for being a man, I have even been labeled as gay since my high school days, as if musical tastes had any gender 😒
The thing is that I'm not a normal fan, I'm one of those who are very obsessed and defend her when they criticize her hehe. On one of my dad's birthdays I preferred to go to her concert instead of staying at the family party, although that was in 2006 and I have strong rituals when I go to see her on live TV shows, where everyone at home can be a nuisance to me if they don't behave; I really don't let anything come between me and her hahaha, but I owe a lot to this person who has no idea that I exist and as I've always said, music has the power to save lives. That little record player you see in the picture below was my best companion for more than 10 years until it couldn't take it anymore, that's why I keep it in a special place.
I've been a fan since 1995, but the real obsession started in 1999. My parents are musicians, they were not going to let me listen to pop artists, that whole world was unknown to me and my only approach to music in my childhood was choral music, just what I work with now, but for some reason some kid from the school where my mom was a music teacher left a cassette in her purse and she played it in the house to see what it was about. It was there where the trumpets of Ciega, Sordomuda and then electropop started to play, I remember that day as if it was yesterday, that music shook my soul. It didn't do them any good to take me away from the world of fashionable music, it came to me. I managed to keep that cassette and that's how that story began, listening to their music with headphones on, letting the vibrations take over my soul.
Little by little I stopped eating snacks at school to save money and buy a lot of Shakira merchandise, but when I became a teenager everything was quite complicated. I became obsessed with Shak and her music because I had no friends, my parents never knew how unhappy I was at school and I took refuge in this music and the powerful lyrics of these songs, because before her lyrics were more intense than now. In high school I had a hard time hiding my obsession and they named me Shakiro, the name didn't bother me and it doesn't bother me today as many still call me that, but it turns out that Shakiro was synonymous for them that I wanted to be like her or that I behaved like a girl collecting pop items instead of playing sports with the boys. But it wasn't like that, so I was always excluded and although it affected me a little bit I didn't give it enough importance to change my musical tastes that have always been very Top 40 and pop divas.
As an adult I have done a little better, but not because people respect me, but because with my own earnings at work I fostered my obsession with Shakira and started to buy what I never could as a teenager. When I went to see Shakira in Caracas I was practically forcing my friends at Mc Donald's that we were days before standing in line to be the first ones at the concert, but of course they didn't listen to me and it was me who had to adapt to them because I didn't know Caracas 😬 still when the day came it was perfect for them because they could go to the bathroom, eat, buy and they had an obsessed fool who wouldn't move from the line and who saved their spot hahaha.
The best thing that has happened in my life is the arrival of Jhoxiris at my 29 years of age. With her I have realized that I am not in love with Shakira, it has just been a very strong obsession. These pictures with her were my birthday present at that age. It was our first days as boyfriend and girlfriend, I think on the 7th. I was missing the last album and the last concert on DVD because as you know the situation in Venezuela was very hard for those years, including 2017 when these pictures are from. That week I also got the letter that she had joined the Simon Bolivar Choir, something that changed my life economically speaking. She was already in that group for some years, so I had money for those luxuries to buy Shakira's music hehe. That week I was very happy, it was the best week of my life... The thing is that Jhoxiris had already won my heart, but her helping me to complete my collection of Shakira albums was an extra bonus that gave her many points hahaha.
The bad thing for my girl is that today she has spent the whole day listening to Shakira, that has always been my February 2nd ritual, except last year when we were saying goodbye to my dad, so this celebration will be all weekend because the desire has accumulated and now there are many recent songs that have me as obsessed as those first songs of the 90s. For now I say goodbye sharing another cover, but this time precisely singing one of his greatest hits in the company of my beloved Jhoxiris. Thanks to all of you who read me and I'm sorry that once again I have to load a lot of information about my history with Shakira 😀
