Shakira licked her way into memes with a flick of her tongue. During her performance at the Super Bowl, the singer made strange movements with her tongue, accompanied by a sound that amused the audience a lot. We found out what those movements mean and collected the most ridiculous comments on the whole thing.
The performance itself:
A compilation of memes:
Users’ tweets:
Shakira’s tongue is more famous than any of us will ever be #SuperBowl pic.twitter.com/On0rajkXkE
— Matty Beamish (@BeamishMatty) February 3, 2020
Shakira pls don’t do the tongue thing
— bb Tang (@theerealFrank) February 3, 2020
Shakira:.....
Pls don’t
Shakira: pic.twitter.com/IynLAX8fIr
Waiter: How's the food?
— Midnight Palma 👻 (@MidnightPalma) February 3, 2020
Me: pic.twitter.com/0BNruHpZUj
me trying to figure out why the fuck shakira thought doing that tongue thing on live tv was a good idea #PepsiHalftime pic.twitter.com/fo7LbHOHPb
— macy spencer (@macyspncer) February 3, 2020
— 👩🏻⚕️💎The Feminine, Feminist👠💄 (@MaKcodio) February 3, 2020
If I ain’t seen anything ever that’s more meme-worthy, I give you Shakira tongue lol pic.twitter.com/6HcOGBa7Mx
— Neek✊🏽 (@Sarcastic_Asset) February 3, 2020
Not sure what Shakira did here but I’m still into it pic.twitter.com/xx2X7jxOOS
— gifdsports (@gifdsports) February 3, 2020
The singer’s fans explained that Shakira was not making faces at all. What she did makes a lot of sense in Arabic culture. Those tongue movements are called Zaghrouta, a traditional expression of fun and joy. Note that Shakira was born in Colombia and has Lebanese roots.
Fam this is called zagroota, it’s a thing people do at parties in the Arab world, she’s part Lebanese pic.twitter.com/Nik1siWtNT
— Latina en Arabia (@AviselleD) February 3, 2020
You really have to understand how huge Shakira’s performance was for the Middle Eastern community. She had belly dancing, a mijwiz and a derbeke, performed “Ojos Asi” which was one of the few Shakira songs to have Arabic in it, did a Zaghrouta, all love on the biggest stage
— Danny Hajjar داني حجار 🇱🇧 (@DanielGHajjar) February 3, 2020
debated whether to chime in, but so many disrespectful memes: Shakira wasn’t just being funny with the “tongue thing.” what she did is called a zaghrouta, an Arabic tradition used to express joy, excitement, celebration. typically heard at weddings. FYI, she’s part Lebanese.
— Diana Elbasha (@DianaElbasha) February 3, 2020