Shakira was all smiles during her recent celebration at Billboard Latin Women in Music, receiving the Woman of the Year award over the weekend. The Colombian icon took a moment to take photos with her peers and took the stage to share her thoughts about the recognition.

“This has been a year of seismic change in my life,” Shakira said. ”It’s been a year where I’ve realized we women are stronger than we think, braver than we believed, more independent than we were taught to be.”

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The singer went on to talk about the importance of being faithful to ourselves. “It doesn’t matter so much if someone is faithful or not; what really matters is if you continue to be faithful to yourself,” which made fans believe that this was a direct reference to her failed relationship with Gerard Piqué, after 12 years together.

“There comes a time in the life of every woman where she no longer depends on someone else to love and accept herself just as she is,” She explained. ”A time when the search for someone else is replaced by the search for oneself.”

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Shakira continued, “A time when the desire to be perfect is replaced by the desire to be authentic, and where finding someone who is faithful is less important than being faithful to ourselves.”

She concluded by sharing her appreciation for Billboard’s recognition and voiced her support for all women. “Thank you for this recognition, and I share it with those incredible women I call sisters who have taught me so much because they understand their own vulnerability, but also their own strength.”