Shakira In Jail

About

Shakira In Jail refers to a series of memes about pop musician Shakira going to prison inspired by reports that a Spanish prosecutor is seeking eight years of jail time for committing tax fraud. The reports broke in late July 2022 and inspired memes over the following weeks in August, particularly on Twitter and TikTok, many imagining Shakira in various scenarios in prison.

Origin

In November 2017, the Paradise Papers, a collection of roughly 13 million private offshore investment documents, were leaked. The papers revealed that pop star Shakira used the island of Malta to transfer over $30-million of music rights. According to her attorneys, Shakira is innocent. In 2018, Spanish authorities began investigating Shakira's finances.^[1] In July 2021, sufficient evidence was found to bring Shakira to trial for tax fraud according to a Spanish judge.^[2]

On July 29th, 2022, The Guardian^[3] reported that a Spanish prosecutor is seeking an eight-year prison sentence for Shakira for tax fraud. Shakira has not been sentenced to any jail time at the time of writing.

Spread

The news of Shakira's potential prison sentence inspired reactions and memes across social media. On July 29th, 2022, Twitter^[4] user @bamchaen posted a video of a woman dancing, captioned, "me distracting the guards so shakira can sneak out of jail," garnering over 14,000 likes in two weeks (shown below). On the same day, Twitter^[5] user @smhrbst posted an image of Beyonce with Shakira, writing, "Beyoncé releasing Renaissance to cover up the news that Shakira is going to jail for tax fraud… sisters protecting sisters," garnering over 50,000 likes in the same span of time.

On July 30th, TikToker^[6] @imjustvibin209 posted a video showing Shakira dancing over a green screen prison cell, garnering over 10 million views in just under two weeks (shown below, left). On the same day, TikToker^[7] @pootsfrozenyogurt posted a video of a prison guard dancing, captioned, "the prison guards when Shakira starts singing in her cell," garnering over 7 million views in the same span of time (shown below, right). On July 31st, Twitter^[8] user @DNCHI77 reposted the video by @pootsfrozenyogurt, writing, "This tiktok is how I found out Shakira is going to jail for tax fraud," gaining over 387,000 likes and 51,000 retweets in just over a week.

On August 2nd, Twitter^[9] user @twinknito posted a video of a woman gasping at a table, captioned, "shakira’s hips when the jury calls her a liar," garnering over 58,000 likes in a week. On August 6th, TikToker^[10] @yassification_flop posted a video of someone in prison listening to someone sing, captioned, "girl yes shakira giving our jail a free concert," garnering over 2 million views in four days (show below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References