Shakira Tongue Moment Stole The 2020 Super Bowl Show

Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images.

Last night’s Super Bowl featured the first time onstage collaboration between music superstars Jennifer Lopez and Shakira. The 12-minute show was flawless from start to finish, highlighting some of the singers’ most popular hits. But one moment from the glittering halftime performance took the broke the internet, courtesy of Shakira.

After opening the show with an energetic medley of some of the best songs in her discography (shoutout to “She Wolf” finally getting the shine that it deserves!), Shakira stunned audiences when she flicked her tongue directly in the cameras.

The clip almost instantly went viral on the internet, with viewers falling over themselves on to Twitter to be the first to memeify what they believed to be a silly and random moment.

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Greatest moment in Super Bowl history pic.twitter.com/eUswfanHhK
— NFL Memes (@NFL_Memes) February 3, 2020

Shakira doin the tongue thing (colorized circa 2020) pic.twitter.com/TnwGjCJzF8
— Ferbalicious (@ThomasFerb) February 3, 2020

shakira when she stuck her tongue out pic.twitter.com/KyN7h6EjCB
— David ☔️ (@davidfcknbanner) February 3, 2020

shakira is my fucking queen but when she stuck her tongue out and went “lololabababa” I lost it pic.twitter.com/Iaol4xGdZi
— ♡amelia♡⁷ (@lupeteaa) February 3, 2020

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 turkey who gets pardoned on Thanksgiving https://t.co/897qyYtRRm
— Jordan Moreau (@jordanmoreau_) February 3, 2020

All jokes aside, it turns out that what the internet likened to a "turkey call" was actually an intentional nod to Shakira's colorful heritage. The singer, who is Lebanese and Colombian, was paying tribute to her roots. One Twitter user took the time to point out that the gesture is actually called zaghrouta, and it's known throughout Arabic culture as a means of expressing joy and happiness.

The moment was also be an homage to Colombia, a callback to a popular traditional dance performed during El Carnaval de Barranquilla — the second largest celebration of Carnival in the world, which happens to take place in Shakira's hometown of Barranquilla.

Shakira’s tongue expression is called zaghārīt, a way to express joy in Arab culture (she's half Arab, ICYMI).

It also aludes to the dance “Son de Negros” at the “Carnaval de Barranquilla” where she is from in Colombia.

Now you can go back to whatever interpretation you like 🤭 https://t.co/2oOK9qEnEH
— ۩ Psychology ۞ (@PsychologyDoc) February 3, 2020

The significance of Shakira's nuanced solo performance was not lost on her fans, many of them praising the singer for using her platform on one of the biggest stages in the country to uplift both Arabic and Latinx culture. Collaborator Lopez also put the culture on the map, honouring her Bronx roots with a performance of "Jenny from the Block" as well as a rendition of her 2000 Latin-inspired hit "Let's Get Loud" mixed with "Born in the USA" (while wearing a giant Puerto Rican flag!). To top it all off, the singers recruited reggaeton heroes J Balvin and Bad Bunny, delivering rousing performances of "I Like It" and "Mi Gente" — fully in Spanish.

When Shakira and J. Lo were initially announced as this year's Super Bowl halftime performers, many were skeptical about how successful a collaboration between the two of them could be; after all, the singers careers have had vastly different trajectories since their individual debuts in the early 2000s. But last night, their stages were the perfect harmony of the women's very distinct discographies and styles, and more importantly, a tribute to the cultures that shaped them.