Home >News >Shakira's halftime Super Bowl tongue is now a wonderful meme
Shakira's halftime Super Bowl tongue is now a wonderful meme
2025-04-26 19:06:56

Shakira blessed us with the first meme of the Super Bowl LIV.

Jennifer Lopez and Shakira's halftime set was incredible, but the realstar of the show was Shakira's tongue. Mid-choreography, the singer turned to the camera and did this:

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The practice is called a zaghrouta. It's an Arabic celebration chant, according to SB Nation, and it's used to express joy. The American Tunisian Association describes it as "long, wavering high-pitched vocal soul representing trills of joy."

And for her first Super Bowl performance, Shakira sounded pretty joyful.

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Shakira, who is Lebanese-Colombian, has been incorporating aspects of Middle Eastern culture in her performances for years.

Her dexterity! Her precision! Shakira is an icon, through and through. Move over, left shark. There's a new halftime reaction video in town.

Thank you, Shakira, for this gift.

UPDATE: Feb. 2, 2020, 7:13 p.m. PST This post has been updated to include information about the zaghrouta, the celebratory trill Shakira made.