News June 24, 2018

Shakira accused of using a Nazi symbol on her tour merchandise

Colombian singer Shakira has been forced to pull an item of tour merchandise following complaints that the item in question bore a striking resemblance to a Nazi symbol.

Earlier this month, Shakira begun her El Dorado World Tour in support of her eleventh studio album, appropriately-titled El Dorado, which happened to win the Best Latin Pop album at the 2018 Grammy Awards. However, these performances have been met with controversy following accusations that the singer has been selling merchandise that features Nazi imagery on it.

A few days ago, German news website Bento noted that the singer had recently begun selling a necklace on her website that bore a striking resemblance to the ‘Black Sun’, a symbol which was incorporated into the Wewelsburg Castle in Nazi Germany, and is still used by neo-Nazis today.

https://twitter.com/mompayd/status/1009045711126777857

https://twitter.com/Billfromwawa/status/1009137788187537413

Bento noted that despite Shakira’s current tour having kicked off in Germany earlier this month – where such a symbol is considered illegal – the item in question had only been available to purchase from June 18th before being taken down.

Likewise, they noted that this may have simply been an oversight due to its resemblance to symbols used in Incan designs, which would make sense due to the tour being called the ‘El Dorado’ tour – named after the mythical city of gold that is supposedly located in the singer’s native Colombia.

This was later confirmed by tour promoters Live Nation, who explained, “The necklace Live Nation designed for Shakira’s “El Dorado World Tour” was based on Pre-Columbian imagery.”

“However some fans have expressed concern that the design bears an unintentional resemblance to Neo-Nazi imagery,” the continued. “We sincerely apologize for this inadvertent similarity and have permanently pulled the item from the tour collection.”

The necklace Live Nation designed for Shakira’s “El Dorado World Tour” was based on Pre-Columbian imagery. However… 1/
— Live Nation (@LiveNation) June 21, 2018

some fans have expressed concern that the design bears an unintentional resemblance to Neo-Nazi imagery. We sincerely apologize for this inadvertent similarity and have permanently pulled the item from the tour collection. 2/
— Live Nation (@LiveNation) June 21, 2018

Shakira is yet to respond to this controversy publicly, but considering her previous work as a humanitarian, there is indeed every chance that this was an unfortunate error that went unnoticed until it was too late.