Shakira's concert necklace has hidden Nazi symbol

Social media users had called Shakira a Nazi for putting up for sale her World Tour necklace with hidden swastikas.
Social media users had called Shakira a Nazi for putting up for sale her World Tour necklace with hidden swastikas. PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

BOGOTA • Did Shakira's concert promoter not do any homework before designing a necklace for her world tour?

According to German news portal Bento, a solar wheel symbol used on the necklace hides three swastikas.

"A simple search for images on Google or Wikipedia proves it, the Black Sun is a Nazi symbol," it said.

The site also underlined the fact that the image is used by neo-Nazi groups in the German states of Saxony and Brandenburg, although it is not banned, like the swastika.

Concert promoter Live Nation has now dropped the necklace from sale two weeks after the tour opened on June 3 in Germany.

"The necklace... designed for Shakira's El Dorado World Tour was based on pre-Colombian imagery," the United States company said on its Twitter account.

"However, some fans have expressed concern that the design bears an unintentional resemblance to neo-Nazi imagery.

"We sincerely apologise for this inadvertent similarity and have permanently pulled the item from the tour collection," it added.

Social media users had called Colombian singer Shakira, 41, a Nazi for putting up the necklace for sale.

According to academic Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, professor of Western esotericism at Exeter University, the black sun actually dates back to ornamental discs used by the Merovingians, a dynasty that ruled over what is now France and Germany for 300 years, starting in the fifth century.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on June 29, 2018, with the headline Shakira's concert necklace has hidden Nazi symbol. Subscribe