Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to cover the 2022 NBCUniversal Upfront Red Carpet and speak with Shakira! The multiple Grammy Award winner is teaming up with NBC to take the social media dance craze to a new level. She broke the Internet in 2021 with her own viral dance, “Girl Like Me,” and will now be a creator on Dancing with Myself, the ultimate family-friendly high-spirited competition that brings out the performer in all of us.

Every week a new group of fun-loving dancers from all walks of life and of all ages compete in a series of high-energy dance challenges that are designed and demonstrated by the show’s celebrity creators, including Shakira. Isolated in their own pods, contestants have a short time to learn the new routines, add their unique flare and then perform their hearts out in front of a live audience. As each round of the competition progresses, Shakira and her judging panel provide instant feedback and encouragement, but, ultimately, it’s the studio audience that decides who wins Best Dancer of the Night and gets to take home the cash prize.

We discussed her focus for these dance challenges and how the show allows people from all walks of life to express their passion for dance! Dancing with Myself premieres on May 31.

First of all, it’s such an honor to speak with you. I’ve been a fan of yours my entire life, and I’m so excited for Dancing with Myself. When creating these dance challenges, what was something you wanted to focus on?
Shakira: I wanted to capture the language of social media, what’s going on in social media, and how people like to express themselves right now. The idea of this show came from the pandemic when people were in their living rooms, dancing, and coming up with ideas and choreography. We thought that it would be a good opportunity or a good idea to actually create a platform for all of those people from all walks of life and ages, so they can express themselves and express their love for dance.

You actually led me into my next question perfectly. Why do you think it’s so important to include people from all walks of life and ages on a show like this?
Because we often don’t realize how many people dance and how many talented people are out there; people who want to be seen, people who want to be taken seriously, people who just dream about being on stage for once in their lives. We had a lot of people that you would never imagine had this passion for dance, but dance is such an intrinsic thing to human beings. It’s one of the oldest rituals of human social life. We had doctors, we had construction workers, people in the military, and dentists, lots of dentists dancing, you would never know. It was a lot of fun. Also kids — kids competing against adults. It was very interesting.