Shakira has had a "hard couple of years" since splitting from Gerard Pique

She told US TV show 'Extra': "Songs evolve, they live their own life... they evolve in people's lives. They become the soundtrack of so many, including myself. I remember chapters of my life through my own music and where I was back then emotionally and mentally.

"I've learned that my music has a... therapeutic effect. I've been through kind of like a hard couple of years, personally, you know, with separation and all, but music has been sort of the glue that put me back together."

The 'Whenever, Wherever' hitmaker previously admitted that a long-term relationship was "dragging [her] down" and she has started to embrace life as a single mother.

Speaking to Zane Lowe on Apple Music, she said: "In a way it's kind of good not to have a husband because it was dragging me down.

"Now I feel like working, I feel like writing songs, I feel like making music, it's just a compulsive need that I didn't have before.

I am in charge of these two kids, these two babies who depend on me so much and I'm a single mother, I don't have a husband and home to help out with anything."

After they split, Shakira and footballer Gerard , 38, reached a custody agreement that allowed her to leave her adopted home of Barcelona, Spain, and move to the US with her sons.

Speaking to ELLE magazine in the months after the breakup, Shakira admitted she's been through an incredibly "difficult" time.

She explained: "It's hard to talk about it, especially because I'm still going through it, and because I'm in the public eye and because our separation is not like a regular separation. And so it's been tough not only for me, but also for my kids. Incredibly difficult."