Shakira Opens Up About Raising Her Sons, Whether She's Ready to Date Again & Her World Cup Legacy

I know that I've said that it's fun to be single. I'm also preparing for my European residency, 12 students in Madrid. So there's a lot going on. And also, my kids' everyday life. Right now, I don't think there's a lot of fun for me on my path. But yeah, I'm just enjoying this moment in time and enjoying my career, living it to its maximum. I've done this profession for 30 years already, and it feels to me like I'm just starting. Everything feels new, always. I'm as excited as the first day, or more, as passionate, or more. I'm very inspired. I'm making a lot of new music, a lot of new collaborations. I'm still on tour. We just did a stadium run in the U.S., and now I'm coming back. I'm going to be performing where most of the games are happening, in the same cities. So that's going to be interesting. You know, to have all that footballistic energy, sports fans energy, kind of brought to my concerts as well. It's going to be a lot. I think there's going to be a real synergy there. I wanted to write something for this World Cup, and I knew that it had to have the secret ingredients. The old ingredients that a World Cup song needs. A great beat, energy, a strong message. It just happened. It really flowed. It was very easy to come up with the melody, the lyrics, the concept. And then, obviously, when I had Burna Boy recorded, that was like the cherry on top. I always wanted to do something with Burna, and I think that his voice just takes it to another level. The song is much more than a World Cup song. It's a message for every child who's been told that their dream is too big, and to remind us that every champion started out as a kid one day, perhaps went through hardship and struggles, but there was someone always behind that child that believed in them, and that's why they didn't give up, and that's what we need to do as a society. We have to do the best we can to offer our kids with opportunities so they can achieve their goals in life, and that the opportunity, the one, the most valuable one, is education. And that's why this song has been created not only for the World Cup, but for all of those kids who don't have access to quality education. And this is a very important World Cup because this one, it's going to serve as a platform for all those kids who don't have a voice, who don't have visibility, and at this time when the world is so fractured and divided and the algorithm manipulates us all, I think it's a good time to come together and talk about the kids and put them at the center of the debate and make them be the real protagonists here. It's crazy why I have this connection with football that seems unbreakable. My history with football goes back to 2006 when I performed at the first World Cup with Wycliffe, performed Tips on Life, and then again on 2010, which is when I met the father of my kids who was playing during that World Cup. That's why I call my kids the WACA kids because I think they were born because of that song. That song took me to the World Cup and the World Cup had an important impact in my life and they were born, the best that has happened to me. And then on 2014, I was pregnant with my little one and all of my fans, they saw me perform and they were like, she's pregnant. And I was like a month pregnant, like two months maximum, but they know me so well. So every World Cup is something really magical and I think this one is going to be all about bringing people together in this very sensitive moment in time, socially and politically. I think motherhood makes you strong. I feel that the moment I became a mother, I saw life through a different perspective. There are two teachers, you know. I learn so much from them every day. When your world collapses and you have to get up and pay the bills and still provide for your family and still, you know, prepare breakfast and take your kids to school and life needs to go on, needs to go on because you have the responsibility to watch after two human beings. Seeing my kids also overcome those difficulties, that also fills my heart. And understanding that only through hardship is when you realize who your true friends are and when you realize that you do have friends who are there for you through the bad times and the good times, then you rediscover life. You see life through a whole different lens, you know. Life is beautiful in spite of all the pain that we all go through, you know. Humans, it is what it is, like they say, you know. And this is life. Life is a bitch, but it's so worth living it, you know. I always thought that I was weaker than what life proved me to be. Through those challenging moments, I discovered how resilient we all are. And I really, I truly admire so many women that just have to push forward every day, push forward through hardship or through whatever life throws at them. I think that us women, we just carry a world on our shoulders. I mean, we rebuilt Europe after the Second World War. We rule the world, like Beyoncé says. And yeah, I mean, behind every experience in life, there's always a lesson that we learn. And we have to be grateful for all those lessons, even for the people that leave you with scars because they just make us better. And what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. I'm not thinking of future partners. I'm just thinking of raising my kids, maybe when they're older or something. I don't know. Right now, I'm just so busy with my career and my life. I would say to that girl back in her 20s to enjoy more. I think like women, as time goes by, we just acquire this new confidence, you know. Even though we don't look as perfect as in our 20s, but somehow we accept the way we are and accept ourselves more. At least I've seen that with my friends. I see that in me. So all those 20-year-old girls out there who are trying really hard, just enjoy because it's beautiful to just be yourself and accept who you are. When I started with the crossover in the U.S., back then the world was pretty closed up to the idea of Latin artists singing in English. That was a whole revolution in my life. It was the crossover to the Anglo market. At that time, I had so much to prove. I wanted to show what I was about, what Latinos were about. I had so much to say. Now, I still have a lot to say, but I feel more at ease, you know. So those insecurities are gone, and now I just have this immense love for what I do. There were a lot of intellectual challenges for me because at the time I really didn't speak English as fluently as I do now, so I had to write my own songs in English. I used to do it with the rhyming dictionary and the solos and a Bob Dylan book. Yeah, it was a whole different time for artists, for Latin artists, for Spanish, for music in Spanish. There was no social media, so I had to really talk the talk and walk the walk and fight. I was very persevering. So I remember that time as a time of challenges, but also amazing achievements. It was a real blessing to travel the world and be in touch with so many different cultures and sort of learn from those cultures, which is what has shaped me as an artist and as a person that I am today. So that was kind of the door opening to a new universe for me. There were so many gatekeepers in the industry who were like, oh, no, no, no, no, we're not going to play that song, Hips Don't Lie. That's going to be like, that's what I mean. I mean, if you think about it, Hips Don't Lie has instruments typical from the Colombian folklore in there. And that was such a big song for me in the U.S. It broke so many records. But at first there were so many people who were focused up to the idea of that song even playing on American radio. And then La Tortura also was one of the first songs that actually played in Spanish on American radio. That was a whole different moment, a whole different era, you know, where Latin artists weren't taken as seriously as they are today. So I had a lot to demonstrate, you know, a lot of convincing to do. But it turned out great. That song was just so good. And I remember us in the studio just like dancing to it and jumping and like celebrating because we knew the hate that we had. And I knew that for the people who understood the lyrics, they were going to click also in a different way. But it was just pure catharsis. You know, I really needed to write at that point and write about my feelings and what I was going through and not have any censor, any banning in the lyrics of that song. So I just went for it. And I think it was very therapeutic. I needed it. Like after that song came out and I wrote that song, I was like, I feel lighter, you know. And I feel like a lot of people, a lot of women who have been going through something similar, people who I run into in the streets, you know, they were telling me how important that was for them. You know, sometimes we just need someone to speak for others or be the voice of others. The human experience thrives on identification. We need to identify with each other. We need to feel that what you're going through is the same that I'm going through, you know, that it's not so different, that we all go through pain and struggle and hardship. And we also have to enjoy the beauty of this life, of these ups and downs, you know. It's been the best tour of my entire life. We've broken all the records. We played 14 shows in Mexico City on a stadium. We're going to play another 12 stadiums in Spain. We went to Latin America twice. We're going back to America twice. There's still so much we're going to do. We're going to be playing Egypt at the Pyramids. I mean, so many iconic places. I just played in Copacabana in front of two and a half million people. Two and a half million people on the beach. That is insane. It was one of the craziest experiences of my career. And also, when it's not summer, my kids come with me on tour. We have a traveling house with us. Like, family comes with us. Their friends come with us. Teachers. And so I think, like, but they go back to school, so it's not like they're homeschooled. But we build this kind of balance around their lives and mine that I think is working. I don't know how I do it, but I'm with them as much as I can. Even when there's show days, like, I'm with them in the morning. Well, in the morning, they study. Then we, you know, have lunch, spend the afternoon. Then I go get ready and then have dinner again, put them to sleep when there's no shows, you know. And so, like, I always manage to be with them. And that's why I don't have any social life, because I'm like, okay. My kids, the stage. You know, it's like that's how my life oscillates right now between them and my commitments. There's so much exciting stuff going on around this tour. This tour has just given me amazing moments on stage of just communion between my fans and me. That dialogue that doesn't stop between them and me. And it's showing me one more time and proving to me one more time that they're the best fans in the world. My fans have been there for me through the thick and thin, through the good and the bad times. They've been family to me. So every time I perform in front of them, I feel I'm surrounded by family. How they defend me, fight for me, accompany me, understand me, forgive my flaws, and just surround me with their love. I just feel that it's all worth it.