Shakira is back at the center of the world’s attention. Just yesterday, on June 11, 2026, she performed at the opening ceremony of the FIFA World Cup in Mexico City, delivering her new song “Dai Dai” alongside Burna Boy, the official anthem of this year’s tournament. It marked her return to World Cup stages more than fifteen years after “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)” became the soundtrack of the 2010 edition. But long before stadiums full of millions were chanting her songs, Shakira gave an answer to a much quieter question that had nothing to do with stages, crowds, or anthems. Speaking at a Fisher-Price panel focused on early motherhood in New York City on September 24, 2015, just months after the arrival of her second son, the global superstar admitted that the hardest job she had ever done was not any of those things. It was being a mother.
The quote of the day reads, “I’m one of those tiger moms, who is all the time looking for help and information online and researching and reading. It’s not easy to be a mother. It’s one of the most difficult things I’ve done in my life. I’ve been on the most challenging stages performing in front of really demanding audiences and I’ve been meeting with world leaders who sometimes make you a little bit apprehensive, but nothing has made me so self-conscious as being a mom. Every day I wonder if I’m doing the right thing. I just want to improve in the job, the hardest job on earth.”
Meaning of the quote of the day by Shakira
Shakira became a mother for the first time in January 2013, when her son Milan was born, followed two years later by her second son Sasha in January 2015, both children she shares with her former partner, the Spanish footballer Gerard Piqué. By the time she sat on that Fisher-Price panel in September 2015, she was a mother of two young boys, still finding her footing, and the words she chose reflected exactly that. She has not had any children since, and Milan and Sasha remain her only two.
What makes the quote so striking is the comparison she draws. She places motherhood alongside two of the most pressure-filled environments imaginable, performing for massive demanding crowds and sitting in rooms with world leaders, and says that neither of those came close to making her feel as self-conscious as being a mom. That is a remarkable admission from someone whose entire career has been built on confidence under pressure. It suggests that the stakes of parenting feel different. Bigger. More personal. Because on a stage, a mistake is forgotten by the next show. As a parent, every decision feels like it could shape who this small person becomes.
Shakira’s quote about being a ‘tiger mom ‘
The phrase “tiger mom” she uses for herself is interesting too. Not in the sense of being strict or demanding, but in the sense of being constantly vigilant, constantly researching, constantly trying to learn more, because she does not want to get it wrong. That hunger to improve, to read more, to ask more questions, is something most parents recognize immediately. The job comes with no manual, and so you build your own, one search and one sleepless night at a time.
And then there is the line that has stayed with people the longest. “Every day I wonder if I’m doing the right thing.” That sentence captures something that successful, capable, accomplished people rarely say out loud. That competence in one area of life does not transfer automatically to parenting. That self-doubt is not a sign of failure as a parent. It is, if anything, a sign of how seriously you take the responsibility.
All about Shakira and her sons
A decade on from that interview, Shakira’s relationship with her sons, Milan and Sasha, has become one of the most visible and heartwarming parts of her public life. In February 2025, the boys were in the audience when Shakira won the Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop Album for ‘Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran.’ As soon as her name was announced, they wrapped their arms around her, and in her acceptance speech she told them how proud she was of them, calling them her kind-hearted boys.Speaking to Entertainment Tonight at the same Grammys, Shakira reflected on what she most wants to pass on to them. “The biggest lesson that they probably can learn from me is how hard I work and that nothing comes easy. Everything is the result of discipline and commitment, and that’s one of the things I want to teach them.”
In November 2025, the family made a rare joint red carpet appearance at the premiere of ‘Zootopia 2,’ in which Shakira voices Gazelle, with Milan, now twelve, and Sasha, now ten, coordinating in matching lavender outfits alongside their mother. The boys have also joined her on stage during her world tour, singing their own solos during a performance of ‘Acróstico,’ a song Shakira wrote for them and which features their voices on the original recording.What was once a quiet admission of self-doubt at a small panel in New York has, ten years later, become a visible, ongoing story of a mother and her sons growing up together, in front of the world and away from it. The uncertainty she described back then has not disappeared. But neither has the work. And by every measure that matters, it shows.
