Sunday was Mother’s Day, and Shakira had a ton to do — but first and foremost, she was spending time with her kids Sasha and Milan, who had surprised her that morning with a picnic they’d organized. Later in the afternoon, the Colombian superstar would be diving into performance mode: The U.S. leg of her Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran tour kicks off in North Carolina on Monday night, making her to-do list basically endless.
Speaking to Rolling Stone over the phone, Shakira shared she’d be flying straight into a fitting after the call to try on some of the wardrobe she wears in the show — she changes into a total of 13 outfits throughout the nearly 2.5-hour spectacular. Her favorite? “I love the outfit for ‘Session 53,’” she says, referring to a sheer bodysuit she wears during her hit “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53.” “It’s like a second skin. It looks like AI, I’m telling you. The design is so cool: It’s like the fabric is tattooed on my body and it’s so comfortable.”
And then, at some point during the day, she was going to find time to rehearse “Underneath Your Clothes,” a song she’s introducing into the tour setlist. “I’m going to try to add a couple of new songs, like ‘Underneath Your Clothes.’ I feel like a lot of my fans are probably gonna want to hear it — it’s one of my classics from Laundry Service.”
She has a few other surprises up her sleeves, including bringing Alejandro Sanz onstage to perform “La Tortura” in North Carolina, and Rauw Alejandro and Ozuna in New York (she’s already said that Pitbull will be joining her MetLife show on May 16th.) “I think it’s going to be very interesting and a different kind of leg for this tour,” she says. “I’m gonna have a lot of guests, friends of mine, colleagues that have collaborated with me in the past.”
Already, Shakira crisscrossed Latin America, performing massive shows in Brazil, Peru, and Colombia. She had tons of surprise guests there, also — Maluma, J Balvin, and Grupo Frontera among them. She says she wanted to bring an epic show to Latin America, and make sure her fans were getting a full experience. “I learned that this is more than a show, this is a communion, an encounter with my most loyal fans and also my newest fans. It’s really a moment of total identification… I didn’t want to save any effort, I didn’t want to save any resources to take the best show possible to Latin America, because I feel and I really truly believe that my people deserve the best.”
In the U.S., fans can expect the same caliber of performance and emotion. (Shakira says the moment that gets her choked up the most is when she sings her Pies Descalzos classic ‘Antología’: “It’s the testament to this relationship that I have with with my audience.”) There are also a few interludes and bits of new music she’s written for different parts of the show, including a flamenco-style arrangement and a piece of a bolero. “Who knows,” she says, “maybe one of these songs is worth developing because they’re not just music to fill in the gaps. These are heartfelt musical pieces that have been properly produced.”
The tour has also coincided with the anniversary of some of her biggest hits. 2025 marks the 20th anniversary of “La Tortura,” which is why she wanted to bring out Sanz. “That was probably very one of the very few songs that played in Spanish in America on American radio,” she says. “So, it’s like celebrating after 20 years, road traveled, the road that we’ve traveled and how many obstacles as artists we have overcome.”
“Hips Don’t Lie,” her mega-smash with Wyclef, also turned 20, which the two artists recently celebrated on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. “It’s going to be a lot different than performing live on a real big stage, live for thousands of fans,” she says. She and Wyclef have kept in touch over the years, last seeing each other at the 2023 VMAs, when Wyclef presented her with the MTV VMA Vanguard Award. “I was like, ‘Damn, you look good!’” she says, laughing. “He’s just the same sweet energy and so passionate about what he does, and nothing has changed.”
Most all, as she prepares to take the stage across America, she’s proud to celebrate the Latino community, particularly during a fraught political era in the U.S. and in other parts of the world. “This has always been my mandate since I started my career: I wanted to show the world what Colombians, what Latinos are about. I wanted you to fight so much prejudice that we’ve had to encounter throughout the years, and this moment together is a celebration of who we are, how far we’ve come,” Shakira says. “I want the show to be representative of who we are as a community, especially during these hard times.”
