Shakira Had the Best Message for Her Two Sons During the VMAs as They Watched From the Audience

Shakira used her 2023 VMAs Video Vanguard Award acceptance speech not only to shine a light on her own story, but to thank all those who helped her tell it “since I was only 18 years old,” she said. She specifically called out her creative collaborators and her label, adding, “I want to thank my parents and my kids, Milan and Sasha, who are here. Thank you so much for cheering me up and making me feel that ‘Mama can do it all.’”

She continued, “Especially I want to share this award with my fans, who always, always support me through thick and thin. Thank you so much for being my army and helping me fight all my battles. Este es para mi gente.”

The Video Vanguard Award is a lifetime achievement award. Although Shakira is nominated in four other categories at the VMAs tonight, the Vanguard is arguably one of the biggest awards of the evening, and her speech fit the gravity of the moment. (Shakira is also up for Artist of the Year, Best Collaboration (for “TQG” with Karol G), and Best Latin Song. For Best Latin Song, her two songs “TQG” with Karol G and “Acróstico” are both nominated.)

Shakira spoke to ELLE last September about the power that creating music has had on her as she’s coped with hardship throughout her life.

“I think everyone has their own processes or their own mechanisms to process grief or stress or anxiety,” she began. “We all go through stuff in life. But in my case, I think that writing music is like going to the shrink, only cheaper. It just helps me process my emotions and make sense of them. And it helps me to heal.”

She continued, “I think it’s the best medicine, and along with the love of my family and my kids that sustains me, music and writing music is definitely one of those tools—one of the few tools I have for survival in extreme conditions. It is sort of like driftwood for a man drowning in the sea, that piece of wood that you hang on to when you feel like you’re drowning. I think that music is a life raft. There have been days when I had to pick up the pieces of me from the floor. And the only way to do that, to actually do that, has been through music. You know, to really, like, put myself back together and to see myself in the mirror and know that I am a mom and my kids depend on me.”

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