Shakira Receives Billboard’s Global Touring Icon Award: ‘I Feel Like I’m Just Starting My Career’

Shakira received the inaugural Billboard Global Touring Icon Award in honor of her historic Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour, and as part of the 2025 Billboard Live Music Summit held Monday (Nov. 3) in West Hollywood, California.

“As your longtime tour manager, I am so proud and truly honored to present the first annual Billboard global icon tour award to you,” said tour director Marty Hom, who’s also worked for Fleetwood Mac, Barbra Streisand and The Rolling Stones, among others. “We get to witness every day how hard you work to do the best show possible for all your fans.” 

Shakira, who received the news backstage during the rehearsals of her recent show in Cali, Colombia, dedicated the award to her entire team, including dancers, band and crew, for “working as hard as I do,” she noted.

The Live Nation-produced tour’s first 64 dates (of 82) grossed $327.4 million and sold 2.5 million tickets, according to Billboard Boxscore, converting Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran into the highest grossing Latin tour ever by a woman and the second highest grossing Latin tour ever (behind only Luis Miguel’s 2023-24 outing, which grossed $409.5 million).

Additionally, the Colombian artist sold 65,000 tickets per night during her historic 12-concert run at Mexico City’s Estadio GNP Seguros (formerly known as Foro Sol), according to promoter OCESA, for a total of 780,000 tickets sold.

“It’s encouraging and inspiring,” Shakira said to Hom. “I never thought, not even in my wildest dreams, that I would fill every stadium. It’s incredible and motivating at the same time, I feel like I’m just starting my career, and it’s crazy because it’s been 30 years … This has been the best tour of my life, it’s been just as we dreamt it. We worked so hard, overcoming every obstacle, it hasn’t been easy, we worked many, many long hours to make everything as good as people deserve it.” 

Backstage at her show in Cali — where she performed for the first time in 20 years — Shakira also discussed her personal life: “I’m completely dedicated to my boys and my career. That’s all I need, my boys, my fans and my music, and creating, it’s fulfilling a big part of my life right now.”