Princess Charlotte Starts Every Day with a Shakira Song

(Image credit: The Duchess of Cambridge)

last updated 19 September 2022

Picture this: A routine weekday morning in Apartment 1A at Kensington Palace. The entire Cambridge family—the Duke and Duchess and their three children Prince George, 8, Princess Charlotte, 7, and Prince Louis, 4, and even pup Orla—are in the mad but happy rush to get the elder two kids, George and Charlotte, off to school at Thomas’s Battersea Prep School. Everyone in the family loves music, so on come the tunes to get ready for the day. Interrupt the idyllic setting with…

“Most mornings there’s a massive fight between Charlotte and George as to what song is played,” said Prince William, per the Mirror. “And I have to, now, basically prioritize that one day someone does this one, and another day it’s someone else’s turn. So George gets his go, then Charlotte gets her go. Such is the clamor for the music.”

When it’s Charlotte’s turn? Expect your daily dose of Shakira, specifically “Waka Waka”—the princess’ favorite song.

“It’s a really happy moment where the children just enjoy dancing, messing around, and singing,” William said.

In particular, when it comes to pop music, his mother Princess Diana was a big fan of songs like Tina Turner’s “The Best”—which William recounted recently she used to blast through the radio on car rides to school with him and younger brother Prince Harry.

“One of the songs I massively remember and has stuck with me all this time, and I to this day still quite enjoy secretly, is Tina Turner’s ‘The Best,’” he said. “Because sitting in the backseat, singing away, it felt like a real family moment.”

He continued “My mother, she’d be driving along singing at the top of her voice. We’d even get the policeman [security] in the car; he’d occasionally be singing along as well. We’d be singing and listening to the music right the way up to the gates at school where they dropped you off.”

It seems the tradition of before school pop music sessions continues, as William makes memories with his kids that one day they will fondly remember.

“What I’ve been amazed by is how much my children already have inherited my family’s love of music,” William said.

And, if Charlotte’s in charge of the day’s playlist? Cue the Shakira!

Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.