Mentiras piadosas is a fascinating phrase that literally translates to "pious lies" or "merciful lies". It's the Spanish equivalent of the English idiom "white lies"—small, harmless untruths told to avoid hurting someone's feelings or, in this case, to bend the rules.
In the song, Shakira reminisces about a past love, singing, "Me enseñaste a decir mentiras piadosas para poder verte a horas no adecuadas" (You taught me to tell white lies to be able to see you at inappropriate times). This line beautifully captures the feeling of a secret, youthful romance where even learning to lie felt like a sweet conspiracy.
In "Antología", Colombian pop icon Shakira looks back on a first love that shaped almost everything she does. Instead of speaking in vague clichés, she lists the exact quirks and habits she picked up from her ex. She gained three kilos from all their sweet kisses ("aumenté más de tres kilos / Con tus tantos dulces besos repartidos"), learned to actually like cats ("aprendí a querer los gatos"), and discovered how to tell white lies ("mentiras piadosas") just to sneak out and see them at odd hours. She wrote over a hundred songs for this person and learned thousands of ways to kiss, all while floating so high off the ground that her shoes felt unstuck from the concrete ("Despegaste del cemento mis zapatos").
The real sting comes at the turn of the chorus. After teaching her all these tiny life skills, her lover left out the most important lesson: how to survive once they were gone ("Pero olvidaste una final instrucción / Porque aún no sé cómo vivir sin tu amor" ["But you forgot one final instruction / Because I still don't know how to live without your love"]). Even with the old saying that time brings wisdom, the ache lingers because their past remains completely woven into her ("Dejó tejido su hilo dentro de mí" ["Left its thread woven inside me"]). It is a sweet, honest, and painfully relatable track about how an ex can completely rewrite your world.
Shakira signed to Sony Music Colombia at thirteen, and her debut album Magia sold about 1,200 copies in Colombia. Born in Barranquilla in 1977 to a family of Lebanese, Catalan and Colombian descent, she was belly dancing by four, after hearing Arabic drumming at a Middle Eastern restaurant near home, and she has written or co-written most of what she records.
The breakthrough came with Pies Descalzos (1995) and its single "Estoy Aquí", and ¿Dónde Están los Ladrones? (1998) followed with "Ciega, Sordomuda" and "Ojos Así". She moved into English on Laundry Service (2001), whose "Whenever, Wherever" was released in Spanish as "Suerte", then topped the US Hot 100 in 2006 with "Hips Don’t Lie", featuring Wyclef Jean. "Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)", recorded with the South African band Freshlyground, was the official song of the 2010 World Cup. Her 2023 session with Argentine producer Bizarrap won Latin Grammy Song of the Year, and Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran took Best Latin Pop Album at the 2025 Grammys, her fourth Grammy next to fifteen Latin Grammys.