After two years of leading an anonymous life and patiently awaiting the arrival of an opportunity to fulfill her ambitions, Shakira was sent to the recording studio to complete what would be her third, and first commercially successful album. Pies Descalzos is an important part of her career for several reasons; first, it was the first time that she would collaborate with Luis Fernando Ochoa, co-songwriter, arranger and co-producer of most of her material from then until her American flourishing; and second, because they successfully took the sound that had been developed in Peligro, and gave it a gleaming, polished sheen of commercially pristine production which would, eventually, bring Shakira to prominence.
Unlike Shakira has said (and you’ll be able to realize if you listen to the songs of Peligro), the secret of the album doesn’t lie in the fact that she seized creative control, nor in the greater quality of the material – a considerably greater promotional budget and infinitely superior production, actively targeting the teen audience and actually bothering to try to promote the album, have more to do with its success than the evident shortcomings of her previous releases.
Estoy Aquí/I Am Here
Still, the album wasn’t successful – two singles were released from it before the tepid ballad Antología/Anthology exploded into radio, and rapidly climbed the charts. Estoy Aquí and ¿Dónde Estás Corazón? were soon re-released to massive success in Latin America. Spain, a market that is traditionally reluctant to open to Latin American artists, gave a somewhat cold reception to the singles, which were very moderate hits, but the album enjoyed a very favourable response from critics, and became relatively successful.
Un Poco De Amor/A Little Love
Following exactly the same musical themes found in Peligro, in Pies Descalzos Shakira abandons the innocent playfulness of her previous records in favour of a heartbroken young woman whose slight cynicism isn’t completely bore from bitterness – whether she is lamenting a lost love, such as in Estoy Aquí, or complaining about a lover who doesn’t want to compromise in the infectious reggae-fied Un Poco De Amor, she does so with a sense of realism that is startling, and seems to suggest that the character behind the voice and stupidly contrived lyrics is more than a simple pop puppet.
Pies Descalzos, Sueños Blancos/Bare Feet, White Dreams
Shakira’s first attempts at social commentary are, surprisingly, very successful. In the excellent acoustic rock song Se Quiere, Se Mata, she addresses the problems that many young people face due to lack of access to contraceptive measures as well as the risks of clandestine abortions – two things that, in the song, result in the death of the a pregnant girl. Also in the now classic Pies Descalzos, Sueños Blancos she carefully addresses the problems of racism against dark-skinned people in Latin America, equating the contempt with which indigenous cultures are regarding with the daily struggles that the underclass has to face in order to survive.
Pienso En Ti/I Think About You
Never released as a single (unlike all the tracks previously mentioned), the airy ballad Pienso En Ti reverberates with a delicate echo over an almost non-existent acoustic guitar instrumentation to present basically what is a simple, disaffected love song. Certainly not suitable for radio, this is one of the few tracks in this album that wasn’t carefully designed to climb up the charts. Because of that, it allows Shakira to strip her intellectual-ish, politically conscious every girl image to present a sweet, innocent persona whose feelings manage to be universal by being, for once, naturally expressed.
Se Quiere, Se Mata/What’s Loved, Is Killed
Also notable is Shakira’s newfound voice, a blend of hideous Alanis Morissette and Dolores O’Riordan-inspired semi-yodels and cracking notes aimed to give her plain, then still uneducated voice a distinctive, edgier sound while disguising her not so good technique, and tendency to end up lacking air at the end of phrases, which she would soon correct. Sadly, the shitty vocal mannerism stayed.
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The Remixes (1997)
After the massive success of the album Pies Descalzos, Shakira released a special version for the Brazilian market with translated lyrics – she also decided to cash in on the American club scene by packing those Portuguese language versions into a record along with some remixes. A very successful album (it reached number 9 in the Latin Billboard charts), it was the first sign of Shakira’s increasingly bright star: being able to afford the luxury of making a dubious release, and it becoming a hit.
Shakira Dj Memêgamix
Estoy Aquí (Timbalero Dub)
Un Poco De Amor/A Little Love (Extended Dancehall 12")
Pies Descalzos, Sueños Blancos (Memê's Super Club Mix)
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¿Dónde Están Los Ladrones? (Where Are The Thieves? - 1998)
Shakira’s first proper sunrise in the firmament of international pop, ¿Dónde Están Los Ladrones? is a classic album (in my opinion, her best ever), and one of the best exercises in made-for-easy-marketing music in history. Freely blending influences such as mariachi with dance in the first massive single Ciega, Sordomuda; rock, dance and Middle Eastern folk in the simply spectacular Ojos Así (also her best song, I think) or the timid bolero/rock of Moscas En La Casa, which is yet another soporific ballad in the same vein as Antología, Shakira comes off as a proud daughter of the genetically and culturally diverse Latin America, vociferously announcing her love for her world-encompassing ancestry, which is filtered through her identity as a spiritually vibrant mixed-race woman ready to take on a static world of discoloured sameness. The album is rich in excellent material, and even though it is weighed down by a couple of unmemorable ballads in its middle, both the beginning and end are glorious explosions of light that showcase Shakira’s truly outstanding instinct for finding the perfect sound – exotic, strange, but familiar enough altogether as to let us love it, because it’s not threatening.
Ciega, Sordomuda/Blind, Deaf Mute
The album introduced a new figure in Shakira’s life in the form of powerful, extremely sought after producer Emilio Estefan. He became her manager, and led her through the first obstacles in the United States towards widespread acceptance and, eventually, international stardom. The wonderful Ojos Así, which exploded in 1999, was extremely well received around the world, including the exclusively English-speaking communities of the US. This is an important fact, not only because with it Shakira showed that she was here to stay, but because it showed that she wasn’t just another Latin singer – she was an unstoppable musical force, and spoke to everyone through music and music alone.
Inevitable/Unavoidable
The also notable fact is that the album became massive in Spain: the door to Europe for most non-native or non-English-speaking artists. Setting the charts on fire, it gave Shakira the support she needed to invade the rest of the continent, which at the time was important. She still wasn’t big enough a star as to be able to not care about her first public’s response. Soon enough, she’d become untouchable, greatly so because she’d develop the reputation for which we all know her: the perfect girlfriend, the perfect songwriter and the perfect role model. A girl-and-guy, family friendly entity that is a tart and an integral artist in equal parts. Shakira was to become, thus, the perfect pop star.
Octavo Día/Eighth Day
The album has, strangely enough, some of Shakira’s weakest lyrics, and was the first showcase of her forcefully rhymed, if-it-doesn’t-make-sense-pass-it-as-an-artistic-license ‘poems’ (I’m using the term loosely here). However, most of the music is truly excellent, and it often overshadows the stupid lyrics and the sheer de-braining of her image. In a couple of years, Shakira went from a socially-conscious every girl to a socially exploitative artist who exclusively addressed love from the vision of an obsessive teenager with no self-esteem whatsoever, or else artificially sang about nothing while pretending to protest against… well, what? Never mind, it sounded politicized, so it must have been important.
¿Dónde Están Los Ladrones?/Where Are The Thieves?
The album is rife with such ridiculous exercises of empty blabbering, but the main criminal is the title track, with its pointless lyrics about corrupt politicians? Bank directors who elope with the savings of millions of people only to reappear after a few years, heading another similar enterprise? Sell out singers? Who cares? Shakira attempts to appear clever to the sort of teenagers whose understanding of the world is limited to soap operas, and that’s what matters here.
Ojos Así/Eyes Like These
The truly important matter is, this would be the album that would give Shakira her first taste of stardom, and after this, she would only shine brighter… Let me remind you to go to buy here records. Amazon is a great option, as always.
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