The Colombian hurricane - A Shakira Overview

Lately I have been listening to Shakira’s tremolo-laden, yodel-infested nasal odes to nonsense disguised as depth, and I’ve decided that it was important to give an overview of her career throughout the years, mainly because she has achieved what no other Latin American artist has ever been able to achieve: to transcend the cultural and ideological divisions between the wealthy, strongly Anglicized and Euro-centric North and the multi-cultural, poor and psychologically conflicted South, blending influences and building a form of art out of cultivating an image that borrows from every imaginable culture, without representing any one in particular. Shakira is a truly global phenomenon, and a cleverly designed one – she appeals to most with her alluring exoticism, but nothing she does is ever deep or different enough as to alienate our promotional impact-driven generation. For some strange reason, she also appeals to older, theoretically more selective groups, because she has managed to keep a semblance of integrity while gracelessly waving her hips and shaking her globs of cellulite. Thus, Shakira equalizes us all and shows that, scarily, we’re not that different after all – the only thing we need to understand each other is banality presented as a semi-naked pseudo-philosopher. Cool!



Regarding other Spanish-singing acts who have been successful internationally, I’d just like to ask you: do you remember them and… Who did take them seriously even once? Julio Iglesias? Unless you’re fifty and sexually frustrated (by which I mean, you’ve had no sexual life in the last 25 years and are willing to go to bed with anything), I doubt you care about him. Ricky Martin and Enrique ‘Learning Difficulties Poster Boy’ Iglesias are only appealing when they wear no clothes – when has that happened? Not often enough. With their clothes off, they’re sexy (especially when you picture them together…) With their clothes on, their music is just pure shit and they cannot sing to save their lives. So yes, Shakira is the only Spanish-speaking act that has attained some recognition for anything other that her ability to make middle-aged housewives swoon, or looking like a potential porn star.

But what has made Shakira a phenomenon? Is it just pretension and sluttiness, or pure talent? The answer lies somewhere in the middle – like her male counterpart Juanes, Shakira has been clever enough to surround herself with people who have created a sound that’s exclusively hers, and appropriated herself of their merits just enough to avoid being accused of outright plagiarism. Shakira is, in short, a yet another Madonna prototype, but she beats the rest of the pop tarts (and the old hag herself) by successfully conveying integrity through the shameless use of transparent populism, empty speeches with somewhat big words and a coldly calculated urban-poet-cum-potential-lay image that appeals to everyone, because it channels the pretentious every girl that many not-so-proudly represent, and anyone can know.



However, the really sad thing is that neither Shakira nor Juanes are among the most talented Latin American artists there are. In fact, they are not even among the moderately talented ones. The only merit that they both have is that they have had enough vision and intelligence as to work with very talented and creative people who have pulled them out of the static ballad-salsa-vallenato-and-bolero sea that swamps Latin American popular music; the fact that they managed to find success in the first place is also notable, given the fact that Latin America isn't exactly a market open to innovation, and they have very little talent to work with in the first place. Thus, after this very pretentious introduction (bear with me, today I’m too tired to indulge in my shitty attempts at being witty), I present you with an overview of each stage of Shakira’s career (by the way, I've received complaints about the fact that I am talking about albums, and nothing's been posted! Scroll down after the last photo of this introduction, and you'll find Magia and Peligro, Shakira''s first two albums - sorry about that; I ought to have organized this post better :-) ).

Most of the albums I will talk about can be found everywhere, so I’ll direct you to Amazon. Her early records are not available anymore but, if you do like what you hear, you can try eBay, which is my personal religion’s new temple – the number of strange or discontinued records I’ve found there is astonishing. Pierre Omidyar ought to be sanctified!



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The Timid Supernova - Early Shakira (1991-1994)

Magia (Magic - 1991)



The publishing of Shakira’s first album was the result of a minor events organizer’s blind belief in a twelve-year-old’s underdeveloped, and yet unseen talent. After two years of supervising the girl’s sporadic vocal studies and endless presentations, the aforementioned organizer managed to convince a Sony executive that Shakira’s talent was important enough as to deserve a chance, and after much hassle (some thought, not unreasonably at all, that she was a disaster) she was signed to Sony Records with a contract for three albums.

Magia is Shakira’s first album ever, and her first step towards stardom in her native Colombia. A crass failure in commercial terms, it nonetheless remains a product of its time and attests to Shakira’s considerable growth as a commercially savvy artist. Tinny production, tepid rock songs and easy melodic ballads compose its eight tracks (there’s also an abysmal remix which manages to make a bad song even worse) – thus, with such a positive landscape, let’s start reviewing the album! The most interesting thing is Shakira’s juvenile voice, which shows some of its current coloration in the more vocally demanding tracks such as the surprisingly good Cazador De Amor, a rocky ode to obsessive, all-encompassing love and the sultry Gafas Oscuras, which forced the then-fourteen Shakira to push her throat down to a full, resounding lower range. The song’s vocals are particularly unmelodious, and it’s notorious that Shakira was making a considerable effort to reach the notes. Still, this is the closest she ever gets to her current voice.

Cazador De Amor/Love Hunter

Gafas Oscuras/Dark Sunglasses

I suppose that her producers decided that a Latin-ish track would make it easier to break into radio, and thus we get the robotic blares of a Casio synthesizer’s trumpet sound and a harsh, poorly executed mash of rock-styled percussion in the impossibly cheesy Esta Noche Voy Contigo – sadly, Shakira’s vocals lack the strength and range to pull it through, and her evident enthusiasm ends up being swallowed by the dull, badly produced chaos of the song. These mistakes are repeated in the disastrous Lejos De Tu Amor, which combines a nondescript melody with off tempo instrumentation, tuneless backing vocals and Shakira’s inability to finish her phrases without losing her breath. Oh, there’s also a fantastic rap (sadly, not performed by our little Shaki. Aaaawwwwwwww :-( ). The true highlight of the album besides Cazador De Amor is the beautiful title track, which is a relaxed, slow ballad that carefully builds up to a truly superb chorus, which Shakira pulls off quite well in spite of her less than impressive voice.

Esta Noche Voy Contigo/Tonight I’m Going With You

Magia/Magic

Lejos De Tu Amor/Far From Your Love
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Peligro (Danger - 1993)



It’s amazing how many positive things can happen in a couple of years! After incessant touring and studying, Shakira’s voice matured enormously, her range expanded and the producers and songwriters chosen for her increased in talent. Peligro is Shakira’s first full incursion into the folksy rock/dance that would make her so famous over her next two albums, but I have to say that even though its heights are not as stratospheric as the ones that would come later, the album is extremely solid and consistent, with good quality material all throughout - even if the production is a bit untidy sometimes. From the delicious Middle Eastern-folk-meets-salsa-pop he-did-me-wrong anthem Brujería to the thumping dance floor fabulousness of the title track, which narrates the dangers that a young girl's heart faces when exposed to the alluring charms of handsome strangers, the album runs through a myriad of styles that are passed through a rock filter that fills them with grit and passion – even though Shakira’s vocals are not strong and controlled enough yet, she manages to pull most songs off quite well, even though she often sounds distant and cold.

Brujería/Witchcraft

Controlas Mi Destino/You Control My Fate

The ballads are definite highlights, running through all the imaginable guises of the rock spectrum – from the delicate feelings of Eres, which are hidden behind barely controlled belts that give the song a rough, stout solidness that makes it irresistible, to the unbelievably beautiful Eterno Amor, which sinuously travels its way across a superb rock instrumentation that gracefully molds itself to the demands of the melody and truly manages to convey the desperation of not being able to make the person you love take you seriously. However, that’s not all that the album has to offer. The soaring heights manage to get a little higher with the simply excellent Controlas Mi Destino, an impossibly cheerful fast rock song that jumps and waves to the wild intensity of the lyrics which, for once, are not childish and ridiculous (yes – if you are among those who complain that Shakira’s English language lyrics don’t make any sense, don’t worry: most of her Spanish lyrics don’t make any sense either).

Sadly, this excellent album was also a failure, even though this time Shakira was to blame - unsatisfied with it (how could she possibly be?!), she refused to promote it and concentrated on her baccalaureate studies instead... :-(

Eterno Amor/Eternal Love

Peligro/Danger

Eres/You Are

And well, with the high note that is Peligro, we come to the end of today’s post. Soon enough I’ll bring you more review on Shakira’s albums, plus some remixes, of which I have discovered, I am extremely fond of (as if you hadn’t noticed, with all the clutter I’ve posted as of late!).