Celebrity Interview - Shakira
Explosive fixation on grace and energy
Shakira Explosive fixation on grace and energy
AS COLOMBIAN POP STAR SHAKIRA HEADS TOWARDS 30, SHE ADMITS HER BIOLOGICAL CLOCK IS TICKING TO BECOME A MOTHER BUT - IN THIS EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH H!\'S AMPARO DE LA GAMA - SHE REVEALS SHE ALSO "STILL HAS THINGS TO DO".
(Translation: Pamela Sauca Hunt)
When you meet Shakira in person it\'s hard to identify her with the electrifying performer who gyrates her waist on stage. In fact, when you speak to her, it almost seems like you are talking to Bambi. I mean, if Disney\'s famous cartoon character came to life, it could very easily live in the body of this softly-spoken woman with the soul of a puppy.
Her name in Arabic means "woman full of grace", and - blessed with an exceptional talent - she has been able to guide her career with intelligence and charisma. When we meet, she has just begun her world Oral Fixation (Fijación Oral) tour in Spain. Disciplined and attentive, she receives us in a dressing room at the Movistar Theatre in Madrid. During the interview, we talk about the tour, her new single (Hips Don\'t Lie), the re-issue of her record Oral Fixation Vol. 2, and the children she helps in her country through the charitable foundation Pies Descalzos (Bare Feet) - with whom she displays an exemplary spirit of solidarity.
You are at a wonderful stage of your career... If you had to define your style at this moment, what would it be?
What can I say? Well... A mass without definition. I\'m a pop singer with a rock and roll heart, and my music also just happens to fit into dance. The fusion of sounds gives amazing results. I now have a very full repertoire, added to which is a show based on art, dance and rock... (and her inimitable hip movements).
You are currently launching your world tour, after three years behind the scenes creating the show. The last time we saw you on stage was with the Mongoose (Mangosa) Tour... Do you still have stage fright after so many years?
I know it\'s going to be the most important tour I\'ve done up till now. The show is based on songs that people know by heart and want to sing along with me. The tour will contain songs that have marked my career, songs from the past which remind me who I am and who I\'ve been. I don\'t want to leave out classics like Moscas en la Casa (Flies in the House) or Estoy Aqui (I\'m Here). It\'s a moment I have waited a long time for, and now I will be able to meet up again with my fans and sing the songs which have accompanied me throughout my career. There is no better thing for an artist than performing on stage. That\'s where all my work comes together and all the fruits of that work are harvested. Fear always exists, but off as well as on the stage.
Why has a successful woman like you waited three years to re-appear on the public scene?
It\'s very important for me that audiences get to know the new songs well before I go on tour. The best thing that can happen to me on stage is seeing people sing along with me, from the first to the last song. That\'s why I have chosen a repertoire of hits that everybody knows and will be able to sing. There will be plenty of songs from my two latest records, but there will also be songs from Servicio de Lavanderia (Laundry Service), Donde estan los Ladrones (Where are the Thieves) and Pies Descalzos (Bare Feet).
Will there be spectacular changes throughout the tour, as far as stage sets are concerned?
The stage production will centre on art, dance and rock and roll energy, and of course plenty of surprises. What would we do without the surprise factor (laughing)? In fact, I now have Jaume de Laiguana as a business partner; he has directed some of my videos and also helped me create the visual concept of the tour - which will make it different.
A world tour which begins in Spain, that sounds great...
It\'s all due to the fact that the record began taking shape in Spain. The creative process of Fijación Oral and Oral Fixation was in my thoughts at the time of my trip to Madrid. The first song I wrote for the albums was Costume Makes the Clown, and it was on the outskirts of Madrid in a house I lived in for a couple of months. So I thought it very logical - as the record had in some way started in Spain - that the tour would also begin here.
Furthermore, although you were born in Colombia you have Spanish blood...
That\'s true, it\'s my "Catalan" side, my second surname, Ripoll - there\'s not much doubt about the origins of my mother\'s side of the family. And that\'s why it was also time for a proper tour in Spain. My visits, sometimes very fleeting, have taken me from Madrid to Barcelona and not much more. Spanish people are in my heart, and this time it will certainly be obvious.
No less than nine concerts in nine different cities, including Málaga... Is this your outstanding debt with Spanish fans?
Yes, but I\'m very happy because now I\'m going to pay it back. On my previous tours I only visited Madrid and Barcelona, as I mentioned before, and I always wanted to travel through the rest of the country. So now, being able to sing in nine different cities, yes, it\'s like settling an outstanding debt - with the fans and with myself.
Will Alejandro Sanz appear for any of those nine concerts?
I would be the first one to want him here, but at the moment I don\'t know because he is busy with his own projects. But with Alejandro you never know. We are very good friends and if he can be here he will be, without a doubt. After all that was said in the gossip press about the video clip for La Tortura (The Torture - their 2005 duet single), nothing would scare us (laughing). People can think what they want to.
But the reality is very different: that is, Alejandro, your boyfriend Antonio and you are great mates...
Yes, Alex is a friend of both of us. But if I have to say anything, it\'s that I value love and friendship 100 per cent. These days, nearing my thirties, my biological clock is ticking to be a mother but I still have things to do.
So let\'s talk about those pending things: how would you describe your records; what about the re-issued Oral Fixation, including Hips Don\'t Lie. Did you think the record was missing a single as powerful as La Tortura, so that\'s why you included it?
Who knows? I\'ve always thought it was a very complete and eclectic record. The first single was Don\'t Bother and I think it worked very well, even though it was more of a rock song. Which is
atypical, because the promotion of my records has always started with danceable songs. Hips Don\'t Lie came about from an encounter with Wyclef Jean. A happy accident, which allowed us to collaborate in a creative ambience and develop this song. I liked the result so much that I suggested my record company include it on the Oral Fixation re-issue. I simply didn\'t want to wait three years for it to come out on another record.
Don\'t you have the feeling that the Spanish record has worked better than the English one?
I don\'t really agree. It would be unfair to compare them in that way, because the English record came out quite a while after the other one, and the path each one has taken has been different. Anyway, I can\'t deny that one of the greatest satisfactions in my career has been to see La Tortura, a song sung in Spanish, played in so many countries and on so many radio stations in the US that had never before programmed a Spanish song. It seems like some things are changing in the musical industry, and now it\'s not essential to sing in English to have international success. I\'m very happy to have become a part of those changes.
In Fijacion Oral all the songs are about love and in Oral Fixation you also talk about other subjects: social, political and even religious. Is it easier to talk about those things in English?
No, the truth is it wasn\'t planned. It\'s strange, because I\'ve always made my arguments in Spanish. But in this case I chose to talk about very complex subjects in a language which is not my mother tongue. The paths an artist takes are sometimes mysterious. There must be a sub-conscious motive.
The Billboard Latin Awards granted you a special prize for your collaboration with the Fundacion Pies Descalzos (Bare Feet Foundation). Did you feel proud of that recognition?
Of course, it\'s a beautiful gesture, but my social commitment goes way beyond any recognition. I think this prize will be useful for the foundation, for its repercussion and worldwide dissemination which, after-all, will benefit the unprotected children of Colombia who we try to help. More than personal satisfaction, prizes like this give me the courage to keep on fighting and thinking that things can get better and that our children can have an opportunity in life, like I have. In the 21st century social injustice must become unacceptable, and we all have to mobilise for it to be that way.
A Woman Full of Grace
Born in Barranquilla (Colombia), Shakira\'s name means "woman full of grace" in Arabic. At 10 years of age she had already composed her first songs, and now - still quite young - she has a repertoire of more than 40 of her own songs. Once her parents discovered her talent, Shakira started to participate in children\'s competitions. After one of them, a Sony record producer signed her for his company, and from then on the world began to learn about the Colombian hurricane called Shakira.
In 1991, still just 14, she recorded her first album, Magia (Magic). It was only published in Colombia, and didn\'t achieve many sales, but it was enough to strike interest among the media. Thanks to this record she was chosen to represent her country in the OTI Festival, but in the end she wasn\'t allowed to attend because the minimum age was 16.
After this experience, Shakira put the ballads aside, and demonstrated her rock side. Taking that risk ignited her career: her second studio album, Pies Descalzos, full of great songs, sold over four million copies around the world - and it was with this record that she conquered the European market.
Shakira has been able to stand out because of a very personal style, and for always refusing to perform commercial music. She creates a special blend of pop and rock, and in her concerts that combination becomes explosive as she changes from the sweetest ballad to the overwhelming force of rock and roll.
But Shakira is also a perennial favourite of the gossip press, as she shares her life with the son of former Argentinean president Fernando de la Rua; as an expression of her deep love for Antonio de la Rue, she dedicated the Grammy she won as best Latin pop singer to him. She is also very much loved in her country: the Colombian government named her ambassador for the Buena Voluntad (Good Will) organisation.
