Shakira: the Thump. the purr. the sizzle

How do you solve a problem like Shakira, the pint-sized belly-dancing Latina singer/songwriter/producer, who is Colombia's most famous legal export? In such a strictly compartmentalized business as music, how do you market a Lebanese/Colombian whose Alanis Morissette-ish yodel belts out exuberant, soulful love songs featuring Arabic percussion, rock guitar and the pan flute? Well, considering that the 25-year-old has sold more than 10 million records over her 11-year career (she was a child prodigy) and her first English-language album, Laundry Service (Epic), has already gone double platinum, obviously the world's musical tastes aren't as rigid as industry suits would have us believe.

ANITA SARKO: It seems like people are looking for fun right now, and listening to your music is such a joyous experience.

SHAKIRA: There's something about this album that makes me feel so proud--it is full of feel-good songs, songs that really put you in a good mood, and I know why this happened. It is because I fell in love with a real prince--not with one of those princes that turned into a frog. [Sarko laughs] So that changed my whole vision of love and transformed it into something less narrow.

AS: How has your vision changed?

S: I just understand better what it really means to love somebody, and it's nothing more than the fact that it gives you a good excuse to become a better human being every day. When I used to talk about my feelings of love in the past, most of the time I would do so in a way that sounds to some people like I'm making fun of myself. I like sometimes to make fun of my feelings.

AS: Your humor is great. I mean, I love the lyrics about shaving your legs [in "The One"]. Women always say if a man is smart, he'd understand that if a woman really loved him she'd be shaving her legs before she gets into bed.

S: Every day. Religiously, right?

AS: Yeah, if she's not shaving her legs at first, then forget about it.

S: I know because I was alone for almost two years without a boyfriend.

AS: Did you get real hairy?

S: My legs were hairy as hell! [both laugh]

AS: It's so funny. It's the way a lot of women really think.

S: Yeah. I don't like to adopt any fake position through my songs. I like to let the person who is inside me, who feels, who believes, who cries, who celebrates, I like to let that person come across as the message in my songs. I don't want to play any character that is not me, just because it rhymes or it sounds nice.

AS: So what do you do to have fun?

S: Something that is really fun for me is to paint. I cannot say I'm a good painter, because I'm not, but it's a way that I have to decompress myself and relax. And it's also another vehicle for my humor, a different one.

AS: In what style do you paint?

S: Whatever I cannot say through my songs, I say through my paintings. For example, I have a full collection of fried eggs.

AS: You have a full collection of fried eggs?

S: Yeah, I paint fried eggs. I painted Sherlock Holmes with a fried egg in his brain and I called it Fried Sherlock Holmes. And I did a pregnant woman with a fried egg inside her belly.

AS: [laughs] Oh, I love this.

S: But the last one I did was called Lewinsky Vegetarian.

AS: Like Monica? [laughs]

S: Yeah. I did a profile of the woman eating a carrot. [both laugh]

AS: One thing that you may have fun with, because you do have a very good sense of humor, is the fact that I've been reading about how people are describing you. They're always trying to put some sort of label on you and they can't do it. So I started making a list of all the words they used.

S: Oh, I'd like to hear them.

AS: OK, here we go: perfectionist, control freak, independent, unconventional. And when they talk about your music, it's kind of pop, but kind of rock, but it's kind of world, kind of Latin, but there's a little bit of R&B in there. Do you have fun reading about the impressions people have of you?

S: The most difficult question anyone's ever asked me is, "Please describe yourself. Tell us what you are in three words." How can I tell you what I am in three words if I don't even know what I am, and I've been trying to find out for 25 years!

AS: So tell me, what are the kinds of songs that make you happy?

S: You know what? Jazz makes me happy.

AS: Like who?

S: I like Billie Holiday--

AS: --She makes you happy?

S: Yeah, believe it or not, and Janis Joplin makes me happy. It's funny--my favorite singers aren't always the best role models to follow!

COPYRIGHT 2002 Brant Publications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning