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Home , Amanda Ghost, Chris Blackwell, Feels Like, Give It Up to Me, Laundry Service, She Wolf

Can C o n q u e r the World? Her is late. Her shrink is on the phone. And her biological clock is ticking. But nothing will stop Shakira’s quest for global domination By Vanessa Grigoriadis u Photographs by Max Vadukul

44 • , November 12, 2009 Rolling Stone, November 12, 2009 • 4 5 SHAKIRA

ost of the time, when shakira is want to be free to do anything that I want recording music in Nassau near her home to do sonically. I think today has a lot to offer in that sense.” Says Sam in the Bahamas, she wears her PJs all day ­Endicott, lead singer of and and hardly ever puts on shoes. But today co-writer of “,” “Shakira is open-­ minded. I love that she howls in ‘She Wolf.’ is supposed to be her last day of work on It’s so bizarre and cool.” She Wolf, the album she has been creat- In September, after the “She Wolf” sin- gle didn’t catch fire on U.S. radio – it rose ing for a year, so she’s decided to celebrate, to Number 11 but never broke the Top 10 dressing up in a silver necklace, a long black silk dress with spaghet- – it seems that Shakira and her label went Mti straps and club-kid platform shoes that lift her five-foot-two-inch into high gear to get a single that would. A day before the Video Music Awards, on frame up like stilts. “My boyfriend is six feet tall, and sometimes I September 12th, , the head feel like I’m his keychain, a small little thing,” she says, then sighs. “I of Epic and co-author of Shakira’s song “Gypsy” – a possible third single from the am so ready for this to be over!” she exclaims. “I just told my manag- album – says she got a call from Timba­land er, ‘I’m ready for hair and makeup. Just take me out of here.’ ” u As to visit him at Trump Palace. He wanted her to hear “,” a track he Shakira makes her way into the studio, though, her mood begins to had in mind for Shakira, even though darken. When she can’t find the keys to her car in her Gucci hand- the She Wolf album was ready to Tiny Dancer ship. “I hate changing plans,” says bag, she searches for them with the intensity of someone who has Ghost, “but the music business is lost her passport before an internation- the house together, but men aren’t very done today,” she says. “It may not be the Shakira began the Wild West right now, so I’m al flight. Once she finds them, she climbs ­focused on the details. Now, I’m the wife, last day of the rec­ord after all.” performing at age four, ripping up the rule book and start- into her pristine Mercedes SUV, turns up staying behind to put the flowers in the But the album is late – will she get some when she started ing again.” She played the song for Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon and vase.” Her process as a producer is to lis- grief from the label for missing her dead- belly-dancing. She’d put Shakira in the car on the way to the on shows for her zips down a twisting coastal road, mak- ten as much with her body as her ears. In line again? She cocks her head, consider- VMAs, and they made a decision to classmates in Colombia ing what seems to be a very illegal ­U-turn, fact, “Hips Don’t Lie,” her first collabora- ing the question. “You mean I might have (opposite). With Wyclef push the ­release of the album from at least by U.S. standards. On one side, the tion with Wyclef and the bestselling sin- to beg someone for extra time?” she says. Jean performing their ­October 12th to November 23rd. road is overhung with the dense ­foliage gle of her career, is a phrase she has used “Beg? Ah, no. No.” 2006 hit “Hips Don’t “We said, ‘Fuck it all,’ ” says Ghost. of mango trees, and on the other, there’s in the studio for a long time: “I would say, Lie.” The song is the The drama didn’t stop there. For a vast ­expanse of glittering Caribbean, ‘Hey, do you see my hips moving?’ ” she eedless to say, this bestselling of her career. “Give It Up,” Shakira filed her parts which she throws a longing look. “I haven’t says, laughing. “ ‘No? This is not working. was not the last night of “I focus 100 percent of remotely, writing the lyrics on a car been in the ocean for so long,” she whines. My hips don’t lie.’ ” Shakira’s record. She’s my physical energy on ride during her promotional tour There’s already a whirl of activity at the An assistant hands over a pot of cof- messed with She Wolf end- the music,” she says. in Germany and taking one of her studio, with Shakira’s exhausted manage- fee, and Shakira pours herself a cup. “I lessly, because she cares so days off in London to rec­ord. At ment team punching away at their Black- stopped coffee for six months, because Nmuch about it succeeding. “I know that first, it looked like would take Berries and engineers making changes in when I drink it, I get cravings,” she says. this is my moment in America,” says Sha- all the rap parts on the track, but then they the control room (“I have them create all of “But now I need to have it three times a kira, who is already a global superstar hired to cut them instead – and my ‘K’s and ‘R’s on the computer, because day.” She’s trying to watch her weight, even with 50 million records sold and earnings then, says Ghost, ­“Everyone’s breath was I cannot say them with my ­accent my- though she shouldn’t. She’s gorgeous, with of over $ – even if she isn’t taken away when said he want- self,” she explains). an expressive, heart-shaped face, a thick quite in Beyoncé territory here. “This is ed to jump on the rec­ord.” Even though was founded in the late 1970s by ­Island fringe of eyelashes and a supertoned body my chance to consolidate a career and my Lil Wayne and Shakira now share billing Rec­ords’ Chris Blackwell: AC/DC record- without the plastic endowments up top dreams as an artist in the U.S., so that I on the song, they’ve met only once, brief- ings by

ed three here, including Back in that usually complete the picture. “In Co- can continue making music for a long time k ly, when they landed at an airport in the toc

Black, and the halls are lined with gold lombia, I’m the only woman who doesn’t and traveling the world.” This might sound S ­Bahamas at the same time. “This is the age

records and portraits of Eighties artists have those,” she says. “Colombian sur- cold and calculated, but for Shakira, this Im modern approach to things, with so little chilling in the Caribbean, some in baby-­ geons are the best, along with Brazilians, is an emotional moment: After this tour, time and so much going on,” says Shakira,

blue shorts and mirrored sunglasses. “I am in South America. It’s cheaper there, and she wants to start a family. “And that’s less ane/Wire laughing prettily. “I guess I’ll see him when

e Montparnasse, we shoot the video.”

such a huge fan of Bob , the doctors there make them pretty natu- an intellectual decision than a physical evin k D i and ­AC/DC, and when I heard about this ral, very good.” calling,” she says, a glimmer of excitement k “Women deal with Shakira is one of the best flirts in the ira; k k

legendary studio where all of them record- She steps into the control room. “Are you passing over her face. “My body feels like t by Ki world, and that laugh is part of it, a long l

ed, I knew I had to be here,” says Shakira. ready?” she asks Gustavo Celis, a Grammy-­ it is asking to reproduce, to have a huge f sha stream of rapid-fire giggles that are so “This place is the main reason that I set- winning mix engineer, hoping to listen to belly and carry babies. And when the baby so many pressures: cute they could come from a baby unicorn. tled in the Bahamas.”­ his new mix of “Men in This Town,” a track comes, I don’t want to be in the middle of She has two faces: on one hand, just total- t: courtesyt: o

As a musician, Shakira is a perfection- about desperate single women prowling 100,000 projects.” f ly adorable, as much of a coquette as her e

ist – “I’m an Aquarius, but I’ve turned into for decent guys at places like ’ She Wolf is only Shakira’s third album in m l belly-dancing would imply; on the other,

ro aesthetics, being eadpieces, shirt and be a Virgo over time,” she says. She wrote 60 Sky Bar. (Note to Shakira: There are not, English, and she didn’t even speak the lan- H a pushy, difficult diva who doesn’t mind

songs for She Wolf, whittling them down to nor have there ever been, any decent guys guage until the late Nineties – she taught edoe throwing the world into chaos as long as l 10 in the studio over the past four months. at Sky Bar.) herself, listening to the rhythms of Leon- mothers, daughters she gets her way. This is how it can be with Today, she’s supposed to send nine mixes “I need a little longer,” Celis says trem- ard Cohen and songs. “It’s inter- powerful women, and it’s not the most en- to mastering and finish “Spy,” a two-step ulously. esting to me that in my teens, I was a rock lightened way to be, but Shakira considers eadpiece by Litt song with , so that it can be She purses her lips. “Can I hear what you chick, listening to Nirvana, H and wives. And on herself a die-hard feminist. She surrounds ce & gabbana. this spread, f

mastered tomorrow as well. “That song is have so far?” and Tom Petty, and there was no Latin in- l herself with “strong, determined, fighting like a couples project,” she says. “We built Celis shakes his head. “Well, it’s the fluence in my music at that time whatso- women” and can rant at length about the same as yesterday,” he admits. ever,” she says. “When I started singing in top of it, we must get injustices faced by her gender. She is excit- Contributing editor Va nessa “Really,” says Shakira, stringing out the English, I went in search of my Latin and ed about the “She Wolf” video, which fea- in, shorts by do Grigoriadis wrote the Adam Lambert word. Annoyed, she taps a notepad in front Middle Eastern roots, experimenting with k tures porno-contortionist moves inside a ans previous spread: Feather cover story in RS 1081. of her. “I don’t know if we can get this all fusion and other cultures. Now, I really D rid of cellulite.” giant pink vagina, but she was taken aback

46 • Rolling Stone, November 12, 2009 Rolling Stone, November 12, 2009 • 4 7 SHAKIRA

when her mother wasn’t thrilled about it. 1 4 “I was surprised at first and thought about how her fans and Colombians were going to view it,” says her mother, Nidia, calling from Colombia. After all, She Wolf is largely about Shakira’s World the difficulty of women satisfying themselves in (1) Shakira runs three a world where men are foundations that build in charge. “We live in a children’s schools in society that represses Colombia. (2) With boyfriend Antonio de la women’s subconscious Rua. The pair have been dreams,” Shakira says, together for nine years, her eyes narrowing. “You but Shakira refuses to know, women have to get married. (3) With her make enormous efforts parents in 2009. through life, much larger (4) At the Video Music than men. We deal with Awards in 2002, a so many pressures: the year after her U.S. pressure of aesthetics, breakthrough with . and how society wants 2 3 us to deliver our perfor- mances as mothers, daughters and wives. And then, on top of it, we must sweat it out at the gym trying to get rid of cellulite.” That’s on the agenda today too: While she’s waiting for her engineer to finish the mix, Shakira grabs a black leather bag of gym clothes and heads to the back of a stu- dio, where a petite trainer has set up a gym for her to train two hours a day. Dozens of elastic bands hang from the ceiling, and a step machine is set up in front of a mir- ror, ready to do its part in her daily diet of a zillion squats. “I do them until my leg is To follow her own path, Shakira sees a “too confusing and unintelligible for the that she says is only found in ­Barranquilla. going to fall off,” she says. “I never went to Freudian psychotherapist, a 70-year-old mind to capture it”; others are “mascu- “I tried to plant corozo here, but it didn’t the gym before in my life, but at 32 I notice analyst she meets with often when she is line, much too much.” She sighs. “The font work,” she says, holding her stomach from that my body responds negatively to bad in New York and speaks to on the phone should be freer,” she says, waving a hand hunger. “I am a sugar addict, and late night food, so I must make double the effort.” from elsewhere. “I love seeing a map of my around. “She Wolf is all about doing what is bad. This is when I do bad things. No! subconscious mind and having a space you want!” I mean eat bad things.” Then she adds, “A ouble the effort is ern restaurant. “I liked it so much that I old,” says Maria Emma Mejia, the head of that is only mine, where that mind can Freudian slip.” Shakira’s way of moving asked my father to get me some ­Arabic one of them. “She has exceptional disci- speak, and I can listen to it,” she says. “It t’s almost 10 p.m. when shakira The mix goes on, and she stands up in through the world: She con- music, and my mother bought me a tur- pline.” The schools are run in conjunction is the captain of our ship, and our destiny.” finally gets on a conference call via the middle of the room. Her shoes are off ducts business both in the quoise custom-made dress to practice in,” with the government, but they provide uni- She thinks that she’s become a bit stuck at Skype with Wyclef Jean’s engineer in – her dress is so long that without them, English-speaking world and she says. She began writing songs around forms, music and dance classes, and even the oral-fixation stage of life. “I’ve always New York to discuss the 15 versions it turns out, she can’t help but step on the s w Din the Spanish-speaking one, and she is eight, then enrolled in modeling school in some cases hire the mothers of children e lived through my mouth, like a person in of “Spy” he sent to her earlier in the hem. “I’m back to my regular height,” she

producing She Wolf in two languages at and performed on Colombia’s state-fair to cook nutritious lunches. “In Latin Amer- ash N jail lives through a window,” she has said. day. She takes a seat in an Aeron chair, says. Then she closes her eyes. “I have to

l I p once. Her next album is likely going to be circuit before she landed a contract with ica, there’s a stupid cycle where if you are S “It’s my biggest source of pleasure: What dead center at the console, writing down focus 100 percent of my intellectual and

exclusively in Spanish, and she’s prepar- Sony’s Latin division at 13 (she ambushed born poor, you will die poor,” Shakira says. ress/ I say, what I sing, the kisses I give, the changes to the trumpet, drums and vocals physical energy on the music,” she says o P k

ing for a global tour after that. In fact, a rep in his hotel lobby to get an audi- “We’re trying to change that.” i ­chocolate I eat.” on a lined white pad. “Wyclef’s kind of bur- later. The track starts, and for the first her boyfriend, Antonio de la Rua, the ence). Her first two albums didn’t do well, Refusing to maintain the status quo Even with talk like this, Shakira is still ied in there right now,” she says. “He’s my time, her face completely shuts down – son of a former president of , though, and she was forced to take a part has become very important to Shakira, a good girl, an overachiever. It’s hard not friend. I’ve got to protect him.” She laughs. suddenly, she’s transformed into a totem, and an investment banker, recently trav- in a soap opera that won her Best Bottom and that’s part of why she’s refused to to feel sorry for her as she sweats away, “You know, these songs were recorded and even her lips seem to lose their puff,

eled to Colombia to help research the new on TV in a newspaper. She finally hit the marry her boyfriend, even though they are ; Xavier Menós; P reaching for superstardom under the in- when I was in – wine, cheese, vibing lengthening into a solid line. Then she be- Spanish album. “We flew around to differ- charts in 1994 with a rock album, Pies Des- ­monogamous and have been together for tense time pressure of needing to start a it. You can’t re-create that shit.” She takes gins to move, and this time her dance is CORBIS ent villages, even in the deepest areas of calzos (“bare feet”). “I kept going to the nine years. “It’s funny how the papers want family. After her workout, she starts to out a nail file and rubs away, shaking her not seductive, not for a man, not for the

the jungle where they still speak African same school after that,” she says. “Except I to see you married, and then they want to euters/ slog through a long day in the studio. With head. “Yesterday, when we had a confer- cameras. She jerks her arms around, her R dialect,” says producer John Hill, who ac- started signing autographs in class.” see you divorced,” she says, with a flash of her two heavyset assistants, she agoniz- ence call, I looked so terrible,” she says. belly pulsating oddly from the center of her companied de la Rua on the expedition. These days, Shakira doesn’t spend a lot of anger. “Well, I won’t do any of it.” She has es over an upcoming promotional sched- She throws her bare foot up on the lip of body. It’s as though she’s possessed. “We recorded 85-year-old , time in Colombia, even though her parents also perhaps repudiated her Catholicism, ershorn/ ule in Miami for an hour: The three of the soundboard and wriggles it around. When her eyes open, they’re glassy, kids’ accordion groups, people singing on still live there, but she is deeply ­invested though not overtly say so. “I’ve be- ary H them intermittently chat and work Black- “That’s all I put on the webcam for him to ­almost like she’s stoned. She dunks her

the street – just grabbing things to inspire in helping to figure out the nation’s social come very practical, very rational,” says íaz; G Berries like defense attorneys preparing see: just my bare foot.” popsicle stick in her drained porcelain cof- a D Shakira for the record.” problems, a product of government cor- Shakira. “If I don’t see it, I don’t believe it.” l briefs, constantly shaking their heads at The phone call goes on for a few hours, fee cup and lets out a tremendous giggle.

The product of a late marriage by a ruption and 30 years of guerrilla war. She Tonight, when assistants start telling sto- abrie the ineptitude of the person at the other before Shakira finally turns to her mixes. “What the hell,” she says. “Let’s send this to t: G t:

ries about seeing ghosts at Compass Point f end of their messages. Soon, they move ­Colombian woman and a jewelry-store runs what amounts to another career as e “Ah, my cravings from that cup of coffee,” mastering. It might be because my ears are owner of Lebanese descent with seven an advocate for early-childhood education, Studios, she says, “I was so afraid of ghosts to a conference room to consider poten- she says. “I want chocolate.” She settles in- closing up, but I leave it now with all of you

children from a previous marriage, Shaki- speaking at forums around the world and when I was younger. Not anymore! I don’t m top l tial album covers on a laptop. Shakira stead for satisfying her oral fixation with and your consciences! Print it, and I’ll hear ro ra seems to have always been driven: She building elementary schools in Colombia believe in any of that crap.” She laughs, and scrolls through a hundred images, most a constant stream of cereal (“130 calories it on the album.” She closes her eyes again, ise f

started belly-dancing at four, when she through her three foundations. “Shakira is then calls out mock-plaintively: “Ah, sorry! kw with imperceptible differences, as the as- a cup! Too many!”) and a miniature pop- and for the first time she looks as if she’s at oc l

watched a performance in a Middle East- a young woman, but she could be 50 years Wherever you are, forgive me!” c sistants murmur at her shoulder: One is sicle she made from frozen corozo, a fruit peace. “I’m feeling it,” she says.

48 • Rolling Stone, November 12, 2009 Rolling Stone, November 12, 2009 • 4 9