It's not a real big secret that I'm a pretty big fan of Shakira.
But despite some dissenting opinions, most of my fanship has to do with the fact that she's a very good songwriter. It certainly doesn't hurt that she looks like that...hang on a second...staring at the photo...can't...look...away...........
There we go. I'm OK now. Point is, she can speak six or seven different languages, she writes songs in both Spanish and English, and she does actual humanitarian work in places where it's going to really help, like in Colombia, the country with the second-highest percentage of displaced children in the world. I mean, she's still a celebrity and you never want to put celebrities up on too high a pedestal...but for being essentially a pop singer, she's got more than her typical contemporaries.
But a preliminary look/listen at/to Shakira's recently released new track, "She Wolf," has me raising an eyebrow. I like the sound; it's kind of techno-ish, a little new wave, and similar to some of the tracks towards the end of her last album. And most of the lyrics look pretty well written; I especially like the phrase "la vida me ha dado un hambre voráz y tu apenas me das caramelos," which I understand to mean "life has given me a ravenous hunger, but all you're giving me is candy." Provacative.
There's just a little weirdness about the whole "she wolf" thing...she actually howls during the chorus, which...yeah, I'm not so sure about that. They actually took down the portion of the track that they had on the website; not sure what that's about. Maybe they weren't getting such great feedback.
But you wonder if sometimes a celebrity gets to a certain level of fame where the people around him or her just have to say "no, that's a great idea...you should totally do that!" no matter what crap they shovel out? Isn't that how we got Star Wars episodes I, II and III? Or Sasha Fierce? Or Brett Favre the Jet/potential Viking? When you're that famous, do you even have a BS filter anymore? Or are people so desperate to hang on the coattails of the celebritocracy (thank you Stephen Colbert) that they won't risk offending the A-listers of the world? I have to think that this is at least partially true; that's why we get quality and/or popular work from an up-and-coming star, but usually see dramatic fall-off through the progression from fresh face to full-fledged celebrity. Other than U2, it's hard to think of an example of a band/actor/performer actually getting better as they've gone along.
Either way, I'm still looking forward to the new disc, which is supposed to be coming this fall/winter, with another Spanish-language album due in 2010.
I'll be sure to share my complete thoughts at that point...
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