Shakira: Ready for the Good Times

Another day, another dot. I mean icon graces our presence.

How many are we up to? Now?

It's not about the numbers, my little Henny. It's about the impact the memories we are leaving.

Oh wait, wait wait, I'm not talking about followers. I meant icons. How many oh five papes?

This time?

Estoyaki gerendo algando.

I can't sing that fast in Spanish, I can't talk that fast, but I will say that your audition tape is going to be fire.

And lucky for me, everyone can hear my samples during our podcast My Day is Coming Baby.

We're tackling the life and times of someone who can only be defined by one name, too many hits to count and three syllables. Shot, one of the most influential singers to popularize Latin music.

Worldwide, aka the Queen of Latin music.

Sh don't tell the other icons cow maybe knowing I'm not saying, you're lying. Shakiras influenced so many and that's why Joseph and I are going to take you through the different errors of Shaiki Da, peeling back the layers to find out who the girl from Barankia really.

Is AKA listing all the ways she was too good for PK.

I'm your host Lilianavoscaz and I'm Joseph Carrio and this is Becoming an Icon a weekly podcast where we give you the rundown on how today's most famous LATINV stars have shaped pop culture.

And given the world some extra level Sit back and get comfortable, because we are going in the.

Only way we know how, with buena buenassas and a lot of opinions as we relive their greatest achievements on our journey to find out what makes them so iconic.

Those Did you know that Colombia has four freaking a thousand.

Species of orchids? No?

I didn't.

It actually makes it the most biodiverse universe in Zemunda.

Ah, that's cool.

And get this, it's the most musically diverse country in the world.

Okay, now you're back on theme. So naturally that makes you think of Sofia Vergara. No for a modern family, but why well, okay, you know what stops stop stop, stop, tada. That's going to take way too long. One more time, Try it again. What does it make you think of when I say Colombia Chaquida Yes, also known as Shakira Isabel Mebarik Ripoli.

Born in Barankia, Colombia, on February tewod of nineteen seventy seven, which I mean like nine thirty and ten.

How do you know all of this? Mindy dot?

Chris Jenner works hard, but I work harder. So that makes her an Aquarius sun a cancer moon. Plus her rising sign is an aries. Ooh girl, it's passion, It's feisty and independent.

There is a lot to unpack there.

I'm totally psychoanalyzing her heart right now, but in a good way.

And honestly, the best way to get to know Shakida is diving deep into her roots.

Oh my god, a good call, because last time I saw her, I was thinking that Mama needed a little touch up for real.

I meant her upbringing. But sometimes her hair, yes too.

And for all we know about her, she only lets us know what she wants us to know, you know what I mean?

That's how I am with my new prospects, like will my name be Joseph tomorrow? Will my number change?

Like? Only time will.

Tell what's not to love about Shaki dak And there's so many things her musick, her style, the hair, the hips, the leather the braids.

Back to the basics. Shakina was born in Barankia. That's why they have a statue of her there. You saw the statue.

It's fifteen feet tall, six tons and actually does it look anything like her?

Yeah?

It looks more like a unsculpted Steven Tyler.

Is that redundant? Yes?

Steven Tyler has seen better days.

I don't want to close my Joseph focus.

Let's go back to Shakida, right, Chekita. She's a diosa or a revered saint. If I'm being humble, I'll bite go on. Okay, there was an article in the Guardian.

Oh you really said, mama, let's research.

I love this new Joseph am I getting him the whole episode.

It's from No You're Not Don't Get Carried Away. It's from two thousand and nine, but it stays relevant. Basically, Shakida's more than just a singer. She has killer tracks and she looks mighty fine and ninety nine point nine percent of the time minus roots.

But this article puts it best. Can you actually read it? Little as I have to save my voice for the rest of the Shakida songs. Anything for you my love. It says she is seen as something.

Of a saint in her own country. There are statues of her writhing. Teens love her for putting Latin American dance music around the world.

Nuns revere her for building schools for orphans.

The article then gets kind of weird with the writer totally thirsting for her, so we'll just leave it there.

Anyways, I do say.

The casa is a closeta Santa Shakira. Now you're wondering where am I going with.

All of this now that you mention it.

Yes, Shakida has managed somehow to remain humble in appearance and in actions. I think that's because of her journey through the ranks of the industry.

Nicely dungeon so way to bring it back.

Thank you, thank you, and don't expect to happen twice. I don't think I could find this weed anymore.

I love you for trying.

And remember, Shakina isn't just her average pop star. She puts thought and purpose into everything she puts out into the world. She's a poet, a literal poet who started writing poetry at the age of four. Shakina's father was a well known jeweler in Baranquilla, but he was also a writer. He would spend hours on his typewriter, and soon Shakida was writing on her own typewriter.

Bitch, did you just go there a typewriter?

Like?

Do we even have to explain to the kids what a typewriter is?

Well, since this isn't a video, I feel like I have to describe a typewriter kind of like I would a rotary phone. And I'm not really sure where to start, nor do I think we have enough time for that, So y'all get on Google and search. Soon Shakira was turning her poetry into lyrics, which we're not always the happiest. Shakindo was an only child, but she did have half siblings, which was only two her half brother passed away due

Because he was crying all the time, her father hid his red eyes from the world.

I do that you've been wearing sunglasses this whole episode.

Have you been said, Oh no, that's not why my eyes are red? Henny? Speaking of where is my luma fib But I love how you can still see how Shakida takes from everything around her and puts it into music. It's like her therapy.

That's just what makes her an artist before she's a singer. And I'm not saying that all singers can be artists because they can't. Not going to name any names, but don't you think it's that artistry and that thoughtfulness in her lyrics and her composing that makes her such an icon.

One hundred percent.

I could see her words, I have the feeling, and I don't get that with a lot of songs.

No, She's incredibly visual. When you listen to the song, it's playing a video in your head.

I'm imagining whatever the fuck she's singing. I'm pretending that it's me, like I'm all greased up with Alexandro too. I think what also sets her apart is how she mixes genres and musical styles.

Again, her dad's influence.

Chequida is famously Colombian, but of Lebanese descent.

Her dad's side of the family comes from Lebanon, while her mom's side has Catalan blood. Her family would frequent Middle Eastern restaurants throughout Barankia. It was there Shakida would let the music speak to her and climb on the tables when the music moved her to dance.

Actual footage of me after three clause two Bockasota's and a few fireballs.

It was out those restaurants that she learned the art of belly dancing.

I actually learned it the arts of belly dancing and Fort Lauderdale after seven tequila shots.

That is not art. I have seen it firsthand. It's the eye of the beholder.

Anyways, the dancers at the restaurants noticed how this little girl would mimic all of their movements, and soon they were showing her how to sway those hips.

And now have beats hips. Don't lie, honey, it's her signature move.

She was a poet and a dancer, so when she decided to take the next step and become a singer, her family had her back at her school.

Check you to try it out for the school choir. Hey like our boy Benito, Yes, but unlike Benito, she was rejected. Okay, hold these mother freaking earrings. I'm gonna go beat someone's ass. I know who were these fools?

They didn't like the way she's sang and it was led by her music teacher. I thought teachers were supposed to support our children. What kind of person is this?

I'm calling CPS. Yes, you're as needs to call that on Shakira's teacher. This woman had the audacity to say that Shakira sounded like a goat. I don't know what that was.

I will say that Shakida has a really distinct sound, but that's what makes her so memorable. That's what makes you want to play the song and again and again and again, and when you hear the song makes you.

Go, whoa, who is it that? Yeah? Her dad ignored the haters.

He told her that she had exactly what it took to be a great vocalist and that she shouldn't give up on herself before giving it all she had. So she turned it into fuel.

For her fire. And boy did she say, burn, baby, burn.

Okay, y'all listening, don't let the haters get you down, let them fuel that ass up. Also, Gandhi said that Jesus wait or was that Gandy Jesus Joseph?

Okay? No, I'm pretty sure with.

Connie, Shakita had the love and support of her parents, so she had everything she needed to chase her dreams.

This was a Cheeka that was getting kicked out of class for being quote unquote too hyperactive. Clearly, she wasn't the one to sit still and wait for an opportunity to fall on her lap.

It was time to take Shakita on the road and make sure Badan Gilla would never.

Forget her name.

How old do you think Shakida was when she released her first.

Album twenty one? Try Again? Thirteen? You read the script?

Yes, for the first time in your life, you read the script.

Joseph is right. She was thirteen.

When she was only ten, Shakida was traveling around Barankilla attending local dance and talent competitions. She kind of became a little celebrity in her town, performing for anyone who would listen, and someone was Monica Arisa, they're still friends?

What on? That's so cute? V cute?

Monica was spotted at one of her concerts in twenty twenty one. She was a local theater producer, but she knew Cido vadagas the executive of Sony Columbia at the time. Moni got convinced Shakira and most importantly, her parents to let her go to Bogata.

To meet Sero.

I'm checking this off from my icons checklist. Jayl left the Bronx, Bat Bunny left Bega Baja, and Ricky left the Island.

Okay, fine, yes, you are one hundred percent right.

There's a pattern here.

You got to get out of your comfort zone.

So did he budge?

He did, and to fit her into his busy af schedule, they held an impromptu audition for Shaki in a hotel lobby.

Oh my god, Gaggerrie, but I've performed it worse.

If you can perform in a hotel lobby on the spot like that, then you can kind of do it anywhere.

Now. Yeah, hm, I have Vodagas liked our girl. But when he went back to the Sony office, he turned in Shaki's.

Cassette how vintage and the label was hashtag. Not impressed, but Vodicaz didn't want to give up on her just yet. He gathered a bunch of people from Sony Columbia and surprised them with Shakita.

See that's what I wanted you to do for Mike Wad and Danieta, but you didn't tell me that it wouldn't have been a surprise. Fair fair.

Luckily for Shakida, the surprise did work out. She laid it all on the floor. She sang with her signature vibrato. She did the belly dancing.

Ugh, all those old guys. Gross. She ended up signing a three album contract.

Okay, less gross less gross?

What do you think happens next? You get her to come to my next birthday party.

I'm pretty sure that iHeart does not have access to a PJ available for us, but maybe if we get the right sponsor.

Just like my X, the lies tell me how I'm supposed to breathe with no air.

She released her first LP, Mahya Mahya Magic.

I swear I'd never heard of this album, honestly, same.

I had to YouTube this shit to even know what we were going to be talking about. And let me just tell y'all, it is worth the search because Shaki is unrecognizable.

Mm.

It is early nineties, it's giving What was the name of that girl, Tiffany?

Tiffany.

It was a big nightighties hair and Shakita, you know, debuted with like a center part.

Yeah, and braids totally, But I think what struck me the most about the video is that the music.

Is what it is like. It's not a banger.

No one's singing the song, even like die hard Shuki Da fans are not like running around the world singing songs from Mahya.

But the thing that stood out to.

Me the most knowing her now is I think she looks older in Mahia than she does in twenty twenty three, Like she's Benjamin Button. She's like aging in reverse. What the hell happened to her? Who dressed this like teenager? Like a grown ass extra in Pretty Woman?

Oh my god, that visual for you guys listening, that visual is absolutely perfect.

And listen, everyone has to have bumps along the road to success. But one good thing really did come out of this album. It meant that she attended the Vina Delmar International Song Festival, and even though she didn't win, that's where she met Ricky Martin.

Who admitted he voted for her. Since Mahia was a bomb, her label took full control of her second album, Shakida had no say in Peligro, never heard of it.

I'm literally channeling my inner Maria Carrie, and I.

Don't know her. Nobody did okay.

Well, people knew Shakida, but the album was a commercial failure. Shaki went back to being a teenager. She finished high school, starting a telenovela.

Pause a rewind, play at telenovela.

I need to see this, you and me both, but it's buried further down than the married men you see on the down low.

Lo I miss Mario.

Wait what happened to Oasis?

Oh? You mean her soap opera?

Well, in two thousand and two, Shaki was able to obtain the rights to Oassis, and she made sure it's never going to see the light of day again.

Shakira low key shady making all this stuff disappear. I wonder what else she could make finish maybe my previous grander ships.

I mean, she does have a talent for it. By the time Shakira finished high school, she had two failed albums and a dreadful soap opera under her belt. If she were any less determined, she might have called it quits.

But we know our girl is hella determined.

Some might even say that those early failures were a necessary evil, and after racking up a few l's, she went back to recording music.

Remember, she still owed Sony another.

Album, she gets another shot at becoming a superstar and we get her official debut album, PS the Sconsos.

It was with this album.

That she gained recognition across all of Latin America.

Check it Out. Loses the curly pop persona and goes straight rock with a little pop and regaeton mixed in.

The album was full of romance, love gained love.

Lust, wanting, and longing. Our girl was feeling it all.

You just played a little song for me. I did.

It's right before we started recording the episode. So I have to ask you, because I think you that song is a moment on the album. Do you have a particular song that speaks to you the most?

It's definitely, because I will tell you.

I and from Alpasto textas like I keep saying, I had never heard reggae before, and it was the very first time I had heard reggae.

Well, I didn't know it was reggae.

I had heard that like Caribbean beat, and I was like, oh my god, this is really unique to my ears and I I gravitated toward.

That song like so much.

I wonder how how many other people who also I think predominantly grew up listening to Spanish music or Latin music, also felt their entree into reggae via Shakira. I mean musical genius and a hell, you might not be that special.

What was your favorite I hate you? What was your favorite song? Yes? Are you going to sing a verse? No? No?

I will say one thing about Shakita. Is you think that you can sing Shakita?

You can't.

Yeah, you can't, like all of those girls that go up on karaoke night and try like just sit down, just sit down.

Yeah.

I didn't know where to finish it.

It's just she has such a unique voice and a unique sound, and the way she pronounces word and her inflections and her speed and the change in tempo. It's impossible. Her sound is so distinct and so unique. That's I think, just the common thread through all the albums.

It's just so good.

Yes, This gun So sold over three million copies after its release, gaining popularity in the Latin, American, Asian and European markets. This gave Shakida the opportunity to go on tour for the first time. People wanted and needed to hear this album live.

Remember how excited you were to hear your jam on the radio, like.

When you were driving in the car with your parents, you'd be like, mommy, mommy, so much, isn't it.

Yes, people used to phone in and request songs on the radio.

Delah, what a throwback, Delilah.

And now we can scan bar codes and tip DJs to play our songs, like wait you can?

Yeah, I do that to play all my favorites.

I just cheat and I'll tip like the ice scan a bar code, and I'll tip like five bucks to bump everybody's song off, because my songs are more important than everybody else's.

Wait, am I eighty seven years old?

You can tip DJs at a bar to play your song with.

Cash on mo? Is this a new feature in bars that just happened in the last year? Maybe last three?

Wow?

I need to get out more. Actually no, maybe maybe last two.

COVID I had a baby. That's my excuse.

Yeah, actually that makes it.

I haven't been out past nine o'clock in nineteen months, people, Okay, nineteen months.

Cut me a break.

And on that note, I feel like we need a dance break. Come muchock, go your body, baby?

Do that gonga? Wait? Where'd that come from?

Clodia is always with me, And isn't it that time in an episode where we get to talk about my favorite shocky album, Lone This Done.

It is such an iconic album too. And I know we say that word all the time because it's the title of our podcast, but sometimes it's the only word that fits.

You have to give the listeners what they want.

Let's do it. So this album was produced by none other than a Melo Stefan junior and it took almost nine months to make.

Talk about a perfectionist.

And it's because after what happened with Beliegro, she didn't want to relinquish creative control ever again, I.

Mean low key, i't traumatized her.

But something else also happened that made people wonder if this album would ever see the light of day. Shakida songs were stolen okay, Well, the notebook that she wrote the songs.

Down in had actually been stolen. Okay.

The scene of the crime was none other than El Dorado International Airport in Boloka.

Shakira looked everywhere for the notebook, they even searched the entire airport, but her bad along with those price notebooks filled with her lyrics, her ideas for upcoming albums. The whole thing was gone. She realized that these thieves had stolen more than just her belongings.

They had stolen her peace of mind.

And that's when it hit her. She kept wondering where the thieves were, but that led her to realize where all the thieves were. We've all stolen something.

I've stolen off your hearts, Jose, You're so deep, so profound. What was stolen was her notebook right as a singer, songwriter, poet, whatever you want to call someone's creative process for writing their music before it actually becomes a song. That notebook, containing all of her deepest thoughts, her ideas, her inspirations, her lyrics, her poems.

It disappeared. They took it. I don't know that they knew they were stealing.

It's not like her competition, like went to the airport, it was like, oh, let me stop the new Shakira album from coming out. This wasn't like a Tanya Harding, Nancy.

Carrier, Rubia was not there or No, it wasn't like that.

I think somebody saw the bag, they thought, oh, what's in here? Grab the bag, and little do they know they contained all of Shaky's most priceless lyric.

I wonder if someone still has it, Like she must have wrote her name or something in it and selling it later.

Do you think she like be dazzled the notebook and it said like Shakita with like little hearts and flowers, and they're like, wait, who is this?

Listen if she was doing those tiny little braids with ribbons, I don't know.

It was the Nightties.

Well that takes us to the cover of the album, And just to give you guys a reminder, so it's a pink background. She's in a red top, which gives a little V Day, right, a little Valentine's Day, but she does have the little tiny braids throughout her hair woven in with different ribbons. It was like dark and long and very mysterious.

And what I thought was so weird that her hands were dirty.

Yes, what because she had just kicked the Ladronessa's ass.

I actually didn't know what the reference was of for the dirty hands, to be honest, I always looked at it, and I was always just kind of like, she looks so pretty and then her hands are so dirty.

It's so weird.

I'm not sure what and I should probably google this, and I probably should have googled this before the episode. But my interpretation always when I saw that album was always that she had just found them and like basically beat their ass in a field.

That's what I always I know, well, we would do here at becoming an icon.

But what do you remember about this album off the top of your head? I think the actual CD?

Oh my god, because that was back in the day when we didn't have digital music.

We're so old we are at old day.

I would be driving looking through my notebook trying to get the CD out, like not looking at the road. Okay, Mo'm sorry.

Yeah, I remember that it was this. I mean, there's so many albums like that.

I think that's what's so cool about this podcast is that so many of the albums and artists that were discussing I had in CD form one. A lot of the albums. Yeah, I was gonna say I were to do it that. I still have my case logic filled with Shakita CDs, j Lo CDs, Glodia stef On CDs. That is what I remember, is like the tactile feeling of opening the CD case, like when you would get it from Tower or whatever. Your music's Sam Goodie. You would rip the plastic off.

Sometimes it wouldn't come offing to be so annoyed like, and.

Then you would make that crack when you opened the CD. And then you would take the booklet out and you, as a fan would obviously flip through all the notes and the songs and the lyrics.

A little book, A little book. Oh, I got the little book. That's what I remember.

I remember being really young and feeling like, Wow, who is this girl?

This album was just everything for me.

Did you feel like it was more rock than the traditional Spanish music you grew up listening to in Alfaso?

I would definitely call it alternative sure, And also just because it was sounds I hadn't heard, So it's not like I was going to say pop. Because reygae was in there, I knew it was like nothing my ears I've heard.

I knew she was different.

I remember my cousin's the one who bought this album with me. I was like, we have to get this.

Did you guys go split seas?

Yeah, because we were broke gas. I just remember she's old, She's five years older than I am, and she was like kind of my beacon of cool, right. She was always like my compass, And when I heard it, I was I just had never heard Spanish music like that.

The way I grew up.

I'm not saying other people as my experience as a young Latina growing up in Fort Worth, Texas, I wasn't listening to Spanish rock.

That's not what we listened to. Like, we listened to a ton of Mariacci music, right, Like, that's not what we listened to.

And so hearing the harmonicas in her voice and just this really fresh rock sound, I thought I didn't even know they made music like this in Spanish. So it was very eye opening for me and I think for a lot of people, especially because I think my music knowledge at that point in time was really limited. So this really opened my eyes and ears to an entire new world of music and sound. This album had a

That's what I liked about it because you can hear so many diverse influences Led Zeppelin, Gloria Stefan, Mark, Anthony Madonna.

But this was the late nineties and there was one influence that everyone heard.

And I'm here to remind you of the mess you left when you win.

Ah, why we might have to pay for that?

That was so good.

Wait, you were really passionate when you sang that. Were you thinking about somebody specific? Via No, just kidding, I was not thinking about anybody. His name doesn't serve mentioning Damien. People noticed a lot of Alanis Moore said on this album.

It's definitely giving the jagged little pastiat vibe.

And I get it, but it's also just so disparaging to say, oh, she's the latina.

Alanis no bitch, she is Shakira.

This is one of the things that drives me crazy about the music industry. It can be so sexist. They give all of the space in the world for every male artist. There could be like ten bad bunnies.

Oh, I'll even say, like ten rappers that wrap the theme right.

It doesn't even matter. Ten dudes that play the guitar are the same. But it's like, we can't have two women that both do alternative rock. You can either be Alanis or Shakira. But the world needs Alanis and Shakira and like ten more sounds And so what if they sounded like each other. Yeah, who cares. I don't think it was about copying someone's style. I mean, at this point, I feel like everything is derivative. There is no unique

The album was a sound we.

All wanted to share them with our friends, with our parents. Personally, I remember how cool I thought I was listening to Ojos Aci.

No No, No, No No, because the sound was so distinct.

It felt slicker, it was more polished, and a lot of that sound had to do with super producer Emilio Stephan.

Shakita was introduced to the Stefans thanks to promoter and mutual friend Kaidro Martinez. Once they connected, it was like Machia but not the album.

And both the a Stefans saw so much more for her than she could have ever imagined for herself. And Media co produced the album alongside Shakira, and together they made like Joseph said Mahia. They incorporated the Latin pop and rock style she was already known for, but also added heavy Middle Eastern influences. It earned Shakira accolades and awards, including her very first Grammy nomination for Best Latin Rock or Alternative Album.

Everyone be talking about bez RP song, but has anyone heard?

I mean, it's like these little moments that you hear and you're like, oh, what's that?

So good?

I mean almost as made me feel like I had traveled to the Middle East when I had never left the state of Texas.

At that point, I was in the Middle East and in the middle of Wattas. It was a drama.

I loved it. I was shaking my hips.

Also, that's when people started doing the very unique dances with their hands and they're and shaking.

Were you doing those dances? Okay? By they, I mean me.

And I have to shout out the mariachi trumpets in Siega the Muda stop. It's one of the best consett ever this don't identify it as a King Zieta song. It is just one of the best openings to a song that I have ever listened.

I heard it and I was like, where are we going? What are we doing? Oh my god, Oh my God.

And again, because I am Mexican growing up in Fort Worth, Texas, this was music that I grew up with. And then to hear Jai take those trumpets and reinterpret them and remix them in such a cool, modern, fresh way, I knew that is when my love affair with her began.

That song sealed the deal for me.

When it came to working with Shaquida, Emilio only had great things to say, calling her someone who knows what she wants, a perfectionist, and above all, a hard worker. He added, she reminds me of Gloria. They are two very, very intelligent women.

Seeing them work together, Glodia.

Knew it was time for the next phase in Shaquida's career.

Gloria believed Shakida could successfully cross over to the US with an English.

Record, but Shakira was against it.

Londe Sansnez was a big hit and a huge success for her.

What was the.

Problem, she couldn't sing in English, she could barely speak it. Shakida may be fluent now, but back then she only knew how to order coffee in English.

That's it.

But Gloria knew that she had it in her, so much so that she personally translated songs for Shakida to prove that the lyrics were universal, they could work in both English and Spanish. When looking back, Gloria told Oprah that Shakira is a poet. Her work translated perfectly. Shakida was only missing the encouragement.

Santa Gloria doing the lord's working and lutando for Shakira.

She was fighting hard for her at that time.

Even her record label wanted to keep her as a Spanish artist, but Emilio and Gloria weren't having it. They didn't want some half English, half Spanish album. They believe Shakida's talents were worthy of a full English album.

And with the seven Engine behind her, Shakidra was on her way to.

A full crossover.

On the next Becoming an Icon, Shakidra meets Bleach, an American superstarting. Becoming an Icon is presented by Sonodl and Iheart's Michael DUDA podcast Network. Listen to becoming an icon on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast