Shakira
Sale El Sol

Waka Waka

With these two simple and famous words, partial title of the equally famous song, I intend to kick off my brand-new review concerning the latest bilingual work of the exuberant Shakira, Sale El Sol. Well yes, the beloved, hated, omnipresent, all-pervasive official anthem of the World Cup represents the worthy prelude of the album and anticipates its prevailing sounds, namely a heterogeneous mix of Latin Pop, Merengue, Rock, Pop, and Dance.

However, allow me to once and for all debunk the myth of Waka Waka and dampen the enthusiasm of the clubbing masses ready to shake their hips and mimic, with pitiful and unstable results, the moves of the beautiful Shaki on every blasted occasion when the Summer 2010 hit blazes from the booming speakers of various stereos and DJ sets. Enough! Initially, the song was quite to my liking, listened to with joy and exuberance every Saturday night and on the speeding cars of friends, happy and howling with joy whenever the hit of the moment reached their eardrums ("Guys, there's Waka Waka!!!!!!"). A fresh, sunny, and summery alternative to the likes of GaGa, Rihanna, and Katy Perry, Queens of the 2010 mainstream beach scene. It even earned itself a nice little spot in my mp3 player, even in a personal playlist. However, the relentless replay and reiteration of the Anthem through radio, clubs, and such have elicited a sense of fatigue and exhaustion in me regarding that song. Now it’s time to switch to other songs, I told myself. It's not enough. I keep hearing it at every unexpected and unforeseen occasion. Oh well.

Waka Waka abruptly anticipates Shakira's return to her Latin origins, leaving behind the musical "experimentation" of She Wolf, an album in which electronic, hip-hop, dance, dancehall, mainstream pop, and folk-country sounds shaped the (rather scarce) tracks contained in the record, from the title track She Wolf to Gypsy, Did It Again, Spy, Why Wait and so on.

Let's start with the album analysis. The first official single (Waka Waka is just an appetizer, a teaser before the "big feast"), Loca (available in two versions, Spanish - performed with El Cata - and English - featuring rapper Dizzee Rascal - ) aims to combine Hips Don’t Lie, La Tortura and (yes indeed) the same 2010 Anthem now known even in the most remote corners of the planet: unfortunately, the result struggles to barely reach adequacy, being a forced mix of Latin Pop, Salsa, Merengue, and a few drops of Dance-Pop. The only positive note, the video, where our beloved singer, engaged in a mad wander through the avenues of Barcelona, performs with voluptuous dances and euphoric hip movements.

Far more worthy of mention and appreciation are the romantic ballads, where Shaki’s voice appears sincere, acute, and melancholic, Devocion, Antes De Las Seis and Lo Que Mas, while glimpses of pleasant light rock can be found in the opening track Sale El Sol and Mariposas, in my opinion, similar and comparable to great Shakira classics such as Don’t Bother and La Pared.

Resuming the "return to origins" discourse through Latin Pop and derivatives, one encounters more consistent tracks and better-packaged sounds compared to the unconvincing Loca: Gordita, Addicted To You, Rabiosa (featuring the now omnipresent even in potato chips Pitbull) blend Merengue, Salsa, Latin Pop, along with more mainstream and commercial sounds like Urban, Hip-hop, Dance-Pop. A demonstration of great versatility and musical heterogeneity, combined with a wide, secure, and sweet vocal tone. After the bizarre and unconvincing Loca, Shakira finally proves that she is adept at handling and maneuvering creatively in less mainstream musical genres, despite having already done such work and positively demonstrated such capabilities in works like Fijacion Oral, Vol. 1 (2005, ed.).

In conclusion, I mention a more poppish, light track with a pleasant soft rock flavor, namely the cover of the English band "The xx" Islands, sunny, melancholic, summery, and nostalgic.

The "Back to the roots", if we may define this as Shakira's new and unrepeatable musical turning point, seems at times shaky, although in various occasions it presents more than positive ideas and traces of melodic richness, however, it does not fail to gift the audience a work that instead of following the masses and the current prevailing musical styles, does an about-face and goes against the grain, enriching a soundscape that is increasingly unoriginal and increasingly homologated and uniform. The example Shakira sets with her latest effort strongly advises, especially the Big ones, for greater heterogeneity in the music business. Will she be proven right? The music market, the charts, the audience itself will answer this daunting question.

Shakira, Sale El Sol

1 Sale el sol

2 Loca (Spanish Version) (feat. El Cata)

3 Antes de las seis

4 Gordita (feat. Residente Of Calle 13)

5 Addicted to You

6 Lo que más

7 Mariposas

8 Rabiosa (Spanish Version) (feat. El Cata)

9 Devoción

10 Islands

11 Tu Boca

12 Waka Waka (Esto es Africa) (K-Mix)

13 Loca (English Version) (feat. Dizzee Rascal)

14 Rabiosa (English Version) (feat. Pitbull)

15 Waka Waka (This time for Africa) (K-Mix)