From Bob Dylan singing Christmas carols, I take the natural next step to focus on Colombian pop singer and belly dance enthusiast Shakira. Sorry to be so predictable.
In fact, today is the start of a Shakira theme week (plus a day) covering the six studio albums Shakira has released since her debut 14 years ago. Too few of my theme weeks have focused on female artists (I believe Aimee Mann, Fiona Apple and Lucinda Williams are it) so I’m looking to remedy that imbalance.
Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll is a great place to start (and you can see why she prefers to go by just her first name). She’s a multi-talented worldwide sensation, a creative and prolific songwriter and, I’ll go there, extremely hot. She’s also the only artist (to date) who I’m willing to listen to in a foreign language. That has to be worth something.
Shakira was something of a child prodigy, writing her first songs before she was ten years old and recording two independent records before she was 16. Her first studio album, Pies Descalzos (“bare feet”), was released in 1999 when she was just 19 years old. It became an international smash, selling 5 million copies, including more than a million in the U.S.
Shakira writes almost exclusively about romance but the final track on Pies Descalzos was a rare exploration of a political and social subject — abortion. The woman in this song decides to terminate her pregnancy and winds up dead. In the chorus, Shakira sings of a “rotten city where what isn’t wanted is killed.”
As a lifelong Catholic, it’s possible that Shakira intended this as a pro-life song, but it’s likely more complicated than that. Abortion is illegal in Colombia and the country has a high rate of young women dying following abortions, so I imagine that situation informed the lyrics more than any political cause.
I’ve searched high and low but can’t find any definitive answer from Shakira herself about her intentions with this song or her feelings on the topic of abortion in general. I did discover that she backed President Obama in the 2008 election, sang at his inauguration and has met with him on the subject of early childhood development. Now there’s a lobbyist I’d be happy to welcome into the White House!
nunca come en exceso y jamas duerme desnudo,
siempre viste de gris pues no tiene remedio
la tendencia a buscarse siempre punto intermedio.
Dana es niña de bien eso dicen sus padres,
nunca llega a su casa mas de 10 ni muy tarde,
Braulio y Dana se quieren como cualquier pareja,
pero un dia fueron presa de la naturaleza,
y de sus propios instintos no escaparon con suerte,
con el fuego por dentro y las hormonas
presentes por la ley del magneto se acercaron los cuerpos.
Pero si a la hora del tè nada pasa,oh oh oh,
solo te iras lejos de casa,oh oh oh,
por haber traìdo un habitante mas
a ingresar a esta podrida ciudad
donde lo que no se quiere se mata.
Ese dìa llegaste un poco mas de las diez,
pero el susto se dio una semana despues,
cuando te confirmaron tus terribles sospechas
que un niño nacerìa y ya sabìas la fecha.
y antes de que el vecino y la familia supieran
fuiste donde el doctor a acabar con el problema
hoy tu vecino esta en casa dándose un buen duchazo
y tu dos metros bajo tierra viendo crecer gusanos.
Pero si a la hora del té nada pasa,oh oh oh,
sólo te irás lejos de casa,oh oh oh,
por haber traído un habitante más
a ingresar a esta podrida ciudad
donde lo que no se quiere se mata, se mata…
Meet Me In Montauk 
Trying to decipher these lyrics, I’m realizing just how limited my four years of high school Spanish were 😉 This should be a challenging but engaging week.
I’ve always found the most politically effective songs are the ones that don’t set out to be. Regardless of whether abortion is legal, it’s certainly always devastating. This song, like “Brick” by Ben Folds, just tells one story of that devastation. (or at least I’ll take your post and my minimal understanding of these lyrics to assume that this is what is happening in today’s SOTD)
Don’t feel bad because I’m a native speaker, and I’m having trouble understanding the lyrics too.😜
Wow, a whole week on Shakira while legends Jackson Browne and Joe Jackson remain benched 😦
Look, I will freely admit that I am a musical troglodyte and that you win the enlightened listener award for playing Shakira (and to quote Christian Bale, “Good for YOU!”)— but I need me some lyrics I can understand if I’m going to listen to any artist more than once.
I will try to approach this anti-American themed week with as open a mind as my red, white and blue ears will allow—but I WILL get violent if your extended play Dylan weekend begins with an unreleased bootleg “Soplando en el Viento!”
I’m generally the same way, with Shakira as the one exception.
But why? I mean, some of the music I love has lyrics that are unintelligible or borderline stupid. I have no idea what Michael Stipe is saying on much of R.E.M.’s early output. But that doesn’t keep me from loving the sound of those songs, including the vocals.
Actually, I began liking REM better the clearer Stipe’s vocals got. I rarely find myself listening to anything before Life’s Rich Pageant–and while not every lyric is decipherable on that album either, I get the gist of it.
And, also, REM had a sound that, while retro to the Byrds, was, for me, fresh and new. I’m not sure I have heard anything from Shakira that qualifies musically as fresh and new in the same way, but perhaps your theme week will reveal that to me.
I count Fables of the Reconstruction as R.E.M.’s best album, and that’s one of the least decipherable. Beyond that, though, how meaningful are the lyrics that you can understand? “Swan swan hummingbird hurrah” might as well be in French.
I think there’s a just a comfort level that comes with hearing our mother tongue, regardless of what the words mean.
Well, I disagree that Fables is REM’s best album, but it is, nevertheless, a very good one. And I would count “Swan, Swan H” as one of my least favorite songs on Life’s Rich Pageant–it kinda annoys me, really.
As for Fables, my favorite songs, including “Driver 8,” “Can’t Get There From Here” and “Green Grows the Rushes” are relatively discernible. I suppose I should amend my earlier statement, though, because the undecipherable REM albums to which I generally don’t listen are Murmur and Reckoning.
And, while I agree with your comfort of the mother tongue theory, I think there is a difference between not understanding the language of a song at all as compared to not understanding what lyrics mean. In the latter case, one can still sing along with the song, at least more easily than if the song were sung in Spanish. Also, part of the fun sometimes is trying to figure out what a song means, or providing your interpretation to it. That exercise is considerably harder when you don’t even understand the words sung in a foreign language.
I’m mostly playing devil’s advocate here, because I tend to agree with you. Apart from Shakira, I have very few albums that include songs in other languages (and that includes tracks by folks like Billy Joel and Sting who have included foreign language songs on English-language albums).
However, I can think of one major exception, which is opera arias. I think those would sound far worse in English. Sometimes the beauty of the language is enhanced when you don’t know they’re actually singing about washing their socks.
Well, I don’t like opera in any language anyway (yes, as I said, I am a troglodyte), so hearing them in English would not make it any better or worse to my ears.
Oh, come on… surely you appreciate some of Puccini’s finest arias? I don’t mean the whole 3-hour slog, but not even the good stuff?
Er…nope.
To quote another classic (in quite a different genre), “You uncultured swine!”
Oh, now come on Dana! Have you ever really listened to a Puccini aria? I mean how about the scene from Moonstruck at the opera using Puccini’s wonderful La Bohem as a background??? Anyway, I agree with Clay about arias being sung in English, we tend to not like American operas as much and that’s one of the reasons. Also, even though we don’t go to church anymore, Dad and I remember when the mass was in Latin and it had a mystery to it that ended when it changed to English. Since we’ve decided to start studying our Spanish again, this will be a helpful week!
Sorry, Peg, I know I “should” love opera, but I just don’t.
But thank you for agreeing that part of what enhances your enjoyment of the foreign language opera (and decreases the enjoyment of the English language opera) is the “mystery” of the foreign element. I have been arguing to Clay for years that this is why he elevates certain foreign language films and music over English language music and films, and he has vehemently denied it.
First of all, what foreign language music have I elevated “for years”? As I pointed out in this very post, Shakira is the only artist I’ve listened to in a language other than English.
And I haven’t vehemently denied the role of “mystery” in these things… on the contrary, many foreign films work because they provide a glimpse into a world that is unique and mysterious (to me). I just think it’s more than the simple fact of another language that contributes to that effect.
I also think foreign language films are at a disadvantage because much of the nuance of a language is lost in subtitles. That puts more pressure on the plotting, direction, cinematography and acting because the dialogue is necessarily incomplete. That’s probably one reason 95% of foreign releases don’t even make a dent in the American market… only the very special ones receive any attention.
Sorry, my phrasing was poor there–you have elevated foreign films for years. You are only recently elevating foreign music, but you are catching up quickly–boasting about artists such as Rebekah del Rio and Control Machete while poor Jackson Browne (who never did anything to hurt you) remains benched.
And as for the mystique element, see the comment I just made on today’s SOTD I am not suggesting that foreign language is the sole factor that makes you like one film (or song) better than another–but I AM suggesting that it is A factor that influences you to like a particular movie or song more than you otherwise would.
If you truly mean foreign language as the factor — as in the fact that the words being spoken are in another language — I think you’re nuts. If you mean the general foreignness — as in the look at another culture and sensibility — then I agree with you completely.
Your Rebekah del Rio and Control Machete examples both come from movie scenes (one foreign, one not). I don’t listen to those artists apart from their scenes in those movies.
Here’s Jackson Browne in Spanish, just for you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POpWI40tIJk
Yes, I mean that foreign language, which is a part of the foreign and mystical quality of a foreign film overall, is a factor in why you elevate that film over others or, in the case of Crouching Tiger, don’t downgrade the film over others.
If I’m nuts, I’m nuts, but I think that this whole Shakira discussion (and the opera offshoot) shows that I am right on the dinero!
Oh, and by the way, the best you can do is a clip of Jackson Browne playing guitar for a Spanish singer and chiming in on the chorus? Come on!
The truth is, in movies I find the foreign language itself kind of annoying, because it means I have to read the film while trying to simultaneously watch it. However, I’m adamantly against dubbing, because I want to hear the original actors’ voices (and the bad lip-syncing is laughable).
And I can’t help it if Jackson Browne is a helpless gringo.
Yeah, you might find it more burdensome to read subtitles (who doesn’t?), but is it also possible that having to read subtitles forces you to pay more attention to the film and perhaps, by doing so, increases your appreciation for it?
And perhaps you should take a moment to listen to “Lawless Avenues” from Mr. Browne’s incredible Lives in the Balance LP before you peg him as a gringo.
Here…if you aren’t going to post it, I will:
I think, as I’ve said many times before, that I watch about three foreign films per year vs. about 40 English-language films, so they are pre-selected to be the cream of the crop (at least potentially… some fall flat, just as some highly-touted English-language films fall flat). And cream-of-the-crop movies demand more attention in general.
Go, Jackson! Caliente!
Here’s where that argument falls flat…as you have ALSO admitted many times before, save for the occasional date movie, which usually winds up somewhere below 30 on your list, you generally don’t see (either in the theater or at home) American films that get mediocre reviews. So, by and large, your list, particularly your top ten or even twenty will consist of films that critics consider “cream of the crop” Therefore, as between and amongst THOSE films –cream of the crop American AND foreign, you have tended to elevate the foreign films.
Over the past 11 years, I’ve had 12 foreign language films in my top tens and 98 English-language films. And I’ve had no foreign language films in my top ten for the past four straight years. So the facts refute your argument.
Actually, those facts SUPPORT my argument–once you concede, as I think you must, that, with the exception of the date movie that is usually relegated below the top ten anyway, you don’t seek out or see non “cream of the crop” American films–then what you have is:
Of 110 films in your top ten, 9% (or about one of ten) is foreign… and yet, if on average you see about 30 “cream of the crop films” per year (leaving out date movies) and only 2-3 foreign films, then foreign films should, statistically speaking, comprise about 10% of your entire rankings, NOT about 10% of your top 10. The statistics bear out exactly what I was saying–you elevate foreign films into your top ten list over other films.
That doesn’t make sense. If I were to see only 2-3 English-language films per year, restricted to the best of the best as I am with foreign films, odds are all 2-3 would wind up on my list. Right?
Over that span, I saw 16 foreign films that didn’t appear on my top ten lists, meaning fewer than half of the foreign films I watched made my top tens, despite being the cream of the crop.
No, see, you are not getting my point….I don’t buy your “cream of the crop” foreign film argument as the reason why those films are elevated higher in your top ten list because the truth is that, save for the occasional date movie, you only seek out and see purported “cream of the crop” American fare. Therefore, all “cream of the crop” films being equal, your foreign films are overrepresented in your top tens.
I disagree with your premise that I see mostly “cream of the crop” American movies with few exceptions. I’d say I see maybe 10-15 of those per year. Which would mean 9 of 15 American COTC films make it into my top ten and just 1 of 2 foreign language films, on average.
Disagree all you like, but I believe you have been on record in the past as saying that, because you do not get out to see movies much, when you do, it is either the date night movie or the critically well received movie, and, I believe without exception, the films you choose to rent are those that were critically well received. Therefore, I don’t think you are giving an accurate appraisal as the number of COTC (like this abbreviation btw) American movies you see. If you want to test the theory, though, go to last years list, strike out all of the date movies, and then look at the RT score for the rest. How many were rotten?
Oh, and if you feel that a fresh rating (above 60) isn’t really COTC, feel free to go through your list, excluding date movies, and see how many were below 80. I still think you will find that the vast majority were above 80, i.e. COTC!
I didn’t check RT scores, but in 2009 I came up with 18 that I’d consider COTC, and that includes films like Star Trek and The Blind Side which are really “date” movies that happen to be very good. Nine of them were in my top ten. So those numbers are almost exactly the 9-of-15 I guessed.
In 2008 there were 14 (including Tropic Thunder and Kung-Fu Panda, which are again date/kid movies that happen to be great) and 10 of them made my top ten.
2007 was an interesting year. I saw 33 COTC films (a lot of rentals) and 10 made my top ten. None of the foreign films I saw that year cracked my top 20.
30 COTC in 2006, with 7 in my top ten. That was a great year for foreign films, with three cracking my top ten (Volver, Pan’s Labyrinth and The Lives of Others).
24 in 2005, with 10 in the top ten. No foreign films above #20.
I’ll stop there. Not sure what that proves other than that I’m incapable of resisting a dare! I don’t see a lot of foreign films in those top tens, though.
What about Shakira?!
To Dana, Shakira and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon are the same thing.
You can’t satisfy my dare by determining your own COTC–that’s the fox guarding the hen house. COTC must be measured by some external measure—I thought RT was a good one, meta-critic another. Your method skews the reslts because, in many cases, you went to see a movie because you heard good buzz on the movie (or saw good reviews), but then determined it was not COTC.
That doesn’t work, though, because often a date movie (or a kids’ movie) will get a high enough RT ranking to qualify as COTC by your definition. That said, I was very liberal in what I considered COTC. Feel free to check my math. 🙂
Not sure I have the time or inclination today to check your math, but the only proper way to do this is through external opinions to define COTC. However, you should include those movies you saw with Alex or the kids that you actually wanted to see and would have seen even if they did not (such as Star Trek and Toy Story 3)
I’ve forgotten what the point of this exercise was to begin with!
Your claim is that a smaller percentage of the “best” American films I see make it into my top tens than the percentage of foreign films I see? Averaging those numbers, 3/7 of the foreign films I see make it, while 3/8 of the English-language films I see do.
But again, it’s not a valid comparison. For one thing, if I see 25 of the “best” American films, by simple math 15 of them can’t make it into a top ten. If I see 2 of the “best” foreign films, both can. So right off the bat the percentages are potentially skewed.
Also, there is more room for error with a wider pool of movies. If I had to choose just 2-3 of those 25 American films to see, I’d wind up with the 2-3 I’d most likely enjoy (say a Coen Brothers, a Pixar and a Paul Thomas Anderson). So the odds would be far better that those 2-3 would wind up in a top ten list.
But even given that hyper-selection of foreign films, more than half of the ones I’ve seen have wound up outside my top tens.
Well, first of all, I have no idea why you only see 2-3 foreign films a year, since you clearly love them so much. Must be those pesky subtitles:)
But seriously, while 20 years ago, you could argue that only a few of the COTC foreign films make it to our shores for viewing, that’s not the case over the past 10 years. With the Internet and Netflix, you could easily find out what the COTC foreign films are and you could easily watch 10-15 a year.
You don’t do that, however because….wait for it….wait for the flip-flop here…. you actually DON’T like foreign films:) Can we end this debate now?
Never!! You’re right (finally). 🙂 I don’t like foreign films as a genre. What I do like are certain kinds of films and certain directors, whether they’re foreign or not. I bet half the foreign films in my top ten lists are by Almodovar.
Okay, so you are not foreign man, but you are still the renaissance man.:)