On Beats 1 Ebro Darden had a special in-depth interview with Shakira where she broke down each track on her album exclusively before her new album El Dorado dropped on Apple Music.
How did it feel working on this project?
When I first starting working on this album, the first weeks, I was so intimidated by the whole thing; being in front of this white canvas and I didn’t know what to draw on it. I kinda panicked a little bit. This project just felt like the Everest and the first two weeks I was not encouraged at all. I was nervous, I was confused, I didn’t know if I was going to be able to do this. It seemed like an insurmountable task you know. But my family played a very important role in giving me support and helping me rediscover who I am, who I was, and what I have inside as an artist you know and creatively. Suddenly I started writing songs like “La Bicicleta” and “Toneladas” which was one of the first songs of this album and that’s my son moaning in the back. Like I was saying before, my family’s support was really vital for me to re-encounter, rediscover inspiration. Inspiration was there the whole time, it has been there all of this time, all of these years. It hasn’t gone anywhere. You know when you come across a treasure that you’ve been searching for your entire life. That’s how I felt when I started writing the first song for this album. It felt like I had stumbled with El Dorado. El Dorado by the way is this mythical treasure that exists. There are different versions. For some it’s a golden city, for some it’s a mythical treasure submerged in the waters of a lake in my country. For some it’s just a spiritual state. For me it was inspiration itself. It was re-encountering inspiration and re-encountering my creative persona and feeling so ecstatic about it. When I first — when I really started creating all of these songs. It felt so right. It felt like I was home.
Why the title El Dorado and how should fans interpret it?
For an artist finding inspiration is like finding a treasure. An album is a collection of findings, miraculous findings. Every song is a miracle when it comes through you. It’s always so unpredictable. The whole process. How you going to come up with a song. Sometimes the lyrics come first. Sometimes the melody. Sometimes they come together. Like if someone magically mysteriously would have sent them to you or though you from some unknown dimension or parallel universe. I'm sounding a little esoteric, but the truth is that the inspiration it’s really a mystery and finding it, it’s very similar to how those conquistadors, those Spanish conquistadors felt when they found their desired gold, but to me there’s no bigger wealth than of course having a family and feeling inspired.
Balancing motherhood and music
I often feel like a juggler, it’s really hard. I think being a mom is definitely the hardest job I’ve ever had. Especially, I’m very demanding with myself, I always wanna do it the best way. I wanna make sure that my kids are growing up feeling especially loved. Sometimes we take it for granted and we think that they’re feeling loved, but do they really feel that love? Are they gonna be able to capitalize on that and become good people out of that love that you give them? It’s hard in this modern world where women have to juggle so many aspects of our lives, and finding that balance is one of the most challenging things for any of us. You don’t have to be a celebrity to be feeling this way. Any woman I bet would say the same. It’s definitely not easy to be so many personas at the same time. Be a great mom, to also be a girlfriend or a wife and also a professional, and take care of your house and take care of your friends; It’s so many things. There’s also a physical aspect too, take time to exercise, to be sexy. So many things. It’s hard, but sometimes I feel like I need a clone (laughs). The technology isn’t quite there yet.
What advice to you have for the fellas trying to support their significant other?
You guys have it easy. You only suffer because you have to put up with us that’s all. You know I think that men you cannot multi task. That’s one thing you cannot do. You suck at multitasking. You go nuts. Gerard what he says, “Oh my god I have so many things. I’m going nuts.” I’m like, “What do you have?” and he mentions like three things and he’s going nuts (laughs). It’s funny. I don’t think you can actually cross the street and chew gum at the same time. You would get run [over] by a car. No advice. It is what it is. Stay out of the way and just cause the least amount of trouble possible.
How did you go about selecting the individuals to work with on this album?
It’s true that I enjoy the fusion. I enjoy bringing elements from different worlds and making them coexist in one song and even in one album. It’s one of the advantages of being a solo artist. I guess that if I were just part of the band my fans wouldn’t tolerate it. They’ve been pretty good sports with me in that sense. My fans have been supportive, and loyal, accompanying me throughout all these years in my different adventures that I embark on. Every time I produce an album because I’m unpredictable as well in the way that I make music. A little chaotic, a little eclectic, but a little chaotic at the same time and I sometimes like to experiment with songs that have latin influences or middle eastern influences and then suddenly I decide to take another turn and just go completely purist or flirt a little bit with rock music or different genres in general. My fans take it well so I’ve been lucky in that sense and they have supported my way of working. And I guess there's a method to the madness I’m not so much of an anarchist as it seems. Musically I’ve been feeling my whole life like sort of free. I’ve had the license, that creative license to go pretty much anywhere I want. Never really respected a unity of concept for an album. I didn’t want to — I never wanted to create an album that sounded in a certain way and not move from those parameters. I wanted to always have the opportunity to go in any direction that I felt going to. The way I select my collaborations, it’s all so very random as well, it just happens as it goes; I play it by ear. As I start a project, maybe I suddenly the idea of working with someone and sometimes those requests are listened and it happens and sometimes it doesn’t happen. It sort of depends. Sometimes you have like the biggest and most wonderful surprises when you work with an artist you never expected working with and then something really spectacular happens in the studio like in the case with Maluma. I wasn’t even that familiar with his work and someone in the company, Afo Verde been an excellent support for me in this whole process. He suggested that I met with him and we got in the studio see what happens and man, it was like the most terrific three days. In two days we did two songs, we produced them we wrote the music, lyrics, everything together, which is very rare you know. We walked out from the studio with two amazing songs that are a part of this album.
Carlos Vives and Maluma
Many of my fellow Colombians enjoyed the fact that Vives and I got together, and also Maluma. Maluma is a very young talent, but very promising. Vives is just one of the highest representatives of our folk music He’s done so much for our culture and our idiosyncrasies as a country, and our music. It was sort of a debt that I had with myself, like I owed myself the opportunity to work with him. It’s something that we’ve been talking about over the years. We’ve been flirting with this idea of working together and then suddenly it happened with the right song and at the right moment; it was really historical for us.
What was the hardest song to finish on the album?
It happens sometimes. Sometimes it happens and it’s totally worth it sometimes. Sometimes it’s just a waste of time. In the case of “Hips Don’t Lie” remember I spent a whole month on that song, but that was the best time - how do you say - time well spent. The best time spent in my career. But there are times that you spend so much energy and efforts on a track and it just doesn’t go anywhere. You just like a dog chasing your own tail.
About “Coconut Tree”
This Coconut Tree song is one of my most beloved songs because it’s very personal. It narrates the story of how Gerard, my baby daddy; we actually fled and took a plane hiding from everyone and went to an island. We actually disappeared form the map. Nobody knew we were starting to fall in love and so that song describes all of that magical moment in my life and how it all happened. It’s one of those songs that just came out so easy like it had always been there.
A lot has changed in music, do you think about that when it comes to pleasing your fans?
Not at all and that’s one of the most freeing aspects about El Dorado, about this album. I got in the studio and like I said the first weeks I was apprehensive, I was intimidated, I was scared even, but then I just forgot about all that and I said you know what, I’m just gonna make my album. I’m just gonna make the kind of music that I know how to make and I’m gonna do it for me, and I’m gonna enjoy my time in the studio. How hard can it be? It’s making music, it’s not brain surgery. It’s making music and it should be enjoyable and I should be able to enjoy it first and that completely changed my game. Another factor that changed my game entirely was when I embraced the idea of just making songs and not a whole album, not a whole body of work. I kinda relieved myself from that pressure of having to deliver by a certain date a whole project. I said, you know what I’m just gonna make songs and as soon as their ready, as soon as they come out from the oven I’m gonna release them, put them out there. And that sense of immediacy, knowing that my music could be out there, could be out their tomorrow, we could be reaching my audience so quickly, just opened up a whole world of possibilities for me. Because the other way that albums have been made throughout the years, it implied me getting in this white bunker for a whole year or year and a half. And depriving me from the opportunity of communicating with my fans and sharing my music more often. I take a long time making albums historically it’s been like that with me. Also preparing tours because since I’m so involved from day one with not only the creation of the songs, but also with the production of the songs, it just takes longer time than with many other artists that maybe delegate a little more or have different writing camps. It just helps when you have a team of people working for you, but I’m kind of like my own — I’m like the orchestra woman. It has advantages but also great disadvantages. It takes me a long time. So I’m not as prolific as other artists maybe. Just knowing that I could put songs out there on a song by song basis, it just changed my entire game and then suddenly I became really fertile and really excited to come to the studio everyday. Since you were mentioning before my kids, it’s worth mentioning as well that they have also paradoxically helped my process. This is something that I thought was going to be possible. How am I going to make an album with two kids. They’re so small, they require me all the time. How am I going to do it? Before I was a mother I was such a procrastinator. I would enter the studio at I dunno, 3-4 in the afternoon and just like waste time like there’s no tomorrow. Go to sleep at 4-5 in the morning. Wake up the next day at 12 and start my day again. This would take me forever. Now I have kids who require me so I have to really stick to schedule and be super efficient. I would be like okay guys! Im here! What do we have to do? It would make my work so much more direct and I’ve become a little more efficient over the years. My kids have made me this way. They have turned me into a more punctual person, which I wasn't at all before and now I’m a little more consistent with my routine, my time — they keep me in order.
On Being On The Voice
It was a new thing, definitely a one of a kind experience. An adventure as well and challenging. A challenging gig for me because I had just — actually I started on the show when I was pregnant with Milan, my first son and I had to take him — I had just delivered my son and I had to take him to the set everyday, I was even breastfeeding him; talking about working moms (laughs). I remember that Blake was always so intrigued. He’s like “uh, are you gonna go breast feed him now? So, how does it work?” He was asking me questions. I’m like okay Blake I’m not discussing this with you (laughs). Let’s switch topics. But yeah it was crazy, it was fun as well, I was in good company, and I was enjoying myself. I wouldn’t do it again. It was just a stage in my life. I was getting all of my world back in order and it was a good opportunity to kind of like take a small break from music and have a relationship with music from another perspective. I did it and it was great, but I wouldn’t do it again I don’t think.
Putting music out as soon as it happens/are we gonna see more Shakira?
Yeah exactly that’s the point. I’m pumped now. I’m completely reenergized and that’s one of the biggest triggers. One of the factors that really got made me get into this mode of wanting to make more music any time. I think the way — you guys have been an agent of change in this regard. I think that music now is appreciated much more. Right now music now is so much more democratic. People have access to music in less expensive ways, in more direct ways. You can communicate with your fans on a daily basis though your social platforms. I really enjoy the moment that music is going through right now because I think that everyone actually has an opportunity to make music, to share it with the world. And all the songs in an album have an opportunity to be heard, there’s no b-sides anymore. Also the way people relate to music is different and is more open and is like you said more immediate and it can happen anywhere. Think about it like 50 years ago you had to be in your house in front of your record player.
Who else does Shakira want to work with?
That’s one of the very interesting things that’s happening right now in music. People are very open to collaborations. Collaborations are always a way to - they’re how do you say, enriching. They’re nourishing. They nourish an artist, they make you grow as an artist, you learn from the experience of working with someone else from their methods, from what inspires them. It opens your world up a little more. It’s good because you can transcend into the lives of others in ways that you couldn't before. The fact that people are so open to collaborations it just makes the artists work so much more pleasurable as well. I really enjoy getting into the studio with another artist especially if they’re cool. If they’re good people to hang with. I was so fortunate with this album and this particular time to get to know people like Maluma or Nicky Jam. It just makes the whole music making process much more fun when you can share with other people and learn from other people as well.
Ambassador to the Caribbean world
Well, I’m Caribbean. I was raised dancing to Caribbean music. That was part of my whole musical and cultural upbringing. Colombia is a small country but has great diversity. 55% of the country is jungle but we also have snowed mountains and two oceans, the Pacific and the Atlantic ocean. I grew up right at the border of the Atlantic ocean. We have a great influence from the African culture. It’s rooted in us and embedded in our culture and in our music. That’s why it’s been so easy for me to work with people like Wyclef or like Nicky Jam. That’s why I’ve also been very curious to explore these different sounds, but it’s also what I was brought up with. It clearly reflects the way I make music and my own sounds. I started traveling at a very young age. My first big break happened when I was 18 years old and I started touring all over Latin-America and I did my first visits to Europe, but also Brazil. I just absorbed all of those different influences from different countries. I was in awe seeing the world and taking it all in. I was only eighteen years old and I learned Portuguese in flash time, in one month, I was already dong the Zamba and dancing like a Brazilian and speaking like a Brazilian. That happens when you’re brain’s so plastic. The plasticity of your brain allows you to learn so much so fast. The fact that I started my career as an adolescent as a child allowed me to appreciate cultures and to also become a part of those cultures as well. I feel very Colombian but I do feel as a citizen of the world. I really do. I know it sounds like a cliche phrase to say. I do feel that I come from — a little bit of me comes from different places. I come from a little bit of every where. It’s inevitable for me to feel that way. I feel a little bit Spanish, and a little bit Brazilian, and a little bit Middle Eastern, and a little bit Italian, and a little bit French and a little bit American. There are parts of me that have been crafted by all these different cultures and at the end of the day it has this exposure to so many different idiosyncrasies and ideologies and cultures and places have also crafted my music and my sound.
On Fitness
For me I play tennis everyday, I love tennis it’s what I do; at least an hour an hour and a half. That helps me stay in shape. Sometimes I do a little bit of abs and work other muscle groups, but I become a little bit more lazy to hit the gym. I enjoy being outdoors and playing sports. An hour and a half it’s important, ya. I’m not constantly on a diet but I try to eat healthy.
Mostly Spanish album
When I first started working on this album, it wasn’t a requirement to do a Spanish or an English album; I just let it be and that’s what happened.