Fans shocked after discovering how Shakira wrote her first album without knowing any English
Joe Yates
Featured Image Credit: Patricia J. Garcinuno/WireImage/Stuart Franklin/Getty Images
To write, sing and release a whole album in a foreign language... I just can't comprehend how you would do that.
But that's exactly what Shakira did for her debut English album, and fans have been left stunned that the Colombian star managed to come up with multiple hits without knowing English.
You aren't here to listen to my input, and frankly I'm sure you don't care... but... if I tried to sing a Spanish song for example, I think I'd know the beat but there would be no way I could sing the whole song without slipping up.
Advert
It is easy to memorise songs in our native tongue as you can understand what the artist is singing about through the lyrics.
Anyway, I digress.
Shakira, or to give her her full name Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, released her fifth studio album in 2001 Servicio de Lavandería, which translated to Laundry Service in English - her first in the language.
And her music was a banger, so much so that one song on the record has been listened to over 632 million times. The song? 'Whenever, Wherever' - an absolute tune.
So how did the 'Hips Don't Lie' icon write her first English album?
Well, the year was 2001 so she couldn't really rely on Google Translate, I mean we didn't even have iPhones back then.
Instead, she used a dictionary.
Speaking about it herself in a 2009 interview, the singer explained: "Writing songs used to be so difficult for me. A few years ago I could barely speak English and I used to write my songs with a dictionary.
"It was a real labour of love and I would sit there for hours just looking up words. But now thankfully it comes to me more naturally and spontaneously."
She did it with the help of her former manager Emilio Estefan Jr, and his Cuban-American singer wife Gloria Estefan.
Following its release and seeing how well it did across the US and the world, she released a further three albums in English.
If you were a fan of Shakira beforehand, I'm sure you're in awe of her now.