One Night in Bangkok with Shakira

When you stand on the brink of super duper diva stardom and gaze off the cliff at the shifting and precarious glittering world of pop music fame, you can’t help making comparisons to those that have heretofore taken the plunge. She’s being positioned by Sony Music as the music giant’s answer to MCA Universal’s Britney Spears. Physically, it’s hard not to compare her to pop icons sexiest sirens Mariah Carey and fellow Latina hottie Christina Aguilera. Her music is a little more eclectic, sounding familiar but new, as most well received pop rock does. One recalls the sentimental strains of Heart in "Underneath Your Clothes" and the scintillating Latino groove popularized by Ricky Martin in "Objection". She has been featured on the cover of a special issue of Time magazine along with other international musicians such as Björk, Marc Anthony, Max de Castro and Utada Hikaru. She has been dubbed one of the ten "next big things" to watch for by the venerable Rolling Stone. And of course, not unlike some of her more notable predecessors such as Madonna and Prince, she goes by a single not to mention exotic name: Shakira.

Her previous album Dónde Están Los Ladrones went multi-platinum in the US, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Central America, Mexico and platinum in Spain. There is no doubt that her latest release Laundry Service has brought Shakira to the next level of fame and recognition as a pop musician. The album has already gone platinum in India, Taiwan, and Thailand, and gold in Indonesia and Singapore. So in another effort to bolster an industry being pummeled by piracy and the proliferation of the MP3 download, Sony Music is massaging its promo budget coffers to host over 20 journalists from the Asian region in Bangkok, Thailand in no less than the ultra posh Peninsula Hotel with rooms complete with a luxurious bathtub for two, a stunning view of the magical Chao Phraya river, and airport to hotel transfer in one of the hotel’s sleek black Mercedes limousines, not to mention a modest US$40.00 per diem as well as airport tax refund. Wow.

Previously, my exposure to Shakira was next to nil. But when you get flown in for a 20-minute tete a tete with an artist you can’t help but start to feel a little awe. Standing with Sony Philippines’ sly but brilliant managing director Wally Chamsay, waiting to be allowed entrance to the Peninsula’s ballroom, amidst about 200 other members of the press, most from Bangkok, you truly believe you are about to meet a star.

The ballroom is, in fact, of modest size, and, without tables and chairs, could probably fit just over 500 people. We all sit facing an elevated stage outfitted with two pedestals crowned by two massive bouquets of white roses that flank a plush leather love seat. Behind this makeshift dais are large rectangular pillars with full color tarpaulins of Shakira. Along the sides of the ballroom are six 29-inch color television sets, three to each side. A cocky Thai host rambles something of no real consequence, in Thai and English, which he speaks perfectly, as if he had learned the language solely from watching endless episodes of Bob Barker giving away cars and kitchen appliances on television game-show The Price is Right.

We are made to sit politely and train our eyes on one of the TV sets as we watch a brief artist profile produced by MTV as well as Shakira’s latest video "Underneath Your Clothes", which was directed by world-renown photographer Herb Ritts. Finally, Shakira is introduced. She’s not stunning but certainly exudes the warm sensuality intrinsic to most South American women. She’s wearing tight butt hugging rugged jeans that drag on the floor covering what could be 6-inch fuck me pumps meant to disguise her 4’11" height, a blood red net shawl casually thrown over a worn gray tank top, and a leather bracelet gingerly decorated with shells. A few pleasantries are exchanged as members of the press crowd the front of the stage to snap away at the diminutive singer/songwriter as a dozen traditional Thai dancers parade around while Thai musicians provide titillating ear filler. A Singaporean journalists snidely remarks to me that Shakira, who bobs her head and mimics some of the dancers hand movements, seems to be doing quite a good job appearing interested in this third rate cultural display. After this torture comes to its much anticipated end, 200 members of the press are treated to a 20-minute Q&A barrage with someone who has just recently learned English, never mind that for most journalists in the room, English is a second or even third language.

Somewhat inevitably questions about love crop up, which she deflects by effortlessly throwing back mild platitudes about how, despite distance, love prevails. Shakira is after all dating the 27-year old son of the former president of Argentina. And her current album is primarily, and certainly not surprisingly, a compilation of love songs inspired by her year-and-a-half relationship with the dashing young lawyer and scion Antonio de la Rua. So why the title "Laundry Service" if the album is about love, I interject, having finally been able to wrest the microphone away from another journalist. Is love, in fact, like a pile of dirty laundry?

Shakira eyeballs me and responds casually. "In the year and a half I dedicated myself to this album, I had my first encounter with true love. So the album is a happy one. I chose the title because love is like soap and water," she says perhaps inspired by the magical fiction of fellow Colombian Gabriel Garcia-Marquez. "How is love like soap and water," I persist, trying to sound as clever as possible among the two hundred other media hounds. "It has a cleansing effect," she replies. "I feel rejuvenated."

The press con ends without much fanfare as Mr. Barker calls for the last question for Shakira and we are released for lunch. I am slotted to interview her along with several other journalists at precisely 5:05pm, before which she will be interviewed and pawed at by several other groups of print, radio and television journalists. We’ve been allotted an additional 15 minutes – my itinerary reads "Interview Shakira: 5:05pm to 5:20pm (nothing follows).

I head to the "holding room", which is essentially a suite wherein journalists smoke and drink and wait their turn, read and reread the glowing press releases and photo copies of stories about Shakira conveniently provided for by Sony Music. Before I reach the room, I meet a trio of Malaysian journalists on their way up to the 36^th floor, I assume I should follow. A mammoth of a man is patrolling the hallway of level 36 with thighs for forearms covered with ominous tattoos. In a few minutes, a wiry chap pops his head out and asks why there are so many of us, and then asks us one by one where we are from: Malaysia, Malaysia, Malaysia, Philippines. Somehow I felt like I was on Sesame Street’s "which one of these doesn’t belong" segment. I was sent back to purgatory, where I waited for another hour for the 15 minutes that would somehow merit a decent story.

But honestly, reading through the press kit, with stories from Time, Teen, YM, and a blurb from Rolling Stone, the only thing that really piqued my interest was Shakira’s apparent love for rock and roll, having been quoted in a glossy promo piece "rock and roll will never die" and claiming to be influenced by rock’s greatest luminaries such as Led Zeppelin and AC DC and how she wanted to make a record "like they made records 30 years ago… not using too many electronic sounds." So I really must have caused the other journalists in my group some angst when I persisted for almost a third of our collective time to glean just what rock bands she really liked and to be more specific about some of her favorite Led Zep tunes were, which she answered with some difficulty, although some annoying prick from the Singapore Straits Times kept filling in blanks, barking off song titles like "Black Dog" in their equally annoying Singaporean accent before Shakira could respond on her own.

"The rock groups I liked when I was a teenager (which wasn’t that long ago, she’s 25) weren’t massive. There was a group of us Catholic schoolgirls who were into the music, but we didn’t belong to this era. When I reached puberty, that’s when I started to really get into the music. One of my favorite Led Zep tunes is "Communication Breakdown", I love the guitar riffs, these are the people who invented this genre and gave it dignity. If you open the trunk of my car, its filled with CDs of The Clash, The Cure – my favorite Cure album is "The Forest" – and AC DC’s "Back in Black", I love that song "You Shook Me All Night Long."

Shakira is wearing a black leather wristband menacingly decorated with metal studs, the signature attire of many 80s rockers. I ask if she has a stylist that decides what she wears and what image she should project. Shaking her head, Shakira seems like she is in the mood to elaborate. "In public there are many people around who want to take part and help you build your career, but I’m an individual. No one tells me what to wear. I like stuff like wristbands because it reminds me of the punk era. I feel nostalgic about this era even if I was too young to belong to it. I’m into vintage clothes. I like boots and pants. I don’t like shopping. I like reading, painting, and staring out into the ocean. I’m the captain of my own ship." Heck, even Herb Ritts couldn’t tell her what to wear for the video he directed for her.

If you read through the song credits on her album, you’ll see Shakira, who doesn’t want to find a category for her music, is something of a control freak since she’s basically written the lyrics, music, arranged and produced every song on "Laundry Service." She also attributes the failure of her second album to the fact that "I was not in charge."

Although, she has only recently risen to merit the Shakespearean observation that the entire world is a stage, Shakira is a veteran of the music industry, having signed her first record contract at the tender pubescent age of 13 with, you guessed it, Sony Music. Still, her purpose as a musician sounds misleadingly simple: "We’re trying to make music that will remain. I think rock is napping. I don’t see or rather hear the great riffs of the past. I want to write melodies that will remain."

"Underneath Your Clothes?" I think to myself.