In 2001, upon the success of ¿Dónde Están Los Ladrones?, Shakira began working on a crossover album to English. Collaborating with Gloria Estefan, she wrote and recorded English versions of the tracks from ¿Dónde Están Los Ladrones?. However, she later decided against using translations of older songs for the album and worked for over a year on new material for the album.
The result was Laundry Service. Although it was created with the intent of selling to an English language market, the rock and Spanish dance-influenced album also featured four Spanish songs, including "Que Me Quedes Tú" (That I Have Left You). Some critics claimed that Shakira's English skills were too weak for her to write in it, but Laundry Service was a success, with more than 15 million sales worldwide, yielding the worldwide hit "Whenever, Wherever" and singles "Underneath Your Clothes" (a Canadian number-one), "Te Dejo Madrid" (I Leave You Madrid), "Objection (Tango)", and "The One".[citation needed] The album and its singles helped to establish Shakira's musical presence in the mainstream North American market.
In 2002, Shakira also released her Spanish greatest hits volume Grandes éxitos. A DVD and ten-track compilation album, called Live & Off the Record, was also released in 2004, reaching sales of 3 million CDs worldwide, and commemorating Shakira's world tour, the Tour of the Mongoose.
In September 2002, Shakira won the now-defunct International Viewer's Choice Award at the MTV Video Music Awards with "Suerte". In October of that year, she won 5 MTV Video Music Awards Latin America for Best Female Artist, Best Pop Artist, Best Artist—North (Region), Video of the Year (for Suerte), and Artist of the Year. At Aerosmith's MTV Icon in 2002, Shakira performed "Dude (Looks Like A Lady)". Also in 2002, Shakira joined the likes of Celine Dion, Anastacia, Cher and the Dixie Chicks for VH1 Divas Live Las Vegas.
Shakira stayed out of the spotlight for over two years. She announced the Oral Fixation project in early 2005. Fijación Oral Vol. 1, the first album of the project, was released on June 3, 2005 in ireland on June 6, 2005 in Europe and on June 7, 2005 in North and Latin Americas and Australia. The lead single from the album, "La Tortura", which features Alejandro Sanz, was released as a single in April and and achieved large-scale success on different radio and chart formats. It spent a record of twenty-five weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot Latin Tracks chart.
Fijación Oral Vol. 1 was very well-received by the public. It debuted at number four on the Billboard 200 chart on the week of June 15. According to that publication, the album sold 157,000 copies in its first week of release in thes U.S., becoming the highest debut ever for a Spanish language album. In Latin America, on the day of its official release in Venezuela, it went Platinum; in Colombia, triple Platinum and in Mexico, it was sold-out.
The album sold over one million copies in three days.
The second single from the album, "No", was released in September 2005, and peaked at number one in Colombia, for fourteen non-consecutive weeks.
The third single from the album, "Día De Enero", is dedicated to Shakira's fiancé, Antonio de la Rúa.[citation needed] This single was number one in several countries in Latin America, but it did not had the same success of the previous two singles in the United States.
On February 8, 2006, Shakira won her second Grammy Award. She was awarded in the category of Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album. |
