With her latest album, Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran, picking up a Grammy for Best Latin Pop Album, Shakira remains one of the most successful artists in global music. But, the “Soltera” singer’s career could’ve looked a lot different if label executives ignored a massive request from her.
Yesterday (May 8), Shakira revealed during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon that her smash hit “Hips Don’t Lie” with Wyclef Jean almost didn’t get released. As she reflected on the track’s 20th anniversary, she confessed that it was an unplanned, last-minute addition to her 2005 album Oral Fixation Vol. 2.
“I remember my album was already distributed,” she said. “Then this idea came up and Wyclef and I met. We started working on this track.”
She continued: “The funniest thing is that I had a dream — the most random dream about Wyclef. Then I woke up, and my manager called me and said, ‘You know what? Wyclef wants to work with you.’ And I’m like, ‘No, no. It can’t be. I had a dream about Wyclef last night. Why would I dream about Wyclef?’”
Ultimately, the pair knocked out “Hips Don’t Lie.” However, Shakira’s album was already in stores. So, Shakira called in a rather expensive favor with her record label to have the album pulled and replaced with a version containing “Hips Don’t Lie.”
“You’ve got to believe me,” Shakira says she explained to her label on the frazzled phone call. “You’ve got to trust me. You do that, we have a hit. [They] did it, we repackaged the albums, and it changed my story.”
Shakira’s gut instinct and the label’s trust in her paid off in the end. Since its release, it has become a two-time RIAA certified platinum single with over 2 billion streams to date on Spotify alone.
Watch Shakira’s full appearance on The Tonight Show above.