The Crossover Queen

Most Latino singers who succeed in the lucrative English-language pop market abandon their origins and cease to cater to the Latin marketplace. Shakira, however, recently broke the industry’s conventional wisdom by returning to the Spanish-language market after selling 13 million copies of her first English album – “Laundry Service” – in 2001. Exercising an unusual level of control over her own recording career, the internationally renowned Colombian artist not only refused to take advantage of the momentum created by “Laundry Service” but put out a new Spanish album four months ahead of her second English album. This unique strategy is designed both to reestablish Shakira’s roots in the Hispanic community and to market the new Spanish album to non-Spanish-speaking fans. Globalization, Shakira says, has “made frontiers between cultures very blurry,” and “I wanted to integrate my two audiences.” So far, this gamble seems to be paying off. Shakira’s new Spanish album has already sold two million copies and has become a hit in such non-traditional Latin markets as Germany, Finland, and France. – YaleGlobal