Shakira reflects on the timelessness of her smash hit 'Hips Don't Lie' 20 years later. The song is a must-play on 'every single tour.'

Yahoo

14-05-2025

Twenty years after releasing her smash hit 'Hips Don't Lie,' the song is still a mainstay on Shakira's set lists.
The Colombian singer kicks off the U.S. leg of the Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran world tour on Tuesday night in Charlotte, N.C., where she intends on performing the Grammy-nominated track for a stadium of adoring fans — who will likely know every word by heart.
'That's a song that is timeless and performed for every single tour and every single performance,' Shakira told USA Today. 'It was one of the first songs that had a reggaeton sound back in the day when it was a niche thing to do. I remember having discovered this groove from Puerto Rico and I started playing with it and decided to build a track on that (rhythmic) pattern. I never knew that years later it would have such an impact.'
'Hips Don't Lie,' which features Haitian singer and rapper Wyclef Jean, was released in February 2006. The song, however, wasn't originally supposed to be on Shakira's 2006 album, Oral Fixation, Vol. 2.
'The albums were distributed, and this song came about,' Shakira recalled while on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon last week. 'I started working with Wyclef, and I knew I had a hit. So I called Donnie Ienner, who was in charge at the time of the company [Sony Music], and I said, 'Donnie, you have to pick up the albums from the stores.' And he's like, 'No way. This album's already out there.' I'm like, 'You've gotta believe me. You've gotta trust me.''
The song was played 9,637 times in a single week, making Shakira the first artist in Billboard charts history to hit No. 1 on both the Top 40 Mainstream and Latin Charts. To this day, 'Hips Don't Lie' remains the singer's only No. 1 hit in the United States. It also became the fastest-selling digitally downloaded song in the U.S. and is considered one of the greatest songs by 21-century women by NPR.
'It changed my story,' the 48-year-old singer told Fallon.
'Hips Don't Lie' has been credited with fusing reggaeton beats and Latin rhythms as well as pop and hip-hop elements in a single, infectious track.
Originally called 'Lips Don't Lie,' the song was initially written and recorded by Jean, Lauryn Hill and Pras when the Fugees reunited in the studio. The song, however, was never completed, because Hill did not like it. Jean then enlisted Shakira as both a cowriter and coproducer on the track. The decision to tap the Colombian superstar proved to be the right one — Shakira's influence resulted in the infusion of a reggaeton beat and the now-iconic salsa trumpet sampled from the 1992 song 'Amores Como el Nusetro,' by Puerto Rican singer-songwriter Jerry Rivera.
Shakira and Jean reunited on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon on May 6 for a special performance of the song, in honor of its 20th anniversary. Jean will join the 'She Wolf' singer onstage tonight in Charlotte, where they'll perform the nostalgic track together once again.
The singer told USA Today that performing with Jean in Charlotte 'will be a one-of-a-kind moment to share the stage with him after so many years.'
While chatting with Ellen DeGeneres in 2005, Shakira revealed that her hips help her determine whether or not a song she's working on encourages her to move her body and dance.
'I grew up influenced by all of these cultural aspects that sort of define my artistic personality, and the way I interpret music and the way I feel music,' she told DeGeneres. 'I always say, 'My hips don't lie.' When I have all these debates with my musicians about how a song should feel or groove … and it's not going quite well, I say, 'Hmm … my hips don't lie. That's not working.' They tell you the truth.'