27 July 2002
Remember in Argentina at the start of the ’00s when there was an economic crash, a run on the banks, IMF intervention, and public riots? The President of Argentina at the time, Fernando de la Rúa, was unable to get a grip on the situation, and resigned in December 2001 in deep unpopularity. His son Antonio had been one of his advisors, and in 2002 was the boyfriend of Shakira; he even appears in the video for ‘Underneath Your Clothes’. However, Antonio de la Rúa’s cameo and association with controversial el presidente led to Tower Records Argentina banning all albums by Shakira. (Now I’m curious about any similar Shakira policy by the record stores of Madrid, and if it may have changed recently.)
No such problems in the Ireland of 2002: our banks were paragons of fiscal rectitude, the IMF had no business with our booming Celtic Tiger economy, and Irish record stores were merrily selling enough Shakira product to give her a second number one of the year. I’d have gone along with any public riot, though: ‘Underneath Your Clothes’ is irritatingly bad. Before anyone starts singing, the song is a soft rock dirge, a dire ballad. But what makes it even worse is Shakira, the Colombian James Blunt, with that nasally mewling: her voice here is a truly unpleasant listening experience. The lads-mag zoo-radio culture of 2002 eked out yards of banter with the song title, which surely inflated its profile in the public space. Otherwise I can’t imagine what anyone would have seen or heard to like in this appalling record. Argentina had at least got one thing right.
