wookira

Shakira doesn't have a talent for lip-syncing convincingly to make it look like a live performance anyway, so no one was fooled to begin with.

A lot of people seem to misunderstand one thing: outside of North America, Latin America, and Europe, Western pop stars don't actually have that much of a meaningful difference in recognition or popularity. In many regions, people often only know a few major hits. For example, Beyoncé might still be associated with "Single Ladies," and Shakira with "Waka Waka" as their most recent songs. At the same time, many Americans tend to assume that if an artist is popular in the U.S., they must be equally popular worldwide. On the other hand, even though Shakira has had strong popularity across both Latin America and Europe, people often frame her success as if it were somehow regionally limited. Shakira seems to have had to fight against being underrated throughout her entire career. Compared to her peers, much of her popularity came from regions with lower purchasing power. So during the era when success was heavily measured by sales, artists who were dominant mainly in the U.S. could appear to have achieved more, even if Shakira had a broader global reach. If she had experienced her peak in a time like today — where markets like Latin America carry much more weight globally, similar to what we see with artists like Bad Bunny — she might have been evaluated very differently. It's just a fun hypothetical, but if purchasing power had been equal across the world from the beginning, Shakira might have held many of the biggest records — she would definitely have the highest numbers among her contemporaries. Back to reality, even within those constraints, she still competed with the biggest names of her time and built a career that remains incredibly significant to this day. That, more than anything, is what makes her truly impressive.

While Girls' Generation is the most popular K-pop group of all time, I believe Wonder Girls holds the most iconic discography. 'Tell Me' is the greatest hit of the 21st century, and the entire K-pop landscape shifted because of it. Even looking beyond idols at the Korean music industry as a whole, they were the most symbolic act since Seo Taiji and Boys (or perhaps Lee Jung-hyun).

I hope she tries something a bit bolder and explores new territory this time. For example, maybe a collaboration with BLACKPINK...

https://theqoo.net/hot/4105464837?filter_mode=normal A post about Shakira's potential visit to South Korea reached the 'Hot' section on a major Korean internet forum today. The buzz started from her Instagram story last month, where she expressed gratitude for 'Zoo' trending in Korea and mentioned she hopes to see fans on tour. Netizens are speculating this could lead to her first-ever concert in the country. The forum where this was posted is an entertainment-focused community even more exclusive than ATRL, having closed its registration for several years. The post has already garnered over 250 comments.

It just felt like a video thanking people for the popularity of Zootopia 2 and "Zoo," to be honest. Wasn't she simply expressing a straightforward hope that she'd get to meet fans through a tour in Japan? China actually seems like a reasonable option…Among East Asian countries, it's probably the one with tastes closest to Shakira's music, so the demand would be there. Japan, if anything, feels even further from Shakira's musical style than Korea does. Still, if it's true that she's planning to perform in Japan, that would mean she's willing to accept losses from logistics and other costs to do an arena show. If that's the case, then an arena concert in Korea should be possible too. I really hope she comes to East Asia this time.

I remember being shocked by how unfamiliar yet striking the metaphors in the lyrics were. To native English speakers, they might sound a bit awkward or even amusing, but since I don't have an instinctive grasp of those nuances and only understand the lyrics through translation, I was able to immediately recognize that she wasn't just a sexy pop star, but a poet. When I was young, I became so absorbed in this song that I wanted to synchronize myself with the speaker of the lyrics, and I even found myself wanting to date a foreigner because of it.

I've been a Shakira fan for over 20 years, and this is the first time I'm experiencing reactions in Korea about whether she'll come here or not.

I'm reminded of a comment I once saw that said, 'She hasn't gone back to Australia ever since someone threw a cement bag at her.' I laughed so hard at that.

While Lady Gaga may deliver stronger live performances, Shakira is obviously the superior vocalist. The richness and delicacy in her voice are simply incomparable.

a single tour drew 1% of a country's entire population is just insane.

If the question were about "popularity" rather than "recognition," it might be different, but in reality, most people don't know much about pop stars. This is even more true across different cultural spheres. When it comes to recognition, every person on the planet would have an equal "vote," without any premium based on spending power. So exposure is the key factor. Of course, being at the top in the U.S. does come with huge promotional advantages. For example, at one point, people associated America with Katy Perry, and now it's Taylor Swift. But Ariana Grande was perceived similarly at one point, and more importantly, the fact that she could hit notes like a dolphin made her highly shareable, so I thought even people who weren't interested in Western pop music had likely come across one of her videos at least once. But thinking about it now, the recent success of the Eras Tour drew massive public attention, and Trump has used her, as a symbol of American pop, in various ways. So Taylor might rank higher than Ariana. I focused only on her career and overlooked a few things.

Ah, I see. Sorry if I sounded a bit sensitive — as a Shakira fan, I've dealt with this kind of thing so many times that I get a little touchy about it, haha.

I feel like Taylor or Katy Perry are probably the least well-known compared to Ariana. People seem so used to ranking everything by power and money that they don't realize recognition doesn't follow sales numbers. If you star in a single successful movie or have a signature whistle note, even middle-aged men in Asia end up knowing who you are. And seriously, stop leaving Shakira out of these conversations. How U.S.-centric do you have to be to not even think to include her? Is this some kind of gatekeeping against someone who hasn't fully assimilated into American society and keeps her Latin identity? Aside from Madonna, Shakira has performed at the World Cup three times, which makes her the strongest contenders. No matter how many sales records or tour records break, performing at the World Cup even once gives you way more exposure.

Has Brazil been forgotten?

I remember it happened in the evening, Korean time. Strangely, I had gone to bed early that day. Then around 5 a.m., I woke up and went to the bathroom. On my way back to my room, I saw my dad watching TV. Since he loved movies, I assumed he was just watching one late into the night. The first scene I saw on the TV looked so surreal that I could only think it was a movie. But the atmosphere on screen was unusually solemn. That's when I realized what had happened. I couldn't go back to sleep, so I kept watching the news until it was time to go to school. At the time, I was completely obsessed with Britney Spears, loved watching Friends, and had just started middle school, which was when I began learning in detail about America's role in the Korean War. In other words, it was a time when I deeply admired the United States. I vividly remember the social shock of that moment. Was America now under threat? Would South Korea no longer be safe? But then, even North Korea — which was usually arrogant and provocative — announced that they were not behind the attack and condemned the act of terrorism. That somehow reassured me and made me feel once again just how significant America's place in the world was.

Releasing "Don't Bother" as a single was a noble choice. The only thing that was wrong was the public's taste. The 2000s really felt like a constant "What's wrong with their taste?" moment when looking at the Billboard charts from the outside. The fact that Toxic, Hung Up, and She Wolf never hit #1 is just…

Because of Shakira's success outside the U.S., it sometimes feels like Americans reluctantly acknowledge her, as if they have no choice. So I think this thread is really a post in her honor.

The tour stats that used to get updated on Wikipedia have stopped being updated. Someone please update them.

I used to think to myself whenever I saw Europeans saying "Drop the Europe dates!" — "At least you guys are actually getting a visit, you're lucky." But now I'm joining in too. I'm seriously going crazy with curiosity. Please drop the Europe dates!

American singers benefit from U.S. hegemony and consumer power, with their records inflated like bubbles, and within that structure they get sold in other regions as well. Among the main pop girls, only Shakira has proven herself without that kind of bubble.

KatsEye clearly has a K-pop identity. In the Gap ad, it reminds me of Le Sserafim, not PCD at all. If it's not about building a narrative as a team, practicing together, and growing like K-pop, then it's better to just be a solo artist.

I think that in a leading country like the United States, the superstar worthy of that title was Michael Jackson in the 20th century, and Lady Gaga in the 21st. But at some point, it feels like we ended up in some kind of wrong parallel universe. I feel that Lady Gaga is not enjoying the glory she rightfully deserves.

ROSÉ

This map was made just to smear Beyoncé, to the point that it's almost childish. But when I saw the Taylor map, the photo of her riding the subway in Korea back when she wasn't very famous was just so cute. Beyoncé is definitely a well-known name, but I've never heard of her being called a "million seller." I think in terms of global million sellers, Mariah Carey sold over a million copies with just one album, and if we're talking about total sales, Britney was probably the last one. Beyoncé rose to fame during a time when album sales were already in decline — around the "Single Ladies" era. But if she had risen to fame in the early 2000s, she probably would have achieved million-seller.