Twenty years after the release of her global smash 'Hips Don’t Lie,' Shakira is looking back, and revealing that the song that changed her career almost didn’t happen.
During a recent appearance on 'The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon' on May 8, the Colombian icon opened up about the origins of the fan-favorite track, which she recorded with Wyclef Jean.
Despite now being one of her most recognizable anthems, and a dance floor favorite to this day, Shakira says the song wasn’t originally part of her 2005 album 'Oral Fixation, Vol. 2.'
“I remember my album was already distributed and then this idea came up and Wyclef and I met. We started working on this track,” she shared with Fallon. “The funniest thing is that I had a dream — the most random dream about Wyclef.”
That surreal dream turned out to be oddly prophetic. She explained that the very next morning, her manager called with surprising news: “You know what? Wyclef wants to work with you.” Still amazed by the timing, she added, “I’m like, ‘No, no. It can't be. I had a dream about Wyclef last night. Why would I dream about Wyclef?’”
Shakira recalled contacting her label’s then-president, Donny Ienner, and requested to recall the albums already shipped to stores so they could be repackaged with the new track. “You’ve got to believe me. You’ve got to trust me. You do that, we have a hit,” she told Ienner. “He did it, we repackaged the albums, and it changed my story.”
And she was right. 'Hips Don’t Lie' became a worldwide sensation, topping the Billboard Hot 100 in 2005 and earning over 2 billion streams on Spotify. More than just a song, it became a pop culture moment, and Shakira's defining career hit.
“People call me Shakira twice,” she laughed, referencing Wyclef’s famous line from the track: “Shakira, Shakira.” In a 2023 interview with Billboard, the singer reflected on the life-changing moment.
“Latin music wasn’t really at its peak like it is right now in the U.S. Many radios, at first, really didn’t want to play Hips Don’t Lie because it sounded too Latin for them," she said.
To celebrate the song’s 20th anniversary, Shakira and Wyclef reunited on The Tonight Show for a special performance, reminding fans why the track remains timeless.