Shakira
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Upon the success of ¿Dónde Están Los Ladrones? and MTV Unplugged, Shakira began working on a crossover album to English. Thanks to other successful crossover acts, most notably that of Ricky Martin and Enrique Iglesias, the crossover of Spanish artists to the English market had a great surge of popularity in mainstream music and it was the next logical step in the singer’s career. Shakira worked for over a year on new material for the album. "Whenever, Wherever" ("Suerte" in Spanish countries) was released as the first and lead single from Shakira's first English album in October 2001. The song takes heavy influence from Andean music,
2001–2004: Laundry Service
including the charango and panpipes in its instrumentation. The track was produced by Shakira, and it was an international success. The third international studio and the first English-Spanish language album Laundry Service (Servicio De Lavanderia in Latin America and Spain) was released on November 13, 2001. The album debuted at number three on the U.S. Billboard 200 Albums chart. Seven tracks became international singles: "Whenever, Wherever" (U.S. #6) / "Suerte" (U.S. Latin #1), Underneath Your Clothes (U.S. #9), Objection (Tango) (U.S. #55) / Te Aviso, Te Anuncio (Tango) (U.S. Latin #16), The One, Te Dejo Madrid, Que Me Quedes Tú (U.S. Latin #1) and Poem To A Horse, as the main theme of Shakira’s worldwide tour, the Tour of the Mongoose. Because the album was created with the intent of selling to an English language market, the rock and Spanish dance-influenced album gained mild critical success: some critics claimed that her English skills were too weak for her to write in it with Rolling Stone stating "she sounds downright silly" or "Shakira's magic is lost in translation." Shakira also was criticized by her Latin fans for seemingly abandoning her folk and rock roots in favor of contemporary American pop music. Despite this fact, the album became the best selling album of 2002, selling more than 13 million copies worldwide. and became the most successful album in singer’s career. Around this time, Shakira also released four songs for Pepsi for her promotion in the English markets: "Ask for More", "Pide Mas", "Knock on My Door" and "Pideme El Sol", included in the extended play Pepsi CD.