Hips Don't Lie

Background and release

After attaining international success with her third studio effort, Laundry Service, in 2001, Shakira opted to create a two-part follow-up record. Having co-written nearly sixty tracks for Laundry Service, she put herself "on the mission of selecting [her] favorite ones" to record for Oral Fixation, Vol. 2 and its predecessor, the Spanish-language Fijación Oral, Vol. 1. While recording the project, Shakira worked with previous collaborators, and newer partners including Jerry Duplessis and Wyclef Jean.

After the moderate success of "Don't Bother" and of the album, her label Epic Records asked Wyclef Jean, in early 2006, to remake his song "Dance Like This" with Shakira, attempting to revive sales of the album. After that, "Hips Don't Lie" was released as the second single from the album (first from the reissue) on 28 March 2006. "Hips Don't Lie" debuted on the Los Angeles-based radio station KIIS-FM (on the Ryan Seacrest Morning Show) on 14 February 2006. A Spanish version of the same name was also released. Shakira also sang another version (produced by RedOne) called "Hips Don't Lie/Bamboo" at the closing ceremony of the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Berlin, Germany.

Recording

"Hips Don't Lie" was initially written and recorded by Wyclef Jean, Lauryn Hill and Pras for the Fugees reunion. The song was titled "Lips Don't Lie" at that point, but was never completed due to the Hill's dissatisfaction with it. Charlie Walk, who at the time was the President of Epic Records, called Pras to state he wanted to do a remix of the song with Shakira. Following the call Hill left the group and the Fugee's reunion was over. The song was then given to Shakira and along with Jean and long-time partner Jerry 'Wonder' Duplesis they produced "Hips Don't Lie". According to another version of events, Jean was asked by Shakira's label to record a remix of 'La Tortura' but refused stating he already had a record that Shakira would be perfect for. The record was Jean's own song "Dance Like This", which he recorded with Claudette Ortiz for the Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights soundtrack.

Shakira co-wrote the song with Wyclef Jean, Jerry 'Wonder' Duplessis, Omar Alfanno, LaTavia Parker and Vinay Rao, whilst production was handled by Shakira, Jean and Jerry 'Wonder' Duplessis. Jean also served as the song's guitarist and programmer alongside Ramón Stagnaro who also provided guitar, Hermides Benitez, Richard Bravo, Archie Pena, Roberto Cuao all contributed the song's percussion, whilst Gustavo Celis and Jerry "Wonda" Duplessis added further programming. The songs recording took place at various studios including Hit Factory Criteria, Miami, FL; La Marimonda Studios, Nassau, Bahamas; Olympic Studios, London, England; Platinum Sound Recording Studio, New York, NY; Sonido Azulado, Bogota, Colombia and The Warehouse, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Composition

"Hips Don't Lie" is a salsa and worldbeat song, which heavily incorporates samples from Jean's earlier single "Dance Like This". The trumpets in the record are sampled from the song "Amores Como el Nuestro" which was written by Omar Alfanno and performed by Jerry Rivera for his album Cuenta Conmigo (1992). The use of the opening trumpets caused a small controversy, when Rivera openly accused Shakira of plagiarizing the opening trumpets without his knowing, unaware that rights had already been obtained from his former label Sony Discos.

According to EMI Music Publishing's digital sheet music for the song, "Hips Don't Lie" is set in common time signature, is in the key of B♭ minor, and has a moderate Latin groove of 100 beats per minute. Shakira's vocals span from the low note of A♭₃ to the note of A♭₅. During an interview Shakira explained the song's lyrical meaning stating that when her body reacts physically to a song, she knows, if it's a dance song, that song is done, asserting that she used to tell her musicians, 'my hips don't lie! Are they moving? They're not moving! So this is not ready,' adding that this is how she came up with the idea of the song.

Commercial performance

On 1 April 2006, "Hips Don't Lie" debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 84. On its fourth week, it entered the top-forty at number 33 on the chart and received the "greatest airplay gainer" title on the Hot 100 for three weeks in a row. The song achieved a peak position of number 13 until it was released digitally on 27 May 2006. Shakira's record label Epic Records originally held back the release of the song's digital downloads to boost sales of Oral Fixation Vol. 2. When Epic finally released it digitally, the single jumped from number nine to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for the week ending 17 June 2006, helped by the song's strong number-one status on the Hot 100 Airplay chart and nearly 267,000 downloads in its first week. Shakira also became the second female artist, the first being Cuban-American singer Gloria Estefan in 1989 with "Don't Wanna Lose You", ever to top the Hot 100 chart and the Latin Singles chart simultaneously. The single held the top spot in the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks in a row, being dethroned by "Do I Make You Proud" by American Idol season 5 winner Taylor Hicks. According to Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems, "Hips Don't Lie" was the most-played pop song in a single week in American radio history. It was played 9,637 times in one week, breaking Gwen Stefani's previous record with 9,582 plays in a week for her single "Hollaback Girl"(2005). "Hips Don't Lie" also set a record for the fastest selling record to reach the one million digital download mark after nine weeks, beating the previous record held by Daniel Powter's "Bad Day", which took 16 weeks. Since it has been digitally available in June 2006, the song has sold 3,553,000 downloads and two million ringtones in the US alone.

In the UK it spent a total of five weeks at number one. After its initial one-week reign at number one, it returned to the top in its 8th week preventing Christina Aguilera's "Ain't No Other Man", Rihanna's "Unfaithful", as well as Cascada's "Everytime We Touch" and Chamillionaire's "Ridin'" from going to #1 until it was replaced by Beyoncé Knowles' "Déjà Vu". "Hips Don't Lie" broke the record for the most weeks for a song in a second run, staying four weeks during its second reign at number-one, a record it now shares with "Somebody That I Used to Know" by Belgian-Australian singer Gotye. The song remained in the top 10 for 16 weeks, and then stayed within the top 75 for an additional 38 weeks. "Hips Don't Lie" is currently the 11th best selling single by a female artist in the 21st century in the UK, and also the 10th best selling collaboration. It is also the 46th best-selling single of the 2000 decade in UK.

In Ireland, the single remained at the number one spot for a total of nine weeks throughout the summer. "Hips Don't Lie" was the most successful song of 2006 worldwide and it reached #1 in the majority of charting countries and territories around the world. It reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100, Pop 100 and Hot Latin Tracks charts, in Australia, Belgium, Canada (on the Digital Chart), Colombia, Czech Republic, Europe, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latin America, Lebanon, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, and other countries. The song peaked below number one but inside the top ten in Austria, Canada (on the Canadian Airplay Chart), China, Finland, Norway and Russia peaking at number two and in Denmark peaking at number six. In Taiwan, the song peaked at number eleven, while it reached the top position on the Japan International Singles. The only nation, where the song was released and did not reach a Top 20 position, was in Sweden, where it peaked at number forty-five due to its late October release on the charts. "Hips Don't Lie" was the number-two year-end song in the Netherlands; it also finished number three in Germany and the UK, while in Spain it was number four and in USA it was number five. In Germany, it's the fourth best-selling pop duet ever.

Worldwide, it was the biggest-selling single of the 2000s. As of 2016, the song sold over 18 million copies with combined sales and track-equivalent streams,

Music video

The music video was directed by British director Sophie Muller and filmed in Los Angeles, California, United States. The video begins with Shakira against a black background dancing while Wyclef and a couple other men are watching her. When Wyclef raps his first rap verse, it shows him following Shakira with pink curtains everywhere. It also shows them on the street along with different people. When the second verse begins, she is seen sitting in a chair while singing. It then cuts to an arena-like environment, where Shakira is dancing with other people. It ends with Shakira against the black background. The majority of the costumes and outfits featured in the video belong to the Carnaval de Barranquilla, some of which include the white dress Shakira dances in, and the colorful flags. Shakira was given dancing lessons for the performance of the song at the MTV Awards by the Indian choreographer Farah Khan.

"Hips Don't Lie" proved successful on LAUNCHcast's top-hundred most-watched videos of the week, where it spent four months at number one. Yahoo! had fans submit videos of themselves dancing to the song, which were edited into a "fans only" version, which has also proved to be one of the most popular videos on LAUNCH. The video for "Hips Don't Lie" ran in the number-one spot on iTunes (along with the single) for several weeks. It has received over 410 million views on YouTube. The video won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Choreography on 31 August 2006 and the MTV Latin Award for Song Of The Year on 19 October 2006. The video also placed at number two on VH1's "Top 40 Videos of 2006".

Live performances

On 9 June 2006, Shakira and Wyclef Jean performed "Hips Don't Lie" at the opening ceremony of the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Munich, and also a month later at the short ceremony preceding the final game in Berlin, to worldwide TV audiences of over 500 million and 700 million people, respectively. On 31 August 2006, it was performed by the duo on the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards. They also performed the song on the 49th Grammy Awards in 2007.

Legacy

According to Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems, "Hips Don't Lie" was the most-played pop song in a single week in American radio history. It was played 9,637 times in one week. Shakira became the first artist in the history of the Billboard charts to earn the coveted number one spots on both the Top 40 Mainstream and Latin Chart in the same week doing so with "Hips Don't Lie". According to Yahoo!, her song "Hips Don't Lie" is the best-selling single of the last decade. Additionally, she is the only artist from South America to reach the number-one spot on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, the Australian ARIA chart, and the UK Singles Chart.

This song also appeared in 2016 video game Just Dance 2017.

Track listings

CD single:

1. "Hips Don't Lie" (featuring Wyclef Jean) [Jean, Duplessis, Shakira, Parker, Alfanno] – 3:41
2. "Dreams for Plans" [Shakira, Buckley] – 4:02
3. "Hips Don't Lie" (featuring Wyclef Jean) (Wyclef's Mixshow Mix) – 4:09

Maxi CD single:

1. "Hips Don't Lie" (featuring Wyclef Jean) – 3:41
2. "Hips Don't Lie" (Wyclef Remix) (featuring Wyclef Jean) – 3:59
3. "Hips Don't Lie" (Wyclef Mix Show Mix) (featuring Wyclef Jean) – 4:09
4. "Hips Don't Lie" (Wyclef Remix Instrumental) (featuring Wyclef Jean) – 3:57
5. "Hips Don't Lie/Bamboo" (2006 FIFA World Cup Version) – 3:24
6. "Será Será (Las Caderas No Mienten)" (Spanish version) – 3:35

2-tracks Maxi single:

1. "Hips Don't Lie"
2. "Dreams for Plans"

Japanese release:

1. "Hips Don't Lie" (featuring Wyclef Jean) – 3:41
2. "Hips Don't Lie/Bamboo" (2006 FIFA World Cup Mix) (featuring Wyclef Jean)
3. "Será Será (Las Caderas No Mienten)" (Spanish version) (featuring Wyclef Jean) – 3:41
4. "Hips Don't Lie" (DJ Kazzanova Remix) (featuring Wyclef Jean)

Ringle:

1. "Hips Don't Lie" (featuring Wyclef Jean) – 3:41
2. "Hips Don't Lie" (featuring Wyclef Jean) (Wyclef's Show Mix) – 4:09
3. "Será Será (Las Caderas No Mienten)" (Spanish Version)[featuring Wyclef Jean] – 3:41

Awards and nominations

"Hips Don't Lie" was a critical success and was nominated for various awards; the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) awarded the song the accolades of Ascap Latin Award - Pop/Ballad Winning Song and Ascap Pop Music Award - Most Performed Songs. At the Billboard Music Awards the song was nominated for three awards; Pop Single of the Year, Top Hot 100 Single and Top Pop 100 Airplay Track. In 2007, the song won at the Best Latin/Reggaeton Track at the International Dance Music Awards.