Behind Shakira’s Hot Electro Groove: The Making of “She Wolf”

On Shakira’s pulsing new single “She Wolf,” the Colombian superstar transforms into a howling, empowered beast — and drops the term “lycanthropy” (a psychiatric condition where a person believes she can transform into an animal). It’s a fierce piece of electro-pop that the singer took a full month to meticulously mix, but she tells Rolling Stone the original idea arrived in a flash of inspiration. ” ‘She Wolf’ came to me very mysteriously,” she says. “I was in the studio in a bad mood that day, then I got inspired and went to a corner and I wrote the lyrics and the melody in 10 minutes. The image of the she wolf just came to my head, and when I least expected it I was howling and panting.”

“She Wolf” is the first single from Shakira’s October album, which she recorded during a series of 12-hour-a-day sessions mostly in the Bahamas with John Hill (known for producing Santigold’s self-titled debut), Pharrell and other collaborators. She jokes she spent so much time locked away without daylight, “that’s probably why I turned into a she wolf.” But the hard work helped transform her sound from the slithery Latin-tinged pop of “Hips Don’t Lie” to something more glitchy, buzzing and fiercely danceable. “It’s very electronic and dance-oriented, club-oriented,” she says of the disc. “It’s designed for people to have fun and enjoy themselves and forget about their troubles and the crisis.” She says she always wanted to do a bass-heavy record without losing “the fusion, which is something I’m always very interested in — bringing in elements from different cultures. So you’re going to find Indian, Africa, Colombian, Middle Eastern influences, but always with the synthesizers as a dominant element.”

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