One of Shakira‘s biggest songs almost didn’t leave the vault.
During a recent stop at The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, host Jimmy Fallon asked Shakira if her top-charting song “Hips Don’t Lie” featuring Wyclef Jean wasn’t supposed to be on her 2005 album, Oral Fixation, Vol. 2.
The singer replied, “No, it wasn’t. I remember my album was already distributed, and then this idea came up, and Wyclef and I met and we started working on this track.”
Shakira continued to describe how she had a dream about Wyclef the night before her manager called her, telling her he wanted to work with her.
“I started working with Wyclef, and I knew I had a hit, so I called Donny Lenner, who was in charge at the time of [Epic Records], and I said, ‘Donny, you have to pick up the albums from the stores,’ and he’s like, ‘No way, these albums are already out there,’” the Grammy winner recalled. “I’m like, ‘You’ve got to believe me. You’ve got to trust me. You do that, we have a hit.’ And he said, ‘OK, so I’ll listen to you. I’ll listen to you on this one,’ and he did it.”
She then noted that they “had to repackage the albums” to add the song. This year is the 20th anniversary of the track that ascended Shakira to a new level of fame. It reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Next, Shakira’s North American leg of the Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour begins May 13.