GRRRLLLLL
“She Wolf” has nothing in common with Baccara’s “Yes Sir, I Can Boogie” outside of the vague disco connection, and yet “Boogie” is the song I frequently came back to when thinking about Shakira’s latest single. Like “Boogie,” “Wolf” delights in its awkwardness, filled with goofy lines such as: “A domesticated girl that’s all you ask of me / Darling it is no joke this is lycanthropy / The moon’s awake now with eyes wide open / My body’s craving so feed the hungry.” Give those lyrics to any other pop diva and it would fall flat; but thanks to Shakira’s deep, slightly guttural, voice (She pants! She howls!), “She Wolf” works in all its 125 BPM glory.
And, really, thank god for Shakira’s embrace of disco. Granted, “She Wolf” isn’t exactly nu-disco, but it wouldn’t be unwelcome in the roller rinks and Studio 54s of yesteryear.
If only the music video embraced the same aesthetic. Not that it’s bad, mind you (I’m positive that Shakira moonlights as a Circus sideshow attraction, given that she gesticulates and bends herself in ways I couldn’t imagine). But in a song where Shakira compares herself to a coffee machine being used, I was hoping for a little more camp from director Jake Nava. How nobody thought of “Ilsa: She-Wolf of the SS” during the production of this video is beyond me (Then again, that’s assuming MTV would sign off on Nazi-sploitation riffs.).
Like, is she dancing in a vulva? No, seriously:
Female empowerment should be fun, not Freudian!
