At this point, half a year into the Obama presidency, it’s probably boorish, or just plain boring, to make note of Shakira’s Lebanese-Colombian muttness. Still, a large part of her appeal—aside from her rangy voice and singularly athletic way with a belly dance—is the melting pot she brews her records in. She has spent the last year writing and producing a new one, She Wolf, which will be out in October. Here’s her description of it (over the phone, alas, from her home in the Bahamas): “I have music from India, the Middle East, dancehall, a little bit of Colombian influences. I always loved disco, so the new record has disco elements, but also house—it’s electropop.” All that, and yet she somehow forgot to mention the klezmer-inflected clarinet solo on one track. Read more here. Semana International delivers news about Colombia in English. Find more in our home.