Global Face

Josh Kun of the San Francisco Bay Guardian weighed in on the controversy surrounding Shakira’s transformation releasing ‘Laundry Service’ in 2001 to an American audience. “Shakira would not be accepted as a citizen of the world if she were dark-skinned, just ask any of the Afro-Colombian champeta singers who can’t get their CDs heard beyond their fishing villages,” Kun writes. “Her compatriot Carlos Vives tried to pull the same trick with Colombian vallenato, but the ex-soap star kept the indigenous Colombians he was inspired by in his band and in his videos. Which I suppose makes ‘La Tortura’ a pretty honest video in the end – a how-to guide for the international pop set. Dance like an African but claim the move as your own, then cover yourself with oil to show how easily blackness can come on and off.” Read more.