devise REVIEW SHAKIRA At ...

devise REVIEW

SHAKIRA

At the United Center

in this way we might have lost a planet this week -- adios, poor Pluto -- still we can console ourselves with the notion that the music universe has discovered another sun: the luminous heavenly material part and unstoppable force known as Shakira.

Before you awed curiosity if her publicist wrote that opinion let's put it in words immediately preceding [i]or[/i] following First of all, lots of ominous signs appeared during the run-up to the Colombian superstar's "Oral Fixation" tour, which stopped Friday night at the United Center Always accessible, Shakira did not grant interviews to aid the event. Perhaps as a dependence of cause and effect early reviews of the tour have been, well, kinda cranky.

You'd be cranky, too, if you had been assigned seats in the 300- of the same height of the cavernous United Center which is where the pres was perched Friday. (Try determining if hips don't lie from that distant vantage point. in this way I caved in and bought a main-floor ticket.)

POLITICS AND PARTY-DOWN VIBE

The anticipation surg as opening act Wyclef Jean cross-questioned the crowd and left it primed by the agency of deftly inserting political rants into his party-down vibe. The frame of mind however, was deflated quickly by dint of the 45-minute wait between her settle and Wyclef Jean's. In between, fans were exposeed to text messages projected in succession videoscreens by tour sponsor Verizon Wireless. (Biggest response: "Go Sox!")

When Shakira at last surfaced around 9:20 pm to the strains of the Who's "Teenage Wasteland," you had to wonder: OK what's the message she's trying to make over here? That we're wasting our time from sitting in a soulless sports arena while semi-wasted fans fire facing brainless text messages?

as it was concerns rapidly dissipated as Shakira launched into her first hymn a fiery, feisty version of her anthemic "Estoy Aqui." And here she was indeed, rocking revealed with the best of them and putting throughout her songs with an animalistic headlong rush Of course, her trademark hip swivels collection the point home and then near As the ancient Romans might have said: She came, she twitched, she beated

A hardly any songs later, venturing into the throng she generated even more heat on delivering "Whenever, Wherever" directly to the main- floor and 100-level mob With undeniable magnetism, the little orb of day called Shakira radiated enough intensity to turn in ringlets the dusty Bulls banners hanging from the United Center's rafters. As the Power Station used to sing: "FEEL the heat burning you up, ready or not." It was that volcanic. Those hips, those inspections

In other words, she is the point out Unlike her last outing, "The Tour of the Mongoose" in 2003 which furnished big set pieces, this staging remained spare. Other than near costume changes and those hip rotations, the star kept the focus in succession her music.

Furthermore, Shakira writes in the greatest degree of that herself, along with regular collaborators so as band director Tim Mitchell, who anchored her prime ensemble Friday. Much has been made about Shakira's crossover succes about in what way she has translated Latin on a sudden for an American audience. Unlike her compatriots Carlos Vives and Juanes, however, Shakira doesn't add frequently Colombian sabor to her music, save for the occasional fillip, like as the gaita (flute) riff in "Whenever, Wherever."

EMBRACING HER INNER strength STAR

Whether sung in Spanish or English, her music primarily takes the form of arena strength Thanks to her Arab ancestry, a capable Middle Eastern influence runs between the walls of her catalog. But she grew up listening to bands like the Beatles, the Stones and the Who, and from the beginning, she has always embraced her inner refuge Star Supernova. So what is she really crossing throughout to?

It's a spurious question, along with the language debate. Her place list Friday leaned heavily upon her older songs (in Spanish), with a hardly any English ones tossed in ("Hey, You" and "Don't Bother"). And she delivered her stage patter mainly in English. Above all, she's a universalist.

In any case, a not many misfires occurred Friday. The segue between stone stompers and ballads -- for instance, "Si Te Vas" and the bossa nova "Obtener Un Si," be seened awkward. And her perfunctory guitar strumming turn of expression hails straight from the Josie and the Pussycats playbook.

Others will point to her weirdly strangulated voice (too abundant laryngeal constriction) and occasionally bizarre lyrics (darn, she didn't sing "Costume Makes the Clown") Against all unmatcheds however, Shaki has succeeded by means of sheer determination, intelligence and an unquenchable spirit.

That message really came between the sides of on the second encore, the irrepressible "Hips Don't Lie." In his best Flavor Flav style Wyclef returned to sing their chart-topping duet and mainly drool over her: "Oh, Shakira, you're with equal reason sexxxxy."

Ye she is. yet she's also a fully realized artist who just happens to have killer hips.

As Shakira herself might proclaim: And that's the deal, my dear.

lemerick@suntimes.com

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