Laundry Service (Spanish: Servicio de Lavandería) is the fifth studio album and first English-language album by Colombian singer-songwriter Shakira. It was released on 5 November 2001, by Epic Records. After her fourth studio album Dónde Están los Ladrones? became a success in Latin America, Spain, the Middle East and the Latin community in the United States, Shakira was encouraged by American singer Gloria Estefan to record songs in English as she believed her friend had the potential to cross over into the English-language pop market. Shakira was hesitant at first, but then decided to learn English well enough to write songs in the language. The title of the album reflects Shakira's views on love and music. Laundry Service is primarily a pop rock record but it also experiments with Andean music, dance-pop, Middle Eastern music, rock and roll and tango music. The album's theme is love and romance. Every song on it was written and produced by Shakira under the guidance of Emilio Estefan.
Laundry Service received favourable to mixed reviews from music critics. Many critics complimented Shakira's varied musical styles and originality, while some critics argued that the album sounded too generic. Shakira's vocal talent also attracted praise. Laundry Service topped the charts of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada and Switzerland, while reaching the top five in Argentina, France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom. In the United States, Laundry Service peaked at number three on the Billboard 200 chart. The album received multiple record certifications, including sextuple platinum in Australia, quintuple in Canada, Spain and Switzerland. It was also certified multi-platinum in the United Kingdom and the United States, proving to be a successful crossover for Shakira. Globally, Laundry Service was the seventh best-selling album in 2002. The album sold around 13 million copies by 2011, making it one of the best-selling albums of the 21st century, and is considered the best-selling album by a female Latin artist. The album is listed at number 172 of the "Definitive 200" by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Six singles were released from the album. The lead single "Whenever, Wherever" became an international success, reaching number one on record charts of Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. The second English-language single "Underneath Your Clothes" repeated that success, topping the charts of Australia, Austria, and Belgium. Both singles charted in the top ten in the United Kingdom and United States. Spanish-language singles "Te Dejo Madrid" and "Que Me Quedes Tú" performed well in Hispanic regions, becoming hits in Spain and on the Latin record charts in the United States, respectively. The fourth single "Objection (Tango)" became a top ten hit in most countries around the world, while the sixth and final single "The One" was a moderate commercial success. To promote the album, Shakira embarked on her Tour of the Mongoose between 2002 and 2003. It was her first major worldwide tour and visited many countries and cities.
Background In 1998, Shakira released her second major label studio album Dónde Están los Ladrones? (Where Are the Thieves?), which became a success in Latin America and received record certifications in various countries like Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Mexico and Spain. The rock en español-influenced Latin pop album drew comparisons to the work of Canadian-American singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette and "cracked the lucrative US market wide open", spending a total of 11 weeks atop the Billboard Top Latin Albums chart. It became Shakira's first album to receive a platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Dónde Están los Ladrones? spawned the Arabian-styled single "Ojos Así" ("Eyes Like Yours"), which became a hit and was deemed the "signature track" of the album.
Shakira's record label at that time, Epic Records, opposed the decision to release and commission Laundry Service as they "wanted her just to throw a couple of songs in English on a Latin music record." Gloria Estefan argued with Tommy Mottola, then head of Sony Music Entertainment (the parent company of Epic), and convinced him to release the album, arguing that an "American audience" would not buy a Spanish-language record simply due to its inclusion of a few English-language tracks. In an interview with Latina, she said "I got in the trenches there with Tommy [Mottola] - I fought for that. Because they didn't believe it. Just like they told us [her and Emilio during the Miami Sound Machine days]. They were trying to think in the box and I wanted to take her out of the box. And fortunately, Tommy, whom I love and adore and is a good friend, he really listened to me."
Writing and recording
The success of Dónde Están los Ladrones? prompted American singer Gloria Estefan in 1999, whose husband Emilio Estefan was managing Shakira at that time, to persuade Shakira to attempt to crossover into the mainstream pop industry. However, Shakira was initially hesitant to record songs in English as it was not her first language, so Estefan offered to translate "Ojos Así" into English in order to show her that "it could translate well." Shakira then began translating the song herself and showed it to Estefan, who responded "Quite honestly, I can't do this better!." As Shakira wanted to have full control over her recordings, she decided to learn English better to enable her to write her own songs. Wanting to find a method to express her "day-to-day stories in English", Shakira bought rhyming dictionaries, started analysing the lyrics of songs by Bob Dylan, reading poetry and the work of authors like Leonard Cohen and Walt Whitman and took English lessons from a private tutor.
The first song she wrote was "Objection (Tango)" and in an interview with Faze, she revealed that writing songs in English proved to be challenging for her: "I prayed and asked God to send me a good song today, and I remember I started writing the song ['Objection (Tango)'] a couple of hours after. I wrote the music and lyrics at the same time, and when that happens it's really magical to me." After completing "Objection (Tango)", Shakira decided to write ten more songs and began setting up portable recording studios in the rural region of Uruguay. She wrote various songs with a "dictionary in one hand and a thesaurus in the other." During the songwriting process, Shakira wrote "Underneath Your Clothes" as a love song for de la Rúa. She explained that, "If you check the subject of my songs, most of them talk about my own experiences and feelings and what I was actually going through in my life." Shakira collaborated with various writers and producers on the album including Estefan, Lester Mendez, Luis Fernando Ochoa and Tim Mitchell. Being "more in control than ever", Shakira closely supervised the development of the album. The singer also served as the primary producer of the album.
Composition
Although primarily a pop rock album, Laundry Service also draws influences from a variety of musical genres. The singer credited this to her mixed ethnicity, saying "I am a fusion. That's my persona. I'm a fusion between black and white, between pop and rock, between cultures - between my Lebanese father and my mother's Spanish blood, the Colombian folklore and Arab dance I love and American music." Arabian and Middle Eastern elements, which had a high influence on Dónde Están los Ladrones?, are also present in Laundry Service, most prominently on "Eyes Like Yours" (Ojos Así). Musical styles from different South American countries surface on the album. Tango, a style of fast-paced ballroom dance that originated in Argentina, is evident on "Objection (Tango)", which also combines elements of rock and roll. The uptempo track features a guitar solo and a bridge in which Shakira delivers rap-like vocals. "Whenever, Wherever" blends pop rock with Andean music and contains instrumentation from panpipes and the charango - traditional instruments generally associated with the genre.
A few songs are also influenced by dance-based genres; the "feisty" "Rules" is laced with new wave and "Ready for the Good Times" is inspired by disco music. The power ballad "Underneath Your Clothes" has Shakira delivering "racked" vocals and features brass instrumentation influenced by English rock band The Beatles. It contains a melody similar to the one in "Eternal Flame", a 1989 song by American all-female band The Bangles. Similarly, the tune of "The One", another power ballad on the album, is similar to that of "Michelle", a 1965 song by The Beatles. "Fool" and "Poem to a Horse" are more directly influenced by rock music. The former received comparisons to the work of Alanis Morissette while the latter also displays indie elements and contains instrumentation from a soul music-styled horn section and guitar riffs similar to the one present in songs by American grunge band Nirvana. Laundry Service also contains four Spanish tracks: "Que Me Quedes Tú" ("That You Remain With Me"), "Te Dejo Madrid" ("I Leave You Madrid"), "Suerte" ("Luck") and "Te Aviso, Te Anuncio (Tango)" ("I'm Warning You, I'm Announcing to You"); the latter two are Spanish translations of "Whenever, Wherever" and "Objection (Tango)", respectively.
The lyrics of most songs in Laundry Service are based on issues and themes related to love, as they had been written after Shakira began a relationship Antonio de la Rúa, the son of former Argentine president Fernando de la Rúa. "Underneath Your Clothes" is an "ode" to the positivity one gains when pursuing a relationship with a good person. Shakira shows an "important side" in "The One", which is a song about how "you love your guy so much that you're actually going to learn to cook" and contains lines like "To buy more thongs and write more happy songs, it always takes a little help from someone." In "Rules", she aims to make her lover realise that he is "condemned" to her and lists "all the things your new boy can do." Songs like "Objection (Tango)" and "Fool" also deal with issues related to love but in a different manner. The former is dramatic and humorous in approach as Shakira commands her partner to end a love triangle and choose between her and the other lady; it was described as a "hell-hath-no-fury it's-her-or-me steam train." In the song, Shakira asserts that "Next to her cheap silicon I look minimal/That's why in front of your eyes I'm invisible", which a reviewer commented was a "brave statement in these days of suspiciously ripe teenybop flesh peddlers ." "Fool" discusses how Shakira continues to try to build up a relationship with a "shitty, self-absorbed man" even after suffering a "soul-crushing defeat."
Release The album was globally released on 13 November 2001 in nations including Australia, France, Italy, Switzerland and the United States. In Latin American countries like Mexico, the album was released as Servicio de Lavandería in January 2002. In the United Kingdom, Laundry Service was released on 11 March 2002. On 12 November 2002, a limited-edition version of the album entitled Laundry Service: Washed and Dried was released; this version of the album features three additional remixes and a bonus disc which contains multimedia content related to "Objection (Tango)".
Shakira chose to entitle the album Laundry Service as she wanted to represent her passion for love and music, which she compared to soap and water, saying "The reason I named it "Laundry Service" is because I've spent the year dedicated to my two great passions: love and music. Those two elements are like soap and water. It was a deep cleansing, almost like being reborn." The artwork of the album was also designed by Shakira and shows a close-up of the back of a blonde-haired Shakira; a star and the name of the album are seen tattooed on her arm.
Singles