(Herald News photos by Alejandro Cano)

Shakira, a superstar from Colombia, dazzled the fans at Fantasy Springs Resort and Casino last week.

There’s nothing like show business, and there’s nobody like Shakira.

With sensual hip movements, a matchless voice, and a fierce energy, the Colombian superstar thrilled thousands of fans last week during her second-to-last concert around the nation at Fantasy Springs Resort and Casino in Indio.

Making her grand entrance through the crowd, Shakira shook the stands as mad fans tried to shake her hand. Once on stage, Shakira bedazzled the rowdy audience with English and Spanish themes from her latest album “Sale el Sol” (“The Sun Comes Out”), the third bilingual album by the Latin-pop singing-songwriter.

The melancholic title track “Sale el Sol” brought tears to the eyes of some rock fans since Shakira dedicated the song to her good friend Gustavo Cerati, co-founder of the famed Argentine group Soda Stereo, who has been in a coma since May of this year.

Wearing various colorful and sexy attires, Shakira also performed “She Wolf,” “Laundry Service” and “Loca” (“Crazy”) before moving to more popular songs like “Si te Vas” (“If You Go Away”), “Ciega Sordomuda” (“Blind Deaf”), and “Pies Descalzos” (“Bare Feet”), among others.

Using “Underneath your Clothes” as a transition between high to higher levels of energy, Shakira got people dancing with the song “Gordita” (Overweight), which had highly sexualized lyrics that made fans scream in excitement while some couples imitated the moves on the improvised dance floor.

As a word of caution to venue officials, a lack of security and rules for the crowd could have easily caused a riot, putting in danger hundreds of children who were in attendance. The presence of alcohol made it extra dangerous for the star and audience, with people walking freely through different sections of the casino.

The provided runway where Shakira performed Arabic dances to the rhythm of the doumbek (a drum that typically accompanies belly dancing) benefited people in the grandstands; however, it caused some fans to get angry as most people tried to get as close to her as possible, disrespecting the numbered-seats. With people standing on their seats to get a better look at Shakira, those in the back paid the consequences and settled to watch parts of the show on the big screen.

Shakira did not disappoint the more mature members of the crowd who went to see her perform songs like “Ojos Así” (Eyes Like That), “Obtener un Si” (To Get a Yes), and “En Tus Pupilas” (In Your Pupils), among other romantic songs.

This was that Shakira some people fell in love with and it was that Shakira that made them drive hundreds of miles from as far as Arizona to watch her perform. Some, waving Colombian flags, made the necessary arrangements to stay overnight in the region — a decision well worth it since they had already seen one of the best Latin performers of all time.

To fulfill audience requests, Shakira returned to stage to perform “Hips Don’t Lie” and “Waka Waka” (“Time for Africa”), the official song for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, which closed the show, but not before moving people to their feet.

The colorful and energetic performance ended with several bangs of confetti into the air to mark a true celebration. Shakira made the sun come out on the faces of many children in attendance, children who dream of one day being like her — children of all races whom Shakira would like to see grow without “Peligro” (“Danger”) so their “Sueños” (“Dreams”) could come true. But first they need to follow “Rules” to enjoy happiness “Whenever, Wherever.”

Shikira’s video made the top 10 list over at hollywoodscoop.com Top 10 Sexiest Music Videos

Shakira’s hips never lie and in her music video “She Wolf” neither does her booty. Shakira brings sex appeal to a whole new level as she dances in a nude leotard in a cage. In regards to what a “She Wolf” is Shakira told Hollyscoop, She Wolf is “the woman of our time. It’s not only me, it’s you, it’s every woman out there wanting to defend our liberties. I think that freedom is the safest road to happiness.”

Shakira has been nominated in the MTV EMA’s Awards for BEST FEMALE!

Let’s unite as fans and make history in the next MTV EMA’s Awards! The plan is simple: Let’s put links and / or banners in our social networks Facebook, twitter etc. and elsewhere to support our artist in the last few days of voting. We can do it and make Shakira very happy that night, her night! Feel free to use the promotional banners on this link

Submit you vote now Click Here http://ema.mtv.co.uk/artists/shakira

“I’m crazy, but you like it,” sang Shakira near the close of her 100-minute set at a packed Allstate Arena on Friday. “You like that it ain’t easy.”

Though the words, delivered amidst the horn-fueled club banger “Loca,” actually dealt with a fiery relationship, the Colombia-born pop star, who dotted her bilingual set with a number of endearingly idiosyncratic flourishes, could have just as easily been singing about her own appeal.

At times, it was the small details that set her apart. Shakira, whose famed hips frequently swayed like a dashboard hula dancer navigating rocky terrain, laid down brief blasts of harmonica on “Te Dejo Madrid,” air drummed like a teenage stoner on a thundering “Whenever, Wherever” and howled like the president-elect of Team Jacob (“Ah-wooo!”) on “She Wolf.”

Other turns were decidedly riskier, such as a wildly re-imagined cover of Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters” that successfully incorporated Middle Eastern hand drums and sounded as though it were performed by a troop of gypsies gathered casually around a campfire.

Shakira, who is of Lebanese, Italian and Spanish descent, brought a similarly global feel to her music, drawing upon African rhythms, dancehall, techno, cumbia and rock ‘n roll. Backed by an agile eight-piece band, the singer, who sported a number of midriff-baring outfits throughout—including one inspired by “I Dream of Jeannie” and a second that could’ve been stitched together from dozens of goldfish pelts—stomped her way through undulating club anthems like “Why Wait” and a rumbling “Las De La Intuicion.” Only occasionally did she slow the pace enough that she remained stationary. Such was the case on “Antes De Las Seis,” where she belted out the ballad’s grandiose chorus as fake snow drifted from the rafters and temporarily gave the venue the appearance of a freshly-shaken snow globe.

When the energy level dipped noticeably during a similarly measured “Underneath Your Clothes,” Shakira rebounded quickly with “Gordita,” a cat-and-mouse duet with rapper Residente of Calle 13, who appeared via video and had his visage projected onto a giant, three-dimensional plastic head that hovered above the stage.

Much of Shakira’s performance centered on movement, and her near-constant gyrations combined belly dancing, flamenco and her own odd internal rhythms. During “Ojos Así,” her body motions echoed the ever-shifting instrumentation. As strings swooned, her movements were liquid—arms outstretched and torso undulating like gentle waves. When the percussion kicked in, her hips jerked violently, matching the tumbling beat lock-step. Elsewhere, the ever-grinning pop star shimmied with a pair of backup dancers and, when none were to be found on “Si Te Vas,” twirled gracefully with her microphone stand as though it were an eligible bachelor.

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At different points in Tuesday’s generous 1 hour and 45 minute show, there were flashes of time-tested American pop, infectious cumbia rhythms, rock and hip-hop.

“I just want to please you,” the singer cooed seductively in the show’s opening moments.

With all those flavors on the plate, how could she miss?

Although the preferred temperature for the evening was caliente, Shakira opened the night with an almost reverential tone. Dressed in a flowing pink gown and matching shawl, she emerged in the midst of the audience and marched in a slow processional to the stage, posing for pictures as she sang the haunting “Pienso En Ti.”

Immediately, though, things shifted into high gear, with the singer giving the arena rock treatment to signature songs such as “Si Te Vas” (If You Go). In the opening moments, the onslaught was too much as the band’s blaring guitars and drums unnecessarily obscured her voice.

Fortunately, by the time Shakira and the 8-piece ensemble moved into “Whenever, Wherever,” the balance had been restored. It also was the first time all night that the music found the captivating beat that separates Shakira from so many other pop stars.

She diminishes her distinctive power when she turns the volume too high. One of the best musical moments of the night was a stripped down acoustic interlude that opened with the group’s subdued take on Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters.” Powered by a booming drum and gentle strumming of a charango, the ballad segued into an expressive dance routine.

Then, in a stroke of masterful timing, Shakira lifted the mood with a lilting “Gypsy,” carried along by accordion, fiddles and the rhythm section.

By comparison, unimaginative power ballads such as “Underneath Your Clothes” are a waste of her energy. The plodding hip-hop beat of “Gordita” was slightly better, thanks to the visual distraction of the giant face on the video screen doing the rapping.

Wisely, Shakira closed the show with a fiery stretch built for dancing that finished with the twin punch of “Hips Don’t Lie” and “Waka Waka,” the anthem made famous this past summer at the World Cup.

In the end, Shakira’s hips weren’t the only thing shaking: the arena was, too.

In Shakira’s hometown of Barranquilla, Colombia, there’s a 15-foot metal statue of her, wearing bell bottoms and strumming a guitar. It was donated by a German sculptor in 2006, in the midst of the singer’s wildly successful Oral Fixation world tour, which featured her jaw-dropping belly-dancing and a finale of “Hips Don’t Lie” with Wyclef Jean.

Shakira occasionally strummed a glittery guitar during the show, but by the time the statue was put up, she was far from the acoustic pop-rocker she’d been on her 1996 breakthrough album, “Pies Descalzos.” And if the statue already was playing catch-up with her image in 2006, it barely captures her now.

Shakira’s third English album, “She Wolf,” reveals what may be her most club-oriented music to date: electronic pop with strong basslines and prominent world music textures, combined with a dose of in-your-face sex appeal.

“I felt very curious and intrigued about the electro-pop world and everything it has to offer,” Shakira told Billboard by phone from her home in the Bahamas. “I wanted to make sure that this album was very bassy and that the kicks hit really hard, and I wanted to concentrate on the beat. But my music, to a certain extent, is very complex — because I always try to experiment with sounds from other parts of the world.”

Shakira produced and wrote the album, teaming with Pharrell Williams on production; other collaborators include Jean; John Hill, who’s worked with Santigold; the Bravery’s Sam Endicott; and Academy Award winner Jorge Drexler. Keyboardist Albert Menendez also co-wrote a song.

It’s one thing to cross over into the non-Latin market, as Shakira did nearly a decade ago. But it’s quite another to maintain that crossover, particularly to the degree that Shakira has. She’ll follow up her simultaneous worldwide release with a tour promoted by Live Nation, with whom she has a multirights deal (although Epic is releasing the album) that’s intended to build her business as a whole.

“For an artist in this day and age, and for an artist who is still early in their career, the challenge is: How do you conquer the world in a new way?” manager Ceci Kurzman asks. “How do you make sure that, now that the barriers have been dropped because of electronic media, how do you make sure that more people than ever can hear your music? There was a time you measured your success by the number of albums sold. And now you have such a broader scope.”

WORLD RECORDS

Shakira’s march to mainstream pop diva-dom began with “Laundry Service,” her 2001 English-language album, which has sold more than 3.7 million U.S. copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. “La Tortura,” the first single from her 2005 album “Fijacion Oral, Vol. 1,” became the first Spanish-language video to air on MTV without an English-language version.

Shakira cemented her crossover with “Hips Don’t Lie,” a belated addition to her English-language “Oral Fixation, Vol. 2″ album that went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and in at least 10 other countries tracked by Nielsen Music Control. Shakira has sold 50 million albums worldwide, according to her label.

“What tends to happen with Latin stars is that they tend to have one big English-language record or two and then they revert back to making Spanish records,” says Rob Stringer, chairman of Columbia/Epic Label Group. “She does a very good job of managing to synergize those two careers. Shakira is competing against iconic female artists and completely standing on her own, but she also has a career in Spanish as well, so she’s completely unique in that respect.”

In both the Latin and the mainstream worlds, Shakira is been known for clever lyrics and inventive musical fusions — from tango to bossa nova to Andean flutes to reggaeton. As she did on “Ojos Asi,” a Middle Eastern romp with electric guitars from her 1998 album “Donde Estan Los Ladrones?,” Shakira looks east once again on “She Wolf.”

In addition to the disco-influenced title track, there’s “Good Stuff,” a synthed-out snake-charmer punctuated by ululating and staccato beats; “Long Time,” a percussive midtempo groove with a Roma-like clarinet bridge; and “Why Wait,” a dance-floor scorcher by way of Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir.” (Shakira worked on the arrangement with Hossam Ramzy, who had worked on “Kashmir” with Jimmy Page and Robert Plant.)

“It’s an electronic album generally speaking, but it does have different organic instruments that, combined with the synthesizers, create a different sort of ambience,” says the two-time Grammy and seven-time Latin Grammy Award winner. “You’ve got to put together a nice meal and make sure the spices don’t take over the main ingredient. And at the end of the day, it gives a nice flavor in your mouth.”

‘CRAVING FANTASY’

Even with vampires and werewolves being all the rage these days, Shakira says she hadn’t heard of “Twilight” until she showed “She Wolf” to Epic president Amanda Ghost — who in turn made her watch “Twilight.” “I loved it, but I also found that it was, coincidentally, very appropriate,” the “Harry Potter” fan says. “I think people are craving fantasy.”

Shakira delivers that and then some in the “She Wolf” video, which also has a version in Spanish. In both videos, she writhes around in a cage, wearing a flesh-colored leotard and stilettos. Belly-dancing aside, this is a more unabashedly sexed-up presentation. (It also was YouTube users’ third-most-favorite music video in August.)

Shakira says the “she wolf” represents her being “a little more in touch with my desires and a little more empowered or encouraged to satisfy those desires and set them free. It’s something that just comes with time. I probably would not have written a song like this when I was 20, but I do it now because it’s the way I feel today.”

A renowned perfectionist, Shakira spent a month trying different mixes of the first single until she was happy with it. When she spoke to Billboard, she was still tweaking mixes on the album at the legendary Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas. The studio, where Bob Marley, U2 and the Cure have recorded, drew Shakira to the Bahamas to record and eventually to live.

It was that obsession with production details that made her and Williams a good match. “We work in different ways — he is very fast and very proactive,” Shakira says. “When it comes to production, I think things through a little more and travel different roads before I make a decision or commit to something. I have commitment issues.”

GOOD WORKS

One thing she has no trouble committing to is activism on behalf of children living in poverty. Though she’s not a protest singer, Shakira hasn’t refrained from social commentary in her songs. And her efforts to improve the education and health of Latin America’s poorest children have practically made her a nongovernmental organization unto herself.

In November, she’ll help present a regional early-childhood education proposal to heads of state at the Ibero-American summit in Portugal. “We have high expectations to get something really concrete for the kids,” she says.

The Pies Descalzos (Barefoot) Foundation, which Shakira founded in Colombia when she was 18, opened its fifth school in February (using proceeds from her touring) to serve the country’s most impoverished children.

Last year, ALAS — Fundacion America Latina en Accion Solidaria, the advocacy group founded by Shakira and other Latin artists in 2006 to get governments and private donors to commit to early-childhood development programs on the continent — held massive televised concerts with performances from two dozen top Latin acts to rally public support for the cause. Shortly before the concerts, ALAS secured a $200 million commitment from Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim Helu and philanthropist Howard Buffett.

Will her international efforts on behalf of early childhood development programs be reflected musically on “She Wolf?”

“My biggest motivation was to make an album that people could just have fun with and forget about their troubles,” she says. “I think I’ve found other outlets that have been very proactive. And I guess when that happens, the music just becomes music, and now I can use it for the purpose it’s created for — to amuse and entertain people and also express other feelings, but things that are more personal. I’m letting music guide me.”