Music / Pies descalzos

"Finally, Latin Rock has found its muse."

—Billboard

Pies Descalzos is the 1995 first official, though technically third^note The first two were massive commercial failures and good luck finding them, music album by Shakira. The English translation of the name is "Bare Feet".

The album was made on a budget of $100,000 because the producers expected it to not do so well. They were wrong. It very quickly became one of Colombia's best-selling albums and by the end of the year it was one of the most popular pop/rock albums in Latin America, and doing pretty well in the Latin music scene in North America, too. Several singles were released from the album, and they were all (that had been out by that point) featured on the 1995 Latin American version of "NOW That's What I Call Music!" ("Boom"). Given that Shakira herself was billed pretty high on those CD covers, she had almost overnight become a household name.

No, seriously. It was certified Diamond Prism in Colombia, Shakira's home country, but also hit #3 on the Billboard Latin charts and was certified platinum in the US. And twice platinum in Argentina. It was the 71st most popular album in Germany in 1996. By the end of 1996, Shakira was among the 10 top-selling Latin artists worldwide. The album was, somehow, a commercial success. Despite not having much money beside it, this could be chalked up to actually being really good.

The immediate success seen allowed a 1996-97 album tour to happen, where basically every country the album was released in was visited. Despite Shakira being a teenager at the time, pretty much all of the songs are about different kinds of romantic relationships (not "Pies Descalzos", though, funnily enough). Those six singles released were also all successes in the US, and many of them got music videos. They are "Estoy Aquí", which was seen as the stand-out of the album and was an even bigger success than the album, "¿Dónde Estás Corazón?", which had been included on the Nuestro Rock compilation album and successful enough that it was chosen as a second single for Shakira, "Pies Descalzos, Sueños Blancos", theoretically the title track but the third single and which didn't do as well as the first two (which hit #1 and #3 on US Latin Billboard, PDSB only reaching #11) possibly because of its more balladic style and cultural subject matter, "Un Poco de Amor", which also reached #11 and was critically applauded for its reggae style, "Antología", which is largely forgotten despite being #3, and "Se Quiere, Se Mata", which shot back to #1 and retained fame in Spanish countries.

Shakira's philanthropic foundation shares its name with this album (Fundación Pies Descalzos). In 2002, it was re-released as a Shakira Gold Album (shortly after, there was also a Shakira Greatest Hits Album that included songs from ¿Dónde están los ladrones? as well). Often, the song "Pies Descalzos, Sueños Blancos" will be referred to as simply "Pies Descalzos", both because the album is named for it and because it's really long.

Track Listing:

1. "Estoy Aquí"
2. "Antología"
3. "Un Poco de Amor"
4. "Quiero"
5. "Te Necesito"
6. "Vuelve"
7. "Te Espero Sentada"
8. "Pies descalzos, sueños blancos"
9. "Pienso en Ti"
10. "¿Dónde Estás Corazón?"
11. "Se Quiere, Se Mata"

* English translations of titles: 1. "I'm Here" 2. "Anthology" 3. "A Little Bit of Love" 4. "I Want" 5. "I Need You" 6. "Return" 7. "I'll Wait For You, Sitting" 8. "Bare Feet, White Dreams" 9. "I Think of You" 10. "Where are you, my love?" 11. "What is Wanted/Loved, is Killed"

Tropes:

• All Women Love Shoes: Inverted Trope, as Shakira is the poster girl for bare feet. Moreover, the song "Pies Descalzos, Sueños Blancos" pretty much outright states that women are/should be a race of barefooted people.
• Barefoot Sage: One interpretation of women as a group that "Pies Descalzos, Sueños Blancos" applies.
• Break-Up Song: "Estoy Aquí"
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Is... that... rock?!
• Earthy Barefoot Character: In the music video for "Pies Descalzos, Sueños Blancos", it's also one of the interpretations of women that the song applies.
• Forbidden Fruit: Referenced in "Pies Descalzos, Sueños Blancos": tú mordiste la manzana y renunciaste al paraíso y condenaste a un serpiente siendo tú el que así lo quiso (in English: you bit the apple and renounced paradise, condemning a snake even though you wanted it). Imagery used to empower women, and also positively call them out for not being weak, though - due to the use of male pronouns - it might alternatively be Shakira calling out men for being responsible for the world and humanity's evils instead of only Eve taking the blame. In the music video, a female representation of gluttony is shown pulling apples off a tree and gorging on them.
• "I Want" Song:
  • “Quiero”. Obviously.
• It Makes Sense in Context: You not only need to understand the lyrics to "Pies Descalzos, Sueños Blancos", but be able to interpret them, to not think the music video is just plain weird.
• Law of Inverse Fertility: "Se Quiere, Se Mata" is mostly about this.
• Lyrical Dissonance: "Se Quiere, Se Mata" is about broken relationships, young dreams dying, and abortion. Really.
• Motor Mouth: Both the Title Track and "Estoy Aquí", which has been noted as hard to sing along:

  Estoy aquí,] quieréndote, ahogándome, entastanalalalala...

  • That next line? "Un pie por la cara mía esta noche por el día, y qué?" (yes, in the same amount of time — it's 2.2 seconds, 20 syllables)!
• Obsession Song: If you listen really carefully to the lyrics and block that lovely accent you'll hear that what she's singing can fall into either and in some cases both of the categories.

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