Shakira has decided to take a walk on the country side, and has recruited fellow The Voice coach Blake Shelton to help her.
Shelton was approached by Shakira when she decided she wanted to shake it up a little bit and try something new on her latest album. Of course, Shelton agreed and together they belted out a duet titled Medicine, which is a perfect mixture of country and pop.
“I told him I wanted to work with Nashville people,” Shakira told Billboard. “I was a little tired of L.A. I wanted people with another point of view, real people with roots with whom I feel comfortable working in the same room. And I told Blake I wanted to do a song that had the narrative of a country song, that was picturesque, that was a real song. But it also needed to suit me, because after all, I’m Colombian.”
Shakira first told Blake that she wanted to write a song with traditional roots and acoustic guitars. Blake was originally skeptical about whether or not she would do it. However, he received a call from Shakira a month later saying that the song was ready, and that she had sent him a copy to review. “I think she did a hell of a job,” Shelton said.
“One thing is for someone like her to say she’s going to do something and another is to do it. And I’ll be damned, a month and a half ago she wrote me and said, ‘I wrote the song, and I want you to tell me what you think.’ And I said: ‘Gosh dang, you did exactly what you said you’d do. It sounds like a hit song.'”
Shakira admitted that she didn’t think Blake would like it. “I was so nervous. You have no idea. I was so scared he was going to say, ‘No, Shakira. I love you, but no,'” she explained. “But then he said, ‘Sister, I love you. This is great.'”
After seeing Blake’s reaction, she asked him to sing it with her. Blake agreed and said that he was honored to sing with her. Shakira’s album, which hit stores on March 25, was her first album to be released in four years.
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