Shakira gets animalistic with new music

NEW YORK — Judging from the way she moves, you wouldn’t think Shakira is inhibited at all.

But the hip-swiveling bilingual singer says she’s just now starting to get in touch with her desires as a woman, and that’s reflected in her new animalistic song, “She Wolf.”

“I think ‘She Wolf’ has a lot to do with the moment in which I feel I am. I feel much freer now as a woman, a little more in touch with my own desires, and I tend to listen to myself a little more. ‘What does Shakira want?’” she said in an interview this week. “Not what everybody else wants, but what do I really want? And I think that the song deep inside is about that.”

The Colombian singer, known for smash hits like “Hips Don’t Lie” and “Whenever, Wherever,” recently released her new single, which is also the title of her upcoming album, due out in October.

The music video for the new tune finds the Colombian-born singer dancing in a cage and howling and panting like — just as the song says — a wolf.

Shakira says “She Wolf” is an alter ego for her.

(It’s) like a more animalistic side of you, a more primitive side … an animal person in a way. So when you understand these things you forgive yourself every time you screw up, you say, ‘It wasn’t me, that was the she wolf … that was the animal in me, that wasn’t me, I have nothing to do with that,’” she laughed.

The multiplantium entertainer linked up with a number of producers for the new album — including Pharrell, Wyclef Jean and John Hill, who produced the first single. She says she’s hoping it sounds “2010″ and that it will “be hitting real hard on the bottom.”

“I felt I had to check out what was going on today and try to come up with something that could sound maybe 2010,” she said.

“The album is very electronic, very upbeat, very uptempo, clubby. I decided to use many synthesizers in every song, but there are also elements and influences from other parts of the world — African, Indian, Middle Eastern, even Colombian influences all mixed in,” she said.

“She Wolf” is Shakira’s first full-length English CD since 2005’s “Oral Fixation Vol. 2.” She says she will release a Spanish CD the year after.

The 32-year-old says her newfound freedom has her exploring new things outside of music — like motherhood.

“I really want to reproduce, I am so ready. I really would like to have a big belly, to walk around with my big belly,” she said while laughing.

But don’t expect to Shakira to bring any pups into the world just yet.

“I can’t bring a little wolf right now to the world in the middle of so many projects. Maybe next year after the tour, who knows?” she said while crossing her fingers.

On the Net:

www.shakira.com