For Shakira, album ‘ like a liberation’

Not long ago, Colombian songwriter and pop star Shakira didn’t know whether she would ever make another album.

“I was full of doubts, and I thought I was never going to make good music again,” she said.

Those doubts have faded as the 40-year-old releases “El Dorado.” The album — sung mostly in Spanish, Shakira’s original language, although she is now fluent in English — is named after the mythical golden city sought in the Americas by Spanish conquistadors.

“Finding inspiration itself, and realizing it hadbeen there all along — that was my El Dorado,” she said. “That was a perfect state of mind.”

Her inspiration returned, she said, when she decided that she didn’t have to make an album — just one song at a time. “It was like a liberation.” Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll became a superstar in Latin America in the 1990s and reached even more of the world with her 2001 album, “Laundry Service,” featuring songs in English. The album has sold more than 3 million copies in the United States alone.

Her globally sourced grooves, girlish smile and sinuous hips made her a music-video sensation.

She went on to sell tens of millions of albums; collaborate with Beyonce, Rihanna and Wyclef Jean (in the international hit “Hips Don’t Lie”); become a coach on “The Voice”; and record the World Cup anthem “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa),” which led to her meeting Spanish soccer player Gerard Pique, who is the father of her children.

Lately, though, she has focused on raising their two children, now 2 and 4.

Making her 2014 album, “Shakira” — which delved into rock and electronicdance music in a clear bid to court radio play — took a difficult two years, and sales proved disappointing.

The turning point came last year as Shakira revisited her Colombian roots. Carlos Vives, who has had hits throughout the Spanish-speaking world with songs based in Colombian traditions such as the accordion-driven vallenato, sent her demos for his next album. Shakira heard duet potential in a song, and the musician in her got to work.

“I said, ‘Yeah, I like it, but it’s missing something.’”

She came up with the song’s poppy refrain, “Llevame en tu bicicleta” (“Take me on your bicycle”), and the song became “La Bicicleta.”

With a video clip showing Shakira and Vives bicycling and dancing through their hometowns on the Caribbean coast, returning to childhood landmarks, the song became a hit throughout Latin America.

Having finished one song, she realized that she could work on another. As music migrates to streaming platforms, it grows easier to “share my music on a song-by-song basis,” she said. “As soon as a song was ready, I had a direct relationship with my fans, and I just put it out there.”

The album features a song that is already a megahit: “Chantaje” (“Blackmail”), a teasing duet with Colombian singer Maluma, a heartthrob of Latin pop.

Since its release last year, “Chantaje” has tallied more than 1.2 billion views on YouTube and 326 million plays on Spotify.

Throughout “El Dorado,” there’s a playfulness that “Shakira” was lacking.

“I saw myself as a mother with a family I had dreamed about since I was a child,” she said. “And then, when I realized the creator inside of me was also asking to be considered, my music became my escape. The studio became the place to let some steam off, away from everyday life as a mother — that became my hobby.

“And then it became a pleasure like all hobbies are,” Shakira continued. “So, now, music is my hobby. Oh, I never thought I would say that!”