Embedding disabled on this video - Shakira performing Ojos Así on MTV Unplugged
Note: Translations based on my understanding of Spanish. The Modern Standard Arabic translation is from a graduate student at UNC, confirmed by the translations on the internet. Of particular note, I think, is the gender of the Arabic translation-- there are some translations that say "in *his* eyes", but the gendered pronoun ending in Arabic is clearly saying "in *her* eyes."
MTV Unplugged is often set up as a somewhat intimate venue with a small audience; the tv audience is invited to feel as though they have an opportunity to spend some time with their favorite artists. I have in mind iconic performances of Nirvana and Lauryn Hill-- somehow semi-last performances with tons of emotions stick in my mind the most. While those artists seemed stripped down to their bare emotion, Shakira seems-- not precisely subdued, but certainly a bit more contemplative. She is typically a woman who somehow exudes strength -- particularly physical prowess, but for some reason she conveys a certain level of competence and poise in her public appearances. Her IQ is rumored to be high (140, so state the media rumors), and while I don't place much importance on questionably structured standardized tests, she conveys a level of depth in her performance I think is rare for an artist that produces such wildly popular music.
Ojos Así is an extraordinarily poetic song that Shakira has remixed in several different versions. While there is a certain level of poetry in wildly popular music, I do think layers of meaning are rarer in a music culture that has gradually fought to redefine "obscenity" and socially acceptable directness, sometimes resulting in cruder constructions of human emotion and relationships. Sweet bubblegummy ballads sometimes lack a level of subtlety, but this song starts off with a metaphor:
"Ayer conocí un cielo sin sol / y un hombre sin suelo -- Yesterday I met a sky without sun / and a man without shame " -- That second line, "and a man without shame", could literally be translated as "a man without a floor," to contrast with the sky-- "el cielo"-- which could also be translated as a ceiling. The double entendres continue throughout the song, which intermixes Spanish with a short Arabic bit in the middle, presumably sung by the man whose eyes she has fallen in love with: "Lord of the sky, I'm calling you / In her eyes I see my life / I come to you from this universe / Oh God, please answer my call." The Arabic, while sometimes misunderstood in some fan circles as Lebanese colloquial / aamiyah, is actually Modern Standard Arabic / fusHa, a form that is often almost poetic by default.
In other live performances of this song, Shakira is much more flashy-- on her Fijacion Oral tour in 2007-2008, she performed in front of huge crowds. She prefaced this song with a "veil dance" to the song Enta Omri by the famed Arab singer Umm Kulthum. However, in accordance to this more intimate setting, she is far more laid back in this performance. She is performing an entire set in the same casual chic outfit (leather pants, boots, and a long-sleeved t-shirt), rather than multiple flashy costume changes befitting a worldwide tour. Accordingly, her dance moves are less flashy. Her bellydancing skills are no less impressive, but her repertoire of "crowd-pleasing" moves is not used in this performance. While I am no expert on belly dancing, I have enough of a familiarity with it to understand some degree of the technical skill required for some of her moves in this MTV Unplugged video, and am more impressed by some of her dancing than I am by her veil performance. Props and flashy clothing can often make up for lack of technical skill, though this is of course by no means true in Shakira's case as she lives up to her fame as an excellent dancer. In general, however, her moves remind me less of a highly choreographed set and more of friends hanging out at a party and dancing.
The tempo is even slowed down a bit for this version. Shakira seems not to have choreographed her opening dance moves, she seems to just flow with the music, as if she is hanging out with her friends. Her intensity as she focuses her vibratto on the lyrics seems more filled with emotion than when she is performing this song to bigger crowds, or even in the scripted music video. While it is not her flashiest, stagiest performance, I really appreciate the emotional resonance of this version, and I can feel the story and poetry of her infatuation / love / longing for this man, a man that seems to represent something so much larger that he somehow has a background chorus substituting for his voice (the background Arabic bit at 1:46).
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