On Wednesday (December 27), Shakira announced a six-month postponement of her El Dorado World Tour due to vocal chord damage. "To my dear fans and friends, I wanted to write one more letter to express my gratitude to all of you for the immeasurable love and support that you have sent me these past few weeks," Shakira wrote on Instagram. She continued: "You have made me feel that my voice is not only mine but also yours, and that it has a purpose. There were times when your prayers and messages of affection and encouragement along with those of my family were the only thing buoying my spirits. Though I very much hoped to be able to recover my vocal cords in time to pick the tour back up in January, and after exploring many options to that effect, I have accepted that this is an injury that simply needs more time and care to heal. I feel for all of you who planned ahead to come to these shows and who have been so patient as I took the time needed to figure out the best course of action with my doctors." Thankfully, the artist's tour will resume in June 2018: "I am so relieved and happy to share with you that I will be getting back on the road in June 2018 with my El Dorado World Tour in Europe, and the US, with Latin America dates to be announced soon," she wrote.
"I am very proud of this show; I feel it’s my best yet, since it has a repertoire filled with heartfelt songs and exciting moments of music and dance," Shakira gushed. "I really can’t wait for June! I promise to give you all of me and more from the minute I get on that stage and I am counting the days till [sic] showtime!” In November, Shakira revealed that she suffered a hemorrhage on her right vocal chord. Her tour was supposed to relaunch on January 9 in Orlando, Florida.
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Brazil’s Anitta has gone back to her baile funk roots with the song “Vai Malandra” and a video shot in Rio de Janeiro’s Vidigal favela. The clip follows her Latin chart hit “Downtown” with J Balvin (currently at No. 28 on Hot Latin Songs), and her first English-language single with Poo Bear and “Is That For Me” with Swedish dance producer Alesso. The video, which has notched nearly 37 million YouTube views since its debut Monday (Dec. 18), sparked commentary in Brazil over everything from Anitta’s flaunting favela fashion in a bikini made from insulation tape, to the racial authenticity of the singer’s braids, to whether the video exploits or celebrates women. Rio’s Secretary of Health even Tweeted a warning (in the form of a rhyme) of the danger that the video, with scenes on a rooftop covered with stagnant water, is promoting a message that could lead to the spread of mosquito-carrying diseases. An immediate conversation starter was the fact that the video was directed by Terry Richardson, the fashion photographer recently banned by Vogue, Elle and other magazines in the wake of sexual assault allegations. “…When we are experiencing such an important moment in which women are raising their voices against sexist abuse, harassment and violence in the cultural industry … the least we should do is guarantee the ostracizing of the abusers,” cultural anthropologist Juliana Borges wrote in an article about the video in the on-line edition of Brazil’s Claudia magazine, referring to the choice of Richardson as director. The video was shot in August, before major media companies dropped Richardson (although allegations about the photographer’s behavior with models had come to light over the past decade.) In a statement to the press, Anitta said that she had consulted with lawyers after learning about the charges. A close up of Anitta’s butt jiggling in red shorts sets the esthetic tone for the clip for “Vai Malandra,” which translates as “Go Bad Girl” (Brazilian media have noted that the Anitta forbade the editing out of her cellulite). The video features a roof party full of tanga-clad women, as well as some equally bared and oiled male models and local non-actors with peroxide crew cuts. “The exaggerated sexualization [in the video] puts Anitta up several notches on the vulgarity scale of Nicki Minaj,” wrote one critic in the national newspaper O Globo, who allowed that while lyrics of the song like “playing with the bum-bum” were fun, they didn’t jibe with Anitta’s image as “a feminist icon.” But in a deep analysis of the video on the website cartacapital.com, the writer Victoria Damasceno countered that “Anitta also sexualizes the male body... subversively, the singer uses female stereotypes placed as negatives to revindicate the power over the body itself.” In a column posted by the Brazilian edition of the magazine Marie Claire, writer Stephanie Ribeiro “reflected on the accusations of cultural appropriation” that have stirred social media since the video’s release. She accuses Anitta, who was born into an interracial family and grew up in the inner city, of “using blackness when it is convenient.” The critic calls Anitta’s appearance with long brunette braids and tanned skin in the video evidence that she is “fantasizing” about being black. “I feel bad when I see how our black esthetic continues to be a “fantasy,” writes Ribeiro. But for Borges, writing in Claudia, Anitta’s video presents favelas and marginal neighborhoods in a credible way and gives voice and power to the women represented. The singer, it seems, would agree. “I was able to have the opportunity to show what my origins were in this clip,” she told O Globo in an interview. “A little bit of what I experienced where I lived. Sunning on the roof, baile funk, moto-taxis and joy. The clip is uplifting, happy, full of life. Funk is part of who I am. I am really happy with the result [of the video] and the music.” |
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