Shakira live for you in Mumbai on March 25, 2007

Colombia’s hip-swinging pop passion Shakira is performing in Mumbai, India, on March 25, 2007.

BY A CORRESPONDENT

March 24, 2007: The mega-event – named ‘Nokia Shakira Live Concert’ – will take place at the MMRDA grounds in Bandra-Kurla Complex.

As the Shakira fans are getting ready to dance to her bewitching beats, Grand Hyatt, the hotel where she will be staying while in Mumbai, is set to cash in on her huge love of chocolate.

Grand Hyatt’s executive chef Andreas Krampl is all agog. Says he: “We’ll be preparing a three-kg chocolate decoration, which will include pictures from her popular albums like Laundry Service and Oral Fixation.

This will be the first time the Colombian pop sensation is performing in India.

A source close to Shakira has been reported as saying: “You can’t imagine how much she is looking forward to going to India. With all the love and affection she has received from her Indian fans already, she’s making sure that in the future they can get copies of her latest songs and CDs as soon as they are released.”

Shakira’s stopover in India is part of her Oral Fixation tour.

She famously said once: “I have always lived through my mouth. It is my biggest source of pleasure and my most accessible vehicle to discover and enjoy the world. I am fixated on chocolate, I am fixated on the spoken word, the written word, the things I have said and the things I should never have said. This is the reason why I decided to name the album Oral Fixation.”

In Mumbai, the Shakira fans will be treated to almost all her hits, including Hips Don't Lie, Don't Bother and Illegal from her Oral Fixation album, Whenever Wherever, Underneath your clothes and Objection Tango.

Shakira’s singing would be accompanied by her sumptuous belly-dancing. (It is said that Shakira took up belly-dancing when she was a child to overcome her shyness!)

Now, the Shakira fans can splurge on her scintillating belly-dancing minus her shyness.

Most of her fans and reviewers have raved on her inimitable, sensuous hip-swiveling and chest-shaking.

However, Shakira clarifies: “People think I like to expose my body. But I don’t. It’s just because the dance moves require it. My brain, I believe, is the most beautiful part of my body.”

One reviewer summed up her performance thus: “There’s only a handful of shows I have been where you walk away physically exhausted. But a Shakira concert is so intense, so continuously engaging, it almost drains you. Even if you didn’t yell and jump and applaud, you get swept up by the collective energy.”