I want to write songs like Shakira!

There's nothing scarier than standing in front of a white canvas and not knowing where you're going next.
--Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll

In this Pepsi Music exclusive interview with Shakira on Yahoo, Shakira speaks about her most recent album, She Wolf, which was released on October 9, 2009. She says, "I wanted She-Wolf to be an album different from everything I've done before...."

I remember being a young adolescent buying Shakira CDs in Puerto Rico and falling in love with her the moment I listened to her songs; that was when her albums were in Spanish and could only be found in one section of Union Square's now defunct Virgin store. But it seems that Shakira refuses to be boxed into any one genre. Latin? Latin Pop? Dance? Electronic?

"It [She-Wolf]," Shakira says, "still keeps the fusion of different elements and influences from India, the Middle East, or even my own country, Colombia, or... Jamaica... but everything within this electronic context." As much as I long to see Shakira with dark hair and red highlights and tiny braids again, I appreciate her evolution as an artist. From Pies Descalzos (1995) to Laundry Service (2001) to She-Wolf (2009), Shakira consistently searches for new ways to express herself. And I am surely enthralled by the fierceness of her lyrics and the synthesis of diverse sounds in her songs.

It's only been two months since the release of She Wolf, but I can't help but wonder what artistic masterpiece Shakira will produce next. "I'm like Haley's Comet," she says. "You know, I make an appearance every 4 years, and... that's because I spend a huge amount of time in the recording studio working on the arrangements... and tailoring each song to my needs, to my vision.... It's like craftsmanship." I'll be waiting... for however long it takes.