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Last week, Fox 411’s Roger Friedman hinted that his pals at Live Nation were on the verge of signing hip-wiggling singer Shakira to one of their all-inclusive, big-money 360 deals, despite Michael Cohl, the executive who was pushing for those deals, leaving the company after a dispute over their benefits for the bottom line. Today, Friedman’s corporate bedfellows at the New York Post back up his claim, saying that Shakira and the megapromoter are in the process of wrapping up a $70 million pact that encompasses recording, touring, and merchandise, and that will, the company apparently hopes, make Shakira Live Nation’s official Latin artist representative.
But sources said Live Nation isn’t banking on Shakira’s album sales or even domestic touring to make the deal work.
Aside from US cities with large Hispanic populations, sources said, Shakira lacks the built-in fan base that Madonna and Jay-Z enjoy in the US.
Rather, sources said Live Nation views Shakira as a top-level international touring draw, particularly in Latin America, where she routinely sells out stadiums.
As one source put it: “Shakira’s numbers outside the US are crazy stupid [meaning great].”
These sources said Live Nation expects Shakira to continue growing her international audience and is banking on her to be their Latin music pillar, much like Madonna is for pop and Jay-Z is for hip-hop.
“Live Nation is trying to establish itself in a big way in each genre no matter what the loss leader is going to be on it,” said one major label executive.
In another twist, Shakira also owes her current label, Epic, two albums, which means that her first Live Nation-produced record won’t come out until early 2010 at the earliest. Well, by then maybe they’ll have a plan for producing and distributing their charges’ albums, right?
SIZZLING ASSETS [NYP]
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That guitar is limiting her ability to fully shake and rotate her hips.
Also, that chorus sounds a whole lot like “Like A Prayer.”
@Kate Richardson: @GhostOfDuane:
Thanks for that, Kate.
I actually knew who Shakira was and was a fan all the way back then, in 1995. This song and its album were roughly contemporaneous with Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill, so it was very common for critics and people like me to try to describe Shakira to non-fans as “sort of like a Latina Alanis Morissette”.
Note how much the video evokes the imagery of the video for “You Oughta Know”. Even the record company was playing up the AM comparisons.
Oh, how odd that all seems now.
While $70M is nothing to sneeze @, it certainly is nothing like the wasteful 360 deals with Madonna and Hova. I know she is not on the same scale as those two, it should be exemplary of things to come. In my humble opinion, investors will continue to be wary of LYV until officials take long term global economic issues into consideration when inking these deals.
I’m sorry, no one is as amused by this line as me?
“As one source put it: “Shakira’s numbers outside the US are crazy stupid [meaning great].”
Was Ray from Achewood their source?
@DavidWatts: I’d already typed out and
abandoned a “Was Friedman’s source Rev. Run? ‘Not crazy stupid meaning
bad but crazy stupid meaning great.’”
@Rob Murphy: “Estoy Aqui” is completely superior to anything Alanis ever put out. But I agree with the video similarities.