Song Review – “Medicine” by Shakira feat. Blake Shelton
It was announced Monday that the song “Medicine” by Shakira featuring Blake Shelton will be performed by the cross genre duo at the 49th Annual ACM Awards on Sunday, April 6th. Aside from whatever ills the song itself might contain, the slotting of the performance on a major country awards show once again illustrates country music trying to use stars of other genres to promote itself, instead of showcasing the virtues of country and why the genre is worthy of attention on its own.
Having a performer from outside of the genre collaborate with a country artist is certainly not unprecedented for an awards show, or a radio single, or any general cause for alarm. What makes this case somewhat exceptional though is that this is Shakira’s song, appearing on Shakira’s album, especially when you consider there is so much noise leading up to the ACM Awards about a lack of space to showcase worthy country artists, including this reasoning being one of the justifications for the ACM’s breaking their rules and nominating Justin Moore for New Artist of the Year when he’s clearly ineligible. There’s also a lack of solo female representation in the ACM’s current performance plans and on country radio. Replacing a worthy female country voice with one from the pop world seems short-sighted.
Making matters worse, Shakira isn’t just releasing this song in her home genre of pop. It has entered the Country Airplay charts this week at #57. “Medicine” is Shakira’s “gone country” moment. All that said, “Medicine” as a song is not all that bad … for a pop song. In fact if you compared it with many of the top songs in country right now like Jerrod Niemann’s “I Can Drink To That All Night,” Brantley Gilbert’s “Bottom’s Up”, or Tim McGraw’s “Lookin’ For That Girl”, it is downright refreshing. Whether it’s a symptom of just how far down the pop/EDM/rap road country has traveled or any true merit “Medicine” actually contains, I’m finding it hard to get worked up about this song either way.
Pop country stars use it as rationale all the time to smooth over their commercial outreach into the pop world: they say that country has always had its pop leanings and sensibilities with artists like Patsy Cline and Eddy Arnold. And you know what, they’re right. What has changed now is that country has backslid so much, a pop song can sound like a dalliance with substance and roots compared to your average country radio offering, or even sound more country than your average country song. That is what you get with “Medicine”, along with the common phenomenon of when non country artists do country songs, they tend to gussy it up in things like fiddle and steel guitar to insulate it from easy criticism.
Lo and behold, a subtle, but present steel guitar starts off “Medicine”. Cliché, but classic lyricism about heartbreak create the structure of the song that does a serviceable job showcasing the vocal abilities of both Shakira and Shelton, which is really what this song is all about. I definitely could do without Blake’s “Po po po poppin’ the pills” part, but these are the little catchy elements that appeal to nubile pop ears, so they’re understandable in this context. Shakira has an interesting, unique cadence that draws the ear in, and the song is effective in widening the exposure of her talents. “Medicine” is a song about being unable to drown the misery of a broken heart, which despite being done many times in country and other genres, will always have a relevant and rather universal appeal.
With top male country music in such a downward spiral, while at the same time systematically dominating the top of the format, we may have to get used to the new reality that pop music may in fact hold more depth and more artistic merit than most mainstream country. This has been the case made by many Taylor Swift apologists for years, and can also be seen in the rise of pop artists like Adele and Lorde.
Is “Medicine” a good song? God no. Is it country? Not really, but there’s some country elements there. If it had remained in the pop format where it belongs, then there would be no reason to cry foul. But it didn’t. Nonetheless, there’s much bigger fish to fry than Shakira releasing a silly, one-off pop country song.
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1 Gun Up for decent lyricism, strong vocal performances, and unoffensive music for a pop song.
1 Gun Down for at its core being a wistful and quickly forgettable pop song calling itself country.
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April 1, 2014 @ 2:02 pm
please don’t ever ever make me listen to that again
April 2, 2014 @ 7:47 pm
I don’t think anyone but you clicked the play button..
April 1, 2014 @ 2:10 pm
I’ve yet to hear the song but I seriously doubt it’ll be his next single unless HIS label promotes it, which they won’t. Instead, it’ll be an ACM performance, it’ll scrape around the Top 60 for a while and disappear.
April 1, 2014 @ 2:34 pm
I’ll say the same damn thing I said when I reviewed Shakira’s album (here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgIRHQTVk9Q), if you’re interested) – it’s a pop-country song made because both she and Blake Shelton are on The Voice together, and it’s not a good one. The writing is clumsy, the melodies are bland, the lyrical message is muddled, and Shakira is capable of so much better.
But then again, I’d say the same thing about most of the rest of Shakira’s self-titled album. Gah.
April 1, 2014 @ 2:39 pm
WTF? It just keeps getting worse, one shitty song at a time.
April 1, 2014 @ 3:07 pm
I think it’s a decent song. If it came on the radio I wouldn’t change the station. I actually would really like for this to become a hit so there will be one more female voice in the Top 10.
The song isn’t great by any means, but as far as lightweight country pop goes, it’s solid. It reminds me of something Thompson Square could do and I like how Shakira’s voice sounds on it.
I should also mention I’m a huge Shakira fan, and as a fan, I know she’s capable of so much more than this (and her latest album as a whole). But if she was going to do country, she would at least try to do it well.
It’s just sad that when a pop artist makes a casual attempt at recording a country song it turns out better and sounds country-er than most of what’s on country radio. Not because the song is great, because country radio is desperate.
April 1, 2014 @ 3:21 pm
Not my kind of tune, but it is a very catchy tune with a nice melody.
They are both very good singers;
I like her more, though, she has a distinct sound, light, but not weak, no shouting, lots of range, and a very sweet vibrato.
They will do this on the voice, and it will sound just as good as that, without any auto tune, or lip-syncing.
Thanks, that was interesting.
April 1, 2014 @ 3:30 pm
I do like Blake and Shakira’s voices and I’d be lying if I said this song wasn’t catchy. Does that make it a good song? No. Is it a bad song? No. It’s somewhere in the middle. I’d rather listen to this than hear Florida Georgia Line mention another shimmy sugar shaking lip glossy moonshine kiss.
April 1, 2014 @ 4:43 pm
Listened halfway and then turned it off. I don’t mind pop music but I’d turn that one off no matter which station it came on. Guess I’ll take an “in-show” commercial break when they sing it on the ACM’s. Actually, I’m only interested in probably ten minutes of the awards show so there will be a lot of me going elsewhere while I wait for something decent to come on .
April 1, 2014 @ 4:51 pm
This is not quite as good as Shakira’s collaboration with Danzig. Youtube it.
April 2, 2014 @ 11:33 am
This is not as good as ANY of her prior collaborations, with the exception of Lil Wayne! 😉
April 1, 2014 @ 5:04 pm
Cue up the argument that country music has to do this kind of thing to “stay relevant”. As Inigo Montoya would say, “You keep using that word. I don’t think it means what you think it means.” I don’t think chasing after passing fads makes a genre relevant. It’s one thing to incorporate elements of another genre into country music; creating bland imitations of other genres is just feeble.
April 1, 2014 @ 6:45 pm
Yeah, God forbid country radio, awards, and the CMA fest main stage give more (or any) attention to our far better, critically acclaimed and more deserving female country artists than new male acts, pop stars and actors sending their first singles to country radio. Maybe Shakira is a great pop artist and if she and Blake weren’t on the same TV show this collaboration never would’ve happened. Every song on Ashley Monroe, Kellie Pickler, Kacey Musgraves, Brandy Clark’s and more country solo female albums blows this away! Blake and all men, if you want to cut more great duets call more of these talented country women! The pop and bros collaboration club is getting old.
April 1, 2014 @ 7:34 pm
In fairness, Blake Shelton did cut a song for Ashley Monroe’s last album, but I get your point.
April 1, 2014 @ 8:32 pm
Yeah and Miranda and that’s why I wrote “more.” I’d love to see the men cut more duets with great country female artists because it sounds a lot better than pop and rapping.
April 1, 2014 @ 6:49 pm
It’s funny, because I actually feel the same way about Dan + Shay. They should definitely not be on Country radio, but as a pop duo. they’re actually not half bad, at least IMHO. They kind of remind me of a 90s duo, Savage Garden who I really liked a lot growing up.
Same with this song…as a pop song, it’s pretty decent, but it doesn’t belong on Country radio.
April 1, 2014 @ 7:37 pm
I don’t know Shakira’s whole back story, but my guess is she had to work to get where she is. My beef with Dan + Shay as I have never seen a more obvious anointing in the history of country music by a big label wanting to make their Florida Georgia Line. They may be fine dudes, and I wouldn’t call their music offensive, but man, they went from not even releasing an album to Vocal Duo of the Year nominees.
April 2, 2014 @ 11:46 am
You’re correct.
Katherine Kruhn in particular wrote a great biography on her earlier life. Shakira worked tremendously hard to get where she is today. She wrote her first lyrics at age eight, balanced writing her first songs (her first song was a dedication to her father and her perceptions of him hiding heartache behind his dark sunglasses titled “Tus Gafas Oscuras”) with modelling school and writing choreography.
When she was eight, her family’s jewelry store went bankrupt and, after living in comparably comfortable domestic situations prior to then, her parents connected her more with the destitute in the community and Shakira has said it was instilling this perspective in her that has made her all the more grateful for what she had and her altruistic spirit today. Despite the financial struggles, she continued to do choreography and practiced singing until she decided this was exactly what she wanted to do, and spent a lot of time playing locals and trying to secure a record contract. Then, after several years, she caught the attention of Ciro Vargas of Sony Records………and went to Bogota to chase her own version of the neon rainbow.
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Shakira’s the real deal.
April 2, 2014 @ 3:07 pm
Oh, you’re definitely right on that account. They’re definitely being marketed hard and fast especially not having released anything but one single. I was just drawing the comparison to the band they remind me of. And considering Bobby Bones even had them do a Savage Garden medley on their show, I’m apparently not the only one making that comparison.
April 1, 2014 @ 7:18 pm
I am more in agreement with the one gun down analysis – but yeah, you’re right, the vocals are pretty strong.
April 1, 2014 @ 8:12 pm
A love affair? Country and Pop, seems that way. They’re no longer considered strange bedfellows. Not something I would buy.
April 1, 2014 @ 8:50 pm
I’m not familiar with Shakira’s body of work. This collaboration would have never come to fruition if not for them working together on The Voice.
That being said, you can slam Shelton all you want and there’s plenty there (Boys Round Here?), but this cut is part of Shakira’s album. Smart play on her part.
There’s a reason country music has attracted a lot of carpetbaggers (Sheryl Crow, Darius Rucker, et al). Hell, even Bon Jovi did it. It is because there is no home for the type of music they do and they cash in their celebrity to cross genres.
While this is by no means a great song, I’ll take it everyday over the laundry list, bro-country, hick hop, autotuned crap that is promoted today.
April 1, 2014 @ 9:41 pm
It seems like almost every pop star has some kind of “gone country” moment these days. The bottom line is that “country” is lucrative.
April 1, 2014 @ 9:20 pm
I’m listening to it, and maybe it’s because I listen to pop music 4 out of 7 mornings a week on the bus to school, but For pop, It’s pretty good, Is it country no, Is it a good song overall, no, But is it a bad one overall, either, Not a chance, It’s OK, I wouldn’t change the station if it came on, but I’m not pushing repeat, and I wuldn’t go out of my way to listen to it.
April 1, 2014 @ 10:11 pm
is this an April Fool?
April 2, 2014 @ 5:25 am
Any Pop Country artist in the limelight today that compares what they do to Patsy Cline or Eddy Arnold should be taken out and shot.(Several times–to make sure they are really dead).
April 2, 2014 @ 6:30 am
I’m surprised CBS would allow them to do this on the ACM’s, since Shelton and Shakira together is basically an advertisement for NBC’s The Voice.
This stuff is just so unnecessary. Shakira, Lionel Richie a few years ago, Lenny Kravitz on the CMT Awards followed by a headlining slot at CMA-fest, Robin Roberts giving out the Entertainer of the Year Award at the CMA’s last year.
The producers of these shows go out of their way to shoehorn non-country figures into these shows, but is it really that much of a draw? Lionel Richie is a recognizable name but do you think anyone actually tuned into a country awards show to see him that wouldn’t have done so already. Same with Kravitz at CMA-fest. Or did they actually think that announcing Robin Roberts would be appearing at the CMA’s, and then keeping her around for the last award of the night would actually make someone stick around through the whole show who wouldn’t have done so already?
It’s just so unnecessary and waters down the genre. Let country be country.
April 2, 2014 @ 7:24 am
It’s embarrassing this has more steel guitar in it than most ‘country’ songs today.
April 2, 2014 @ 8:18 am
I disagree, the lyrics are just as stupid if not worse than pop country, the melody has a good country feel, but the music words and especially the delivery of the song is plain garbage. It sounds like a joke or spoof.
April 2, 2014 @ 8:25 am
An aside.. and I know you don’t pay singing competitions any mind but Blake’s got this kid Jake Worthington on his Voice team this year. This kid is just an amazing singer. Would love to see an open later to Blake not to pimp this kid into a pop country rapping Luke Bryan clone. Put on the right track this kid could bring traditional country back to radio.
April 2, 2014 @ 9:09 am
FWIW, “Hank 3 to make a guest appearance on next Miley Cyrus record” would have been a better April Fools joke.
April 2, 2014 @ 11:31 am
I’ve been a lifelong shamelessly diehard Shakira fan: pre-dating her English crossover blockbuster “Laundry Service”.
I first discovered Shakira shortly after she released “Donde Estan Los Ladrones?” in 1998. What made that album a mainstay in my playlist at the time was a combination of her eclectic global music roots (she’s part-Lebanese, so Arabic flavors have come up repeatedly in her songs as well as cumbia, merengue, dance hall, bossanova and others), emotionally poignant vocals, eccentric personality and, correlated with the last point, some strikingly poetic songwriting. Listen to tracks like “Pies Descalzos, Suenos Blancos”, “Se Quiere, Se Mata”. “Octavo Dia”, “Ciega, Sordomuda” and “En Tus Pupilas” and you’ll see what I mean.
On top of that, my respect for Shakira was sinewed by the fact she’s every bit as intelligent as she is sensual. Yes: it’s true that she tended to try a little too hard to sell her sexuality as she entered her thirties and got deeper into global crossover status. But coupled with that was a reinforced determination to make compelling, flavorful pop music, as well as taking on commendable pursuits including being a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for her home country of Colombia. She was still engaged in her art, even with messier affairs like “She Wolf”, and so I couldn’t deduct much from her even if the songs from that collection didn’t stick with me long.
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Sadly, I’m worried her newly-released eponymous album signifies her finally waving the white flag to committee. Though “Shakira” is by no means a bad album, I couldn’t help but feel greatly disappointed after having listened a couple of times because so much of what made me adore Shakira in the first place (her quirkiness, poetic lyrics, world music flavors) have been sandpapered away in the most part in favor of complacency and familiar gimmicks from the likes of Dr. Luke and others.
Worse yet, much of the album obviously screams “Written By Committee!” as opposed to having any artistic authenticity. And “Medicine” is by far the worst offender here.
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It’s so glaringly obvious “Medicine” was written by committee because, firstly of all people, guess who so coincidentally shows up? That’s right: her fellow “Voice” coach rival Blake Shelton!
Secondly, in spite of Shakira’s vast knowledge of world music, it is clear American country music is not one of those genres. It’s blatantly obvious her knowledge of the genre is limited in that, according to interviews, she turned to Lady Antebellum for inspiration in penning a “country” song. It’s in itself telling that she admitted in another interview that she initially recorded eight different versions of “Medicine”, including a “pop” and “dance” version, until finally determining “This is a country song!”
And it shows. This clearly owes much more to pop than it does country, and if this had a so-called “traditional structure”, then Cassadee Pope is as close as Shakira is to traditionalism.
My single biggest gripe about “Medicine”, however, is the way Blake Shelton skips his voice on “Po-po-poppin’ the pills”. Firstly, has Shelton become incapable of properly enunciating a lyric since “Boys ‘Round Here” or something? And secondly, I’m sure that’ll go over resplendently in communities plagued by meth labs! 😉
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“Medicine” is a farce to my ears, plain and simple. It’s utterly contrived and by far rivals “Give It Up To Me” as her worst single to date. Two Guns Down here.
April 2, 2014 @ 1:46 pm
“Is it a good song? God no.”
I think we need to start using the term “in my opinion” a little more often. Would someone be wrong for thinking this is the absolute best song in the world? Of course not, that’s what keeps it interesting. I’ll send you a list of songs I enjoy Trig and can you please validate them as “good” or “country” or not so I can know what I shouldn’t listen to….
April 2, 2014 @ 1:57 pm
Isn’t it implied that it’s my opinion by the entire framework of this site, the fact that it is called a “review” and categorized as a review? I always say that I don’t want my opinion to sway anyone from music they may enjoy. The first rule of art appreciation is that if you like it, that’s all that matters. At the same time, it is my job to give my opinion and have it be my honest feelings. I thought I was very fair with this song. I very easily could have used it as batting practice, and smeared it left and right for involving a pop star and Mr. BS himself.
April 2, 2014 @ 2:59 pm
“I think we need to start using the term “in my opinion” a little more often”
nonsense.
April 3, 2014 @ 12:22 am
Damn that song is very cool way better than doing what she likes and cassabora or whatever but i thought it was Jewel and Shelton
Shakira should go totally country this is better than hips and whatever whoever
April 3, 2014 @ 10:27 am
They should play “Underneath Your Clothes” instead.
April 5, 2014 @ 7:44 am
why are you all bashing the song and Shakira’s album? you guys make it clear that you don’t like the song or Shakira. yes it might not be ur cup of tea but don’t be so damn mean about it. i don’t understand there are so many ppl criticizing her. she has deserved everything she’s got. worked hard for it. and she is better than any other female artist out there on the charts and radio stop bashing her for gods sake. she is the full package compared to the shitty female artists that gets more songs on the radio and charts out there.
April 5, 2014 @ 10:14 am
The song was written by Shakira, Hillary Lindsey, and Mark Bright, the latter two individuals being frequently involved in songwriting and production for Carrie Underwood, Martina McBride, and Lady Antebellum’s music.
She definitely did her part by involving actual people from Nashville’s Country music industry to work on the song and the result is impressive. If you check out interviews, she’s very intentional about the qualities she liked about country music and how she wanted to bring them to this song. If Shakira’s presence and vocals were swapped with any female Country singer, the song would have a much bigger buy-in and its validity probably wouldn’t even be questioned. If anything, it reminds me of a mix of Country and 90s Rock in the vein of The Cranberries.
It’s a great song and really there’s not much she could have done better from a songwriting, production, or vocal standpoint. If this were presented as a demo to another Country artist, he/she would have immediately taken it.
Props to Shakira for going out of her comfort zone and releasing the music she wants, even if the idea seems unusual.
April 6, 2014 @ 6:26 pm
Seems many music critic know it alls! Enjoyable! Really enjoy both artists! Really enjoyed performance fron two talented artists!