Shakira

Shakira is intellectually fascinating. No, that's not a pathetic last-call pickup line, nor is it a disingenuous way of disguising lust for the Colombian pop goddess (though that's an entirely appealing separate discussion). For years a superstar in her native country, the young singer-songwriter refused to release a crossover pop record in the U.S. until her command of English was proficient enough. No one was going to write in English for her. Plus, with a cosmetically obsessed record industry on her side, she refused the prepackaged DAT route and chose instead to rock out on the guitar, belly-dance exotically onstage and adhere to the bad-ass cool of her English rocker heroes. Her sense of self, and weird-ass yodeling vocals, give an edge to songs like "Whenever, Wherever" and "Objection (Tango)" that otherwise save them from contrivance – it's easy to forgive the use of pan flute(uggggh!) when you pump in Shakira's sense of humor and pizzazz.