But the hip-swivelling bilingual singer says she's just now starting to get in touch with her desires as a woman, and that's reflected in her new animalistic song, She Wolf.

"I think She Wolf has a lot to do with the moment in which I feel I am. I feel much freer now as a woman, a little more in touch with my own desires, and I tend to listen to myself a little more. 'What does Shakira want?"' she said in an interview this week. "Not what everybody else wants, but what do I really want? And I think that the song deep inside is about that."

The Colombian singer, known for smash hits like Hips Don't Lie and Whenever, Wherever, recently released her new single, which is also the title of her upcoming album, due out in October.

The music video for the new tune finds the Colombian-born singer dancing in a cage and howling and panting like - just as the song says - a wolf.

alter ego

Shakira says She Wolf is an alter ego for her.

"(It's) like a more animalistic side of you, a more primitive side ... an animal person in a way. So when you understand these things, you forgive yourself every time you screw up, you say, 'It wasn't me, that was the she wolf ... that was the animal in me, that wasn't me, I have nothing to do with that,"' she said with a laugh.

The multi-platinum entertainer linked up with a number of producers for the new album - including Pharrell, Wyclef Jean and John Hill, who produced the first single. She says she's hoping it sounds "2010" and that it will "be hitting real hard on the bottom".

"I felt I had to check out what was going on today and try to come up with something that could sound maybe 2010," she said.

"The album is very electronic, very upbeat, very uptempo, clubby. I decided to use many synthesisers in every song, but there are also elements and influences from other parts of the world - African, Indian, Middle Eastern, even Colombian influences all mixed in," she said.