Blake Shelton And Shakira Collaborate On New Country Duet

Blake Shelton certainly knows a little something about country music, so it would be logical for fellow Voice judge Shakira to seek his guidance on a possible collaboration. The resulting partnership with Shelton has produced the country infused single Medicine on the pop diva’s upcoming new self-titled album.

Shelton was more than happy to assist Shakira, who was looking to include a country influence on the new album. She consulting Shelton and ultimately asked her Voice partner to contribute. Blake was excited about the prospect, and pleased with the end result:

“I think she did a hell of a job,” Shelton explained. “One thing is for someone like her to say she’s going to do something and another is to do it. And I’ll be damned, a month and a half ago she wrote me and said, ‘I wrote the song, and I want you to tell me what you think.’ And I said: ‘Gosh dang, you did exactly what you said you’d do. It sounds like a hit song’.”

Shakira essentially wanted an authentic country influence, and who better than Shelton to help her craft a radio friendly song with some country flavor. Shakira explained further what compelled her to approach Shelton:

“I told him I wanted to work with Nashville people,” Shakira told Billboard. “I was a little tired of L.A. I wanted people with another point of view, real people with roots with whom I feel comfortable working in the same room. And I told Blake I wanted to do a song that had the narrative of a country song, that was picturesque, that was a real song. But it also needed to suit me, because after all, I’m Colombian.”

Of course, the gang on The Voice are fond of performing each other’s stuff when not bickering off-camera, so Shelton and Shakira have each paid homage to their respective musical catalogs. Shelton is quite impressed with the Latin artist in general:

“She was one of those huge international stars I had only seen from a distance,” Shelton said. “And she feels like someone I had known my whole life. She’s motherly to everyone she meets. I love being around her and seeing how she treats the group of people who travel with her. She’s just a real person.”

In regard to his work on The Voice, Shelton had coached his charges to victory three consecutive seasons before Adam Levine won Season Five, so he does appear to know what he is doing.