Gustavo Celis on engineering Hips Don’t Lie: “It was gruelling. Shakira didn't want to sing it!”

Two-time Grammy Award and seven-time Latin Grammy Award winner Gustavo Celis – a recording engineer, mixer and producer – reveals why it was challenging to engineer Shakira’s Hips Don’t Lie, and why he had to keep the wants and needs of two superstars in mind when mixing Shakira and Beyoncé’s single Beautiful Liar.

The first thing that springs to mind for Celis when he recalls engineering Shakira’s 2006 monster hit, Hips Don’t Lie (aka, one of the best selling singles of all time), is that it was a bit of a slog.

“I gotta be honest, I did not get that feeling [that it was going to be huge],” he admits from his home in Miami, “because it was just gruelling. I don't know what it was, but it was at the end of some promotional tour. We were in London at Olympic Studios in a beautiful, gorgeous room at the top of the penthouse. It was everything, but Shakira just didn't want to sing it. 

"We spent a week camped there, ready to go, and it was obviously not the session or the equipment [that was the issue] – it was just something internally in her that she wasn't ready to sing it somehow. She was telling me, ‘This room is too small,’ because we started in a little room, and then, 'I don't want to wear headphones,’ so we went into a large room. The next day we set up the session, and now, ‘This room is too large,’ then, ‘Now I'm too tired,’ and this kept going for three days. Finally, on the last day, we had to go, ‘There are no more chances,’ so she finally sang it and that was just a take or two.”

Challenges aside, the song struck sonic gold, its catchiness undeniable. (It’s in your head right now, isn’t it?) Hips Don't Lie went on to become a global quadruple platinum success, reaching number one in 17 countries, becoming Shakira's first and only number one hit to date in the US, while breaking the record for the most radio plays in a single week, and becoming the fastest-selling digital download song in the US.

“It just goes to show,” he smiles. “She was probably not ready. Who knows, maybe she was working out the lyrics and wasn't feeling it somehow yet, but when she did, she did an amazing job, as always.”

Written by Wyclef Jean and Shakira, the song’s iconic salsa trumpet opening is sampled from Jerry Rivera's 1992 Omar Alfanno-written song, Amores Como el Nuestro.

“That horn is the call to the dance floor I guess! It's classic and unforgettable – that opens up the song and it's the theme of the song,” says Celis. “That sample for the horns is also a very famous song that had some success back in the ‘90s from Omar Alfanno from Panama – one of the best known writers we have – so it has a lot of roots, in a way. So when Hips Don’t Lie became that massive, I wasn't surprised,” he concedes, “but I had a little bit of a traumatic relationship with that song because I remember nothing easy about it – it was difficult and filled with obstacles. Somehow it just didn't flow like other songs sometimes do. But it was worth it. I mean, especially for her, right?” he grins. “Because everybody knows her song now – everyone!”

Hips Don't Lie was initially written and recorded by Jean, Lauryn Hill and Pras for the Fugees reunion back when it was called Lips Don't Lie. It was never completed, allegedly due to Hill not being happy with it. Has Celis heard the alternative version?

“Oh yes. I heard it after we finished working on it,” he answers. “Nobody told me – that was like a secret. In fact, I discovered not long ago that it's in a movie called Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights and it has the sample – that didn't make it in terms of numbers, but it was fantastic. I was surprised when I heard that version. I was like, ‘Wow, it's very similar’. Of course, Shakira did a fantastic job expanding it and bringing the Colombian elements to it, like the Colombian flute which is very ethnic and all those drums in the breakdown, so you can't tell anymore: is it Caribbean? Is it African? It's from everywhere and that's what she does best I think: bringing the world together.”

The song has since firmly embedded itself into people’s collective subconscious – it’s likely when hearing the Colombian superstar’s name that one will, like a hard-coded reflex, involuntary think or even utter: “Shakira Shakira”. Celis loves the way the song lives on today.

“It feels fantastic,” he smiles. “It's a privilege because we make records every day. I mean, right now, I'm working on something. Yesterday I worked on another project, but most of these, unfortunately, won't get to your ears. I like to think we keep getting better and are developing but those things are fortunate moments that happen every now and then – you can't really control it. 

"I put the same effort into Hips Don’t Lie as the song that I'm mixing today – there is no difference to me. It is not in my hands. That's why I can't say, ‘It feels fantastic. This is all my doing,’ – it isn't! It's fortunate to have the trust of artists like Shakira that they can count on you to see through.”

Hailing from Venezuela, Celis studied music production and engineering at Berklee before landing a job straight out of university at famed New York City recording studio, The Hit Factory. While learning the ropes as an assistant, he worked with some of the best engineers and producers in the world.

“My first day on the job, Michael Jackson had four rooms, and there was Paul Simon, Mariah Carey and Bruce Springsteen,” he recalls, shaking his head at the memory. “David Bowie would walk in with the producer. It was insane!”

Celis went on to work with artists including Celine Dion, Eric Clapton, Ricky Martin, Roger Waters, on the film adaptation of the musical Chicago (which won the Academy Award for Best Sound), and on Shakira and Beyoncé’s 2007 hit, Beautiful Liar, which he mixed.

Beautiful Liar was originally recorded by Beyoncé alone, but after wanting to collaborate with Shakira for a while, their schedules finally lined up and Shakira recorded new verses for a re-release of Knowles-Carter’s second album, B'Day. Celis reflects on mixing their vocals together to strike a balance that both artists were happy with.

“It was fun, because that song is a little bit nasty, in terms of sonics – it's aggressive, in a way,” he points out. “But at the same time, you have those wonderful voices and they're interacting in such a fun way, so it wasn't that difficult in a technical way, it was actually the psychology of how to end up with something that they both agree on. 

"This was the challenge, because a lot of it has to do with giving the confidence to them that both of their performances are respected, but at the same time, really listening and executing all their suggestions and seeing them through – even though those are maybe not what's on the final record.

“You have to take their hand and go all the way through and execute exactly what it is that they want, and then rein it in and make one mix – the mix that everybody knows,” he continues. “But I have around 100 of those mixes because of the different recalls and ideas. These are both giants of the music world and they have ideas of their own, so obviously they're not going to coincide or match right away. So that was the challenge.”

The blending of Latin and Arabic styles with contemporary hip hop and soul music was a hit; Beautiful Liar was commercially successful – peaking at number three on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and number one in various European countries, including the UK, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Switzerland. 

It was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals at the 50th Grammy Awards (2007), while the Spanish version was nominated for the Latin Grammy Award for Record of the Year at the Latin Grammy Awards of 2007, and it won an Ivor Novello Awards for Best-Selling British Song in 2008. Celis expands on why he has so many versions of the track:

“I remember there were so many tweaks, but at that point, I had worked with Shakira for a long time so we already had a really shorthand way of communicating,” he shares. “By then I could predict a little bit because I had already done another duet with her that blew up called La Tortura with Alejandro Sanz, the Spanish singer. That was a massive hit. 

"I learned a lot during that one, because I realised basic things like, ‘Why is his voice louder?’ Well, because the lead on the harmony is on his vocal. So logic always prevails, because egos are so big – I didn't say that to her in that way,” he adds hastily, laughing.

“It's just finding a way to balance things and make sure the music integrity is there – and that is not arbitrary. I mean, I sometimes love arbitrary artistic decisions, but balance is balance and you have to keep some sense of harmonic context. Sometimes ego can get in the way. I've seen it where people will have a vocal that's maybe 10dB above what it should be and then a master compressor is basically doing the mix at that point.”

He adds that a mix on its own cannot make a hit. “But it can't stop it either,” he points out. “Let me explain: If you have an amazing song, like Imagine by John Lennon, but you record it on a little cassette and you put it out into the world, it's probably gonna do what it's gonna do. It's a timeless work of art, right? 

"But on the other hand, if you have this thing that's super polished and sounds amazing, but it has nothing – no content, no meaning – it might make it to number one, but it's not gonna stay there for ages and come back 30 years later, it's not going to happen. So that's what I say: a mix can make a hit, but it can't stop it either. A really terrible mix, sometimes will be a hit, and that's something to keep in mind.”

Celis has been in Florida since 1996, and these days works out of his hybrid studio, Elastic Mix in Fort Lauderdale, where he specialises in mixing in stereo and Dolby Atmos. Nestled inside the studio is an immersive Genelec setup made up of 8050s surrounds, 8040s on the ceiling and a Genelec 7070A sub.

“It's been a long relationship with those speakers, because I trust them,” he says. “I need a speaker to tell me the truth and that’s what those things do. When I opened my studio in Miami a long time ago – a studio called Supersonic – I did a 5.1 setup and I bought the very first 8050s. I just loved those speakers so much. I've taken them all over the world. They made something so good – I’ve had these speakers for years. 

"I had one setup at Supersonic and I expanded this into Atmos by adding more speakers, because why change something that's not broken? Eventually, I might get into a new system with The Ones, but for now it's something that I'm so familiar with and that I know like the back of my hand. I still rely on these speakers, you can carry them all over the world. They very rarely need any maintenance – it's like a tank. 

"These speakers are the ideal speaker for me, just perfect,” he enthuses. “These things translate so well to iPhones, to speakers, in the car – everywhere. It's just a pleasure. That's one worry that I stopped having a long time ago, when I started working with Genelecs.”