Whenever, Wherever : Ask Biography

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"Whenever, Wherever" is a Latin pop song written by Colombian singer-songwriter Shakira, Gloria Estefan, and Tim Mitchell for Shakira's first English language album, Laundry Service. It is the second most successful song of Shakira's career, behind only "Hips Don't Lie". "Suerte", meaning "luck", is a version of "Whenever, Wherever" recorded in Spanish. It is about how fortunate she is to have found a person like the man with whom she is in a relationship. "Whenever, Wherever" hit number one in 29 countries, becoming the biggest hit of 2002 worldwide.

The track was produced by Shakira, and recorded at Criteria Studios in Miami as well as Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas, and was engineered by Terry Manning. The song was released as the lead single from the album in the autumn of 2001, and was an international success, peaking at number one in Colombia, the rest of Latin America, almost every European country, as well as Australia and New Zealand. In the Netherlands, the song remained at number one for nine weeks. It reached number two in the United Kingdom, number four in Canada, and number six in the United States.

"Whenever, Wherever" is Shakira's most successful song in Europe, where it topped many of the medium sized charts, including Austria, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Although it topped the majority of European charts, "Hips Don't Lie", which is considered to be the most successful song of her career, sold substantially less well than "Whenever, Wherever" in bigger markets such as France and Germany.