MARIA DEL ROSARIO SANCHEZ

shakira : what nobody knows was the title of the book maria del rosario sanchez the singer,s former publicist wrote
i began working with shakira when she was still not very known my nose was flattened by all the doors i has slammed in my face from the media when i went out to promote her she didnt even know about all the rejections because i didnt want to hurt her i remember well one tv y novelas awards show in 1994 when for two months on a daily basis i called the magazine,s editor to get her on the show the only thing i didnt do was get on my knees.. finally they said yes but we didnt have any money to buy clothing so we went to a design school and the students made an outfit
a year later her song donde estas corazon began playing on the radio i was in the living room of her home and i remember shakira started looking out through the window and she looked up to the sky and said god now success has arrived
years later i published my book about her but she sent a letter to the media saying evrything i wrote were lies we were always friends up to that moment

omaira rios (tv guia) recommended her as a client to her friend maria a journalist who had recently arrived in bogota and like shakira was making her way in the city so she became her first press agent

After she had called to introduce herself to a couple of entertain ment outlets, the magazine TV Guía, later renamed TV y Novelas, in terviewed the singer. That was a small but significant achievement, not because of the article that would later appear, but because of the relationship that developed between the singer and the magazine. Shakira, whom the publisher, Omaira Ríos, already knew thanks to her triumph in Viña del Mar the year before, impressed her to such an extent that she recommended her as a client to her friend María del Rosario Sánchez, a journalist who had recently arrived in Bogotá and, like Shakira, was making her way in the city. Sánchez became Shakira's first press agent. "We knocked on a lot of doors in the industry. We would pray for fifteen days for at least a short segment of ten seconds on television, or an article of five lines in the paper. But she had all the discipline in the world, and she knew what she wanted," recalls Sánchez, who advised Shakira on her image and PR. for almost two years.

According to María del Rosario Sánchez, Shakira lived for her songs, from the moment she woke up to the time she fell asleep. She took singing classes and voice training and learned breathing techniques and how to play the flute. During her free time she wrote lyrics or made up melodies. She would be so focused on her music that sometimes at two in the morning she would still be up writing lyrics, even though she had to be up early to tape the episodes of the show Waking her up in the morn ing was one of the most difficult tasks in the world. Sánchez still re members the great "wars" she had trying to wake Shakira up. "Waking her up was impossible, no one could get her out of that bed," she said.

Confronting the obsession that magazines have with anorexic bod ies was not easy. One of Shakira's biggest weaknesses was chocolate, especially candy bars. Her craving was so great that her press agent had to make a deal with her: she could have her chocolate every day, but only the amount that Sánchez gave her, and no more. Her addic tion to chocolate became the second reason for "wars" with her press agent. These "wars," it's worth noting, were never aggressive; there was no shrieking, or even harsh words. But for Sánchez, it really was a headache to try to make Shakira understand that if she wanted a ca reer in entertainment she had to watch her figure every day. Many in the press commented on how chubby Shakira had gotten, Sánchez remembers. Shakira surely heard it too. But how could she change her eating habits and forsake her diet of fried, greasy, and spicy food? One of Shakira's greatest pleasures was eating as she her self said. Among her favorite dishes were shell fish, fried plantains, and Arabic food, all full of fat. She also loved soda. "She could drink a whole liter of Coca Cola with ice," recalls Sánchez. To make the issue of dieting even more challenging, Don William disagreed with the magazines and thought his daughter was "too skinny" and would give her vitamins, which exasperated Sánchez, who thought Shakira did not need them.