Every Shakira Album, Ranked: Critic’s Picks

Throughout her enduring career, Shakira has dropped culturally and commercially successful albums that have cemented her as a legacy artist. Her latest, Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran, released March 22, is a testament to the intense emotions that have powered every single one of her songs since her breakthrough in the 1990s.

Using music as a tool or resource to navigate the peaks and valleys of life, the Colombian hitmaker is intentional in her songwriting with raw lyrics, meticulous as a producer and an extraordinary performer bringing to life the songs that define not only her eras but those of women across generations. With albums like Pies Descalzos (1995), Dónde Están Los Ladrones? (1998), Laundry Service (2001) and El Dorado (2017), Shakira offered a soundtrack to women who are vulnerable, who love deeply to the point of self-destruction, who remain on a healing journey — or who have turned their tears into diamonds after a life-defining heartbreak.

The 10 studio albums we’re ranking — not including her first two Magia and Peligro, which were recorded when she was still a young teen and are not even currently available on streaming — have also documented her evolution as an artist, going from her black-haired rock era in Dónde Están Los Ladones? in the ’90s with raging guitars, to her English crossover with Laundry Service in the early 2000s, the pop-reggaeton El Dorado in 2017 and the eclectic Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran where she dabbles in sounds like norteño, Afrobeats, pop and electronic music, generally defying overall categorization.

Las Mujeres is Shakira’s first new album in seven years. It also marks her debut release on vinyl, featuring four distinct artwork editions, each paired with an exclusive colored vinyl variant. The album debuted at No. 1 on Billboard‘s Top Latin Albums (chart dated April 6) and at No. 13 on the Billboard 200.

Below, our ranking of every Shakira studio album.