TORONTO - Some detractors have described Shakira as a yodelling stripper. As if that's a bad thing.

Technically speaking, there wasn't any yodelling or stripping as Shakira's Oral Fixation Tour bumped and grinded its way into the Air Canada Centre last night.

But to use a musical reference that will make sense primarily in Canada, there is nothing tragic about Shakira's hips.

The 29-year-old Colombian has sold close to 40 million CDs worldwide, the recent gains being made largely on the strength of singles Hips Don't Lie and Don't Bother.

But to be blunt, a Shakira concert isn't exclusively about her distinctively sharp-edged voice, or the Latin rhythms. A Shakira concert also is about the electric atmosphere -- the audience actually did the wave a few minutes before she came out -- as well as how she looks, and what she is (and isn't) wearing.

You know, kind of like the Emmys.

Anyway, last night, Shakira easily won the award for most visually pleasing singer in a foreign show.

From the moment she emerged on stage to begin her hour-and-a-half set, the building pretty much was putty in her hands. And hips.

Shakira, whose debut CD came out when she was only 15 back in 1991, slowly has built a substantial following in English-speaking nations. And speaking of English-speaking nations, Shakira recently became the answer to this trivia question: "Which artist was the last one to have a song played on the legendary British TV show Top Of The Pops?"

Shakira has that distinction, since Hips Don't Lie was No. 1 in the U.K. on the day last month when Top Of The Pops taped its final show. Top Of The Pops ran as a series from 1964 to 2006, but really, no one is blaming Shakira individually for the program's cancellation.

Now, when you rely so emphatically on shaking your booty as a key element in your popularity, there is a law of diminishing returns.

If Shakira tries to move like she did last night when she gets to the ancient age of, say, 45, she had best make sure she's living in a country with universal health care (that list might not include Canada by then).

But for now, as long as Shakira's hip-shaking doesn't violate local fire codes, you can just sit back and enjoy the eye candy. Listening is optional, but not necessarily harmful.

Wyclef Jean, the 33-year-old, Haitian-born, multi-language rapper and former member of the Fugees who partnered with Shakira on Hips Don't Lie, provided opening-act support last night.

The crowd seemed a little too passive for Jean's tastes at the beginning. But by stopping the music, venturing into the stands and good-naturedly admonishing individual patrons to stand up and start dancing, Jean eventually cajoled the audience into a Shakira-ready fever.