Lisbon, June 2012
On June 30, 2012, Shakira filmed a music video in Lisbon for a song the public did not yet know. Portuguese reporting described a discreet shoot around the city, followed by a message from the singer confirming that she had been in Portugal making her new video. Diário de Notícias published the account on July 1, documenting the previous day’s filming.
The song was widely called “Truth or Dare,” sometimes expanded by fan sites and entertainment reports to “Truth or Dare (On the Dancefloor).” It was expected to introduce Shakira’s next album after 2010’s Sale el Sol. Photographs and amateur footage circulated, as did speculation about her personal life. What did not arrive was the promised single.
Nearly two years later, on May 7, 2014, Shakira’s official artist channel premiered the completed visual as “Dare (La La La)”. It accompanied her self-titled album and carried a 2014 Ace Entertainment copyright notice. The Lisbon footage was not a later recreation: it was the long-delayed material filmed in 2012, finally attached to a commercially released song.
That timeline resolves a persistent confusion. “Truth or Dare” was not a separate officially released Shakira single that disappeared. It was the working or reported title associated with the song eventually issued as “Dare (La La La).” Unofficial snippets and filming reports predated the authorized release; they should not be treated as proof of a complete 2012 single campaign.
Why the first plan changed
Shakira’s life and label situation shifted after the Lisbon shoot. She confirmed her pregnancy in September 2012 and gave birth to her son Milan in January 2013. She also joined the US version of The Voice, while work continued on an album that ultimately appeared through RCA in March 2014.
When the campaign finally began, “Dare” was no longer the lead single. That position went to “Can’t Remember to Forget You,” featuring Rihanna, released in January 2014. The rock- and reggae-inflected duet presented one version of the new album’s identity; “Empire” followed with orchestral drama. By the time “Dare” arrived at Italian radio on March 28, the song had become a later single rather than the opening statement imagined in 2012.
Release dates vary slightly by territory and format. Apple Music dates the self-titled album to March 21, 2014, while AllMusic lists the US physical release on March 25. Sony Music Italy’s contemporary announcement identifies “Dare” as a radio single from the album and also distinguishes it from the Brazil 2014 version.
May 7 remains the definitive date for the long-hidden Lisbon video. Shazam’s video catalogue independently records that premiere date, and contemporary coverage from Time appeared the same day.
A crowded but documented composition
“Dare (La La La)” has a large writing and production team, another reason simplified online histories can be misleading. Published credits name Shakira, Jay Singh, Lukasz Gottwald, Mathieu Jomphe-Lepine, Max Martin, Henry Walter, Raelene Arreguin and John J. Conte Jr. as writers. Production is credited across Dr. Luke, Shakira, J2, Cirkut and Billboard.
Jay “J2” Singh later described his role as producer and co-writer. A 2014 industry announcement connected him directly to both the standard single and its Brazil adaptation, identifying the World Cup closing ceremony as the special version’s major stage.
The credits locate “Dare” within the dominant pop system of its period. Max Martin, Dr. Luke, Cirkut and Billboard were central architects of early-2010s radio pop; Shakira was not passively handed their template, however. She shares both writing and production credit, and her vocal arrangement supplies the song’s most distinctive physicality.
Musically, “Dare” is built for coordinated movement. Its kick drum, compressed synthesizers and recurring wordless refrain favor collective response over intricate storytelling. Shakira alternates breathy invitation with sharp rhythmic accents, treating consonants and exhalations almost like percussion. That description is critical interpretation, not a claim about the creators’ stated intentions.
The Lisbon video extends the same idea visually. Shakira moves through fields, city streets and dance spaces as the editing shifts between solitary performance and communal celebration. Contemporary Time coverage noticed the return of gestures associated with her “She Wolf” choreography while reviewing the newly released visual. The clip’s imagery is less narratively specific than “La Tortura” or “Whenever, Wherever”; its subject is release through movement itself.
One song, two World Cup identities
“Dare (La La La)” acquired a second public identity through “La La La (Brazil 2014).” The adaptation added new lyrics and Brazilian percussion, with Carlinhos Brown featured. Its video was separate from the Lisbon clip and incorporated footballers and charitable imagery connected to the World Food Programme.
The two videos are sometimes mislabeled as interchangeable, but they serve different functions. The original “Dare” visual is the delayed 2012 Lisbon production. The Brazil version reframes the composition around the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Shakira performed the latter with Brown at the tournament’s closing ceremony on July 13, 2014.
It was not the tournament’s primary official song; that designation belonged to Pitbull’s “We Are One (Ole Ola),” featuring Jennifer Lopez and Claudia Leitte. Calling Shakira’s track “the official 2014 World Cup song” erases that distinction. It was a World Cup-associated anthem and closing-ceremony performance with enormous visibility, building on Shakira’s globally successful 2010 tournament song “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa).”
The adaptation also changed the older recording’s cultural context. A dance-pop single conceived before Shakira became a mother and before the album’s final shape was known became linked to football, Brazilian imagery and global broadcast spectacle. The underlying hook remained, but the public meaning expanded.
The leak claims in perspective
Reports from 2012 and 2013 referred to snippets or portions of the song appearing online. Those fragments helped fans connect “Truth or Dare” to the eventual “Dare,” but they were unauthorized circulation, not premieres. No such audio should be confused with the March 2014 commercial recording or the May 7 rights-holder video.
Later retrospectives sometimes imply that Shakira shelved one song and independently created another with a similar concept. The documented credits, Lisbon footage and eventual video show a simpler evolution: the project changed title, waited through a delayed album cycle and re-emerged in revised context.
A Portuguese report published when the clip finally appeared noted that the footage had been shot in June 2012. That contemporary recognition closes the chronological loop. The people seen dancing in Lisbon were participating in a 2012 production whose audience would not officially see it until 2014.
“Dare” is therefore more than a minor single in Shakira’s catalogue. Its journey demonstrates how pop records remain fluid until release: titles change, campaigns are reordered, personal events intervene and finished visuals wait in storage. What looked in 2012 like an imminent beginning became, two years later, a bridge between an album campaign and another of Shakira’s global football moments.