Songfacts®:

• Shakira told MTV News that "Octavo Dia" (translated as "Eighth Day") "talks about God when he created the world, the eighth day he went for a walk to outer space and when he came back he found our world in an infernal mess. And he found that we were being controlled and manipulated by just a few leaders and that we were like pieces of a chess game."
• During her 2002-2003 Tour Of The Mongoose, Shakira performed "Octavo Dia" against a video backdrop of George W. Bush and Saddam Hussein puppets playing chess - eventually trading their chess pieces for nuclear bombs. Shakira's musicians also wore masks of Richard Nixon and Cuba's then-president Fidel Castro. She closed the performance with a quote from Jimi Hendrix on the screen: "When the power of love overcomes the love for power, the world will know the peace."
  
  The political angle of her set caused some controversy, but Shakira believes pop stars have a right to be open about their beliefs, even if it makes people uncomfortable. She told The Guardian: "Sometimes people don't want to see pop stars giving their opinion about political situations. They think pop stars are made to entertain. Period. I don't see it that way. I know it was a little risky to use my show to deliver a message and many people around me told me not to do it, but, at the end of the day, it was a statement about love and what I feel this world and its leaders are lacking."
• Shakira was still recording exclusively in Spanish at this time. "Octavo Dia" is part of her fourth album, Donde Estan Los Ladrones?, which propelled her to stardom in the world of Latin music. She earned the first of many Latin Grammy Awards for two songs on the album: "Octavo Dia" won for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, and "Ojos Asi" took Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.
  
  Shakira's next album, Laundry Service, is in English. Released in 2001, it includes the hit "Whenever, Wherever."