Here’s How to Watch Shakira’s ‘MTV Unplugged’ on Streaming
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Shakira’s classic episode of MTV Unplugged is now streaming for the first time. Mariah Carey’s iconic episode of the live series is also available to stream.
This morning (Feb. 25), Paramount+ announced it had added over 70 episodes of MTV Unplugged to the streaming platform. Many of the episodes had not been available since they first aired in the ‘90s and early 2000s. The MTV series allowed artists to reimagine their hits in an acoustic and intimate setting.
Shakira’s episode of MTV Unplugged was recorded on Aug. 12, 1999. The concert came on the heels of her breakthrough album Dónde Están Los Ladrones?, so the Colombian icon performed new arrangements of her songs like “Ojos Así,” “Tú,” “No Creo,” and “Ciega, Sordomuda.” Before her crossover album Laundry Service in 2001, MTV Unplugged was Shakira’s first major exposure to the mainstream. Thanks to the live LP, she won her first Grammy in 2001 for Best Latin Pop Album.
Mariah Carey’s episode of MTV Unplugged is also now available to stream on Paramount+. Early in her career, she was accused of being a studio singer who couldn’t replicate her sound in a live setting. Carey shut down her critics on March 16, 1992, with her concert for MTV Unplugged. She took the audience to church with the soulful arrangements of her classics “Vision of Love,” “Love Takes Time,” “Make it Happen,” and “Someday.” Carey’s live rendition of the Jackson 5’s “I’ll Be There” hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Other iconic episodes of MTV Unplugged now streaming on Paramount+ include Nirvana, Bob Dylan, Tony Bennett, Oasis, Sinead O’Connor, Lenny Kravitz, Elton John, and more. Many of the episodes by Latine and Spanish acts like Alejandro Sanz, Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, Charly García, Los Tres, Soda Stereo, Maná, Los Tigres Del Norte, and Luis Alberto Spinetta remain unavailable to watch on streaming, so hopefully those get added in the future.