As co-producer, Shakira enlisted collaborators including Josh Abraham, El Cata, Gustavo Cerati, John Hill, Lester Mendez, Pitbull, and Residente from Calle 13.

A success throughout Europe and Latin America, the album reached number one on the charts in Belgium, France, Italy, Mexico, Portugal and Spain.

[7] Commercially, She Wolf was a success and topped charts and attained gold and platinum certifications in several South American and European territories.

[1] Other collaborators on the album include Armando Pérez, better known by his stage name Pitbull, Shakira's friend and frequent collaborator Luis Fernando Ochoa, René Pérez Joglar, better known by his stage name "Residente Calle 13", John Hill, Rolando Roly valenzuela FleishmanLester Mendez, Albert Menéndez, Tim Mitchell and Jorge Drexler.

[10] The recording of the album took place at locations such as The Bahamas, London, Barcelona and the Dominican Republic, and was engineered by Andros Rodriguez.

[2] René Pérez Joglar, who performs as the lead singer of Puerto Rican alternative hip hop band under the name of Residente, appears as a featured artist on the track "Gordita".

He said that he felt "honoured" that Shakira chose him for the song, by saying that "She's a bit of a trendsetter -- she does loads of different things on a major scale.

[13] Sale el Sol is considered to be Shakira's return to her "roots" and is a "fusion between rock and pop heavily influenced from Latino and Colombian music".

[1] Examples include ballads like "Antes de las Seis" ("Before Six O'Clock") and "Lo Que Más" ("The Most");[2] in the former Shakira delivers "sad, emotional, and heartfelt vocals,"[15] while in the latter she sings over a piano and string-supplemented melody.

But then you suddenly realize that everything you need to write about is what’s inside of you – to not look outside but inside.The title track is an acoustic guitar-driven alternative rock and Latin pop-infused song,[15][16] while "Devoción" ("Devotion") is a techno-influenced alternative rock track in which Shakira "beats all U2-inspired arena rockers at their own game," according to AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine.

[20] In addition to merengue, songs like "Addicted to You", which features "bilingual lyrics, a very 70's chorus and Copacabana sounds",[17] are influenced by reggaeton music.

[12] According to Billboard, the title track is composed of "evocative and hopeful" lyrics which are dedicated to Argentine singer-songwriter and Shakira's friend Gustavo Cerati, who had been in a coma around the time of the release of the album.

[36] The accompanying music video for "Loca", directed by Jaume de Laiguana, was filmed in Barcelona, Spain, and features Shakira interacting with a beach crowd, and dancing in front of the sea wearing a golden bikini.

The accompanying music video was directed by Jaume de Laiguana,[43] and contains scenes of Shakira finding her way out of large maze and finally emerging outside to a sunny garden.

[44] "Rabiosa" was chosen to be the third single off the album; both the Spanish and English versions of the song, featuring El Cata and Pitbull, respectively, were released on 8 April 2011.

[32] The accompanying music video for "Addicted to You" was directed by Anthony Mandler,[62] and features Shakira dancing in various locations, such as an "old Spanish style" town, a cathedral-like room, and a bathtub, while sporting different "high fashion" outfits.

[72][73] The tickets for the initial dates of the European leg were soon sold out, and Shakira extended the tour into 2011, beginning by announcing a show at Paris, France; venues at countries such as Croatia, Russia, Spain and Switzerland were soon added.

[79] For the performances, Shakira mainly wore a mesh gold crop top coupled with skin-tight leather pants.

[80] Other attires Shakira wore during the concert shows included a hooded pink gown,[81] a flamenco-skirt,[78] and a feathery blue dress.

[85] Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic gave it a very positive review, complimenting Shakira's versatility in her "pan-global approach", and praising the album's simple and "breezy" nature, saying it "never once sounds disparate or overworked -- it's sunny and easy, its natural buoyancy disguising Shakira's range and skill -- but listen closely and it becomes apparent that nobody makes better pop records in the new millennium than she does".

[3] The Billboard review of the album was also extremely positive, noting that its composition is "infinitely more memorable and unique than the singer's baffling 2009 set, She Wolf", and that it "manages to bridge the divide between the old and new Shakira with a spark that keeps you listening to the very end".

[16] Michelle Morgante from Boston.com chose the merengue-influenced songs of Sale el Sol as "some of its strongest moments", and noted that the album is a "truer representation of the Shakira who has excited Latin America and propelled her onto the world stage".

[91] James Reed from The Boston Globe felt that while Sale el Sol "isn't as heady as She Wolf", it proves to be "another step forward for an artist who rarely looks back".

[92] Mikael Good from Entertainment Weekly termed Sale el Sol as a demonstration of "Shakira's boldly global mindset" and awarded it a perfect "A" grade.

[86] Jesus Yanez-Reyes from Northern Arizona News favoured the album's rock-influenced tracks and concluding that Sale el Sol "is one of Shakira’s best releases, with songs sure to become classics within the next year".

[107] It entered the chart at the same debut position in the French-speaking Wallonia region of the country but saw more success as it later peaked at number one,[108] displacing French pop rock duo AaRON's album Birds in the Storm from the top spot.

[117] However, it achieved high sales in the country and was certified platinum by The Federal Association of Music Industry (BVMI) for having shipped 200,000 units in Germany.

In Shakira's native country Colombia, it sold in excess of 200,000 units and was certified diamond by the Colombian Association of Phonograph Producers (ASINCOL).

[133] In the United States, Sale el Sol debuted and peaked at number seven on the Billboard 200 issue dated 6 November 2010.

[138] The album was certified Diamond in the Latin field in 2018 by the Recording Industry Association of America signifying 600,000 album-equivalent units sold.