Songfacts®:

• This ballad-like track with an Indian flavor is the third international single from Shakira's third English studio album, She Wolf. She told The Daily Star about the song's meaning, saying it represents her way of living and seeing life. "I've been on the road since I was very young, so that's where the gypsy metaphor comes from," she explained.
• In this song, Shakira warns her lover that she's a gypsy, and not the "homecoming kind." She invites him to come with her on the road, but adds, "You're no fool if you say 'no.'"
• "Gypsy" was a collaboration between two different songwriting teams: Carl Sturken and Evan Rogers, and Amanda Ghost and Ian Dench. Sturken and Rogers brought Rihanna to America and recorded the demo that got her a record deal; they also co-wrote her hits "Pon De Replay" and "Shut Up And Drive." Ghost and Dench have Shakira's Beyoncé duet "Beautiful Liar" on their credits.
  
  In a Songfacts interview with Sturken, he said they wrote it for a singer named Jessie James, but her label rejected it. "Amanda was really upset," he said. "And then, it was about two months later that she called us up and said, 'Yeah, I've got it on Shakira. How do you like that?' So we were just super excited."
  
  Sturken added: "The only time I met Shakira was at the album release party in New York and she was super nice. She's beautiful, apparently she has a genius IQ, she speaks four languages, she dances, writes songs, and she's super nice."
• Shakira also recorded a Spanish version of this song titled "Gitana." It was released as a single in Latin America and Spain.
• The song's music video features the Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal as Shakira's love interest. The pair have some serious chemistry in the clip; Shakira says they were a good fit because they both have to consistently perform at a very high level to meet the expectations of their fans. Jaume de Laiguana directed the clip in Barcelona.
• Shakira performed this song as a duet with Rascal Flatts on the April 28, 2010 episode of American Idol.
• This was used on the 2009 Ugly Betty episodes "Level (7) With Me" and "The Bahamas Triangle." It was also featured on Wizards of Waverly Place in the 2010 episode "Dude Looks Like Shakira," which featured the singer as a guest star.