In all facets of music, Shakira is on fire. Her most recent albums, Fijación Oral 1 & II, have dominated the global charts, selling millions of copies. Her current tour is playing to packed arenas around the world, and the awards she's received this year alone are enough to fill a trophy shop.

Albert Menendez has been Shakira’s first-call touring keyboardist for the past seven years. Prominently featured on the previous Laundry Service tour, he’s back in the spotlight on Shakira’s most recent globetrot — a major world tour that started in the late spring of 2006 with shows in Spain, Romania, Russia, Greece, and other exotic locales. The tour then moved over to the US for the summer and fall, with Latin American dates afterward. In 2007, the show will return to Europe for a multi-country run.

Roland US spent an afternoon with Albert during Shakira’s recent stop at the Arrowhead Pond Arena in Anaheim , California . Here’s what he had to say about his latest Roland discovery, the Fantom-X.

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What’s new in your keyboard rig for this tour?

The newest and most happening addition is the Fantom-X7, which we all fell in love with. It came in at the perfect time. We were doing rehearsals, and she [Shakira] was asking for new sounds and reproductions from the new record, so the Fantom has become the glue for my system — my main keyboard, front and center.

I still have the VK-7 for my organ sounds, which is always gonna be there. I love it. Since this is a rockin’ gig, the VK is the only way I can keep up with the guitar players [laughs]. I also have a Wurly, so that’s pretty much my setup: the Fantom-X, the VK-7, and the Wurly.

Give us some examples of how you’re using the Fantom-X during the show.

I’m using it all over the place — drones, low and nasty sounds, a lot of strings, bassoons, acoustic piano. I use two pianos from the Fantom-X; one is a classical piano and the other is a quirky, chorused-type piano. I’d say 60-70 percent of the show is the Fantom-X and the rest is mostly VK-7.

Your Fantom-X is loaded with SRX cards. Which sounds are using from those?

Most of my string sounds are from the card [Symphonique Strings SRX-04] and the pianos [Complete Piano SRX-11].

When you first brought the Fantom-X into rehearsals, did you receive feedback from the other bandmembers or mix engineers?

The first guy who said something was Mitch, our monitor engineer. Mitch is the ultimate guy with sounds, and he was like, “Albert, I really like that! What is it?” What can I say … we all love it.

How well have your Roland keyboards held up on tour?

Solid. No problems. The VK-7 has been with me since my first gig with her, which has been seven years, and I love it.

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In addition to his ongoing contributions to Shakira’s live show, Albert can be heard on Shakira’s “Hips Don’t Lie” remix — the “Sterling Unsemble Club Mix” available on Sony.

Stay tuned for an upcoming feature on Shakira’s drummer, Brendan Buckley, who also added new Roland instruments to his touring rig.