Shakira’s queen of the ball

KIIS-FM’s annual Jingle Ball, like most radio-sponsored seasonal concerts, is all about celebrity worship. From the parade of station on-air personalities to the video screen entertainment between acts to the snack-sized performances by a handful of acts, these shows are designed to give young fans myriad opportunities to shriek upon recognition of one famous face after another.

The bonus, then, for the capacity crowd on hand Tuesday at the Shrine Auditorium for the 2005 edition of the holiday show was the presence of a true musical star along with a generous handful of mere celebrities from hip-hop, R&B;, reggae and pop.

The star was Shakira, the Colombian firebrand rocker whose latest album, “Oral Fixation, Vol. 2,” made its debut Wednesday at No. 5 on the national sales chart.

But her explosive 30-minute set displayed even more potency than she’s exhibiting at the cash register.

Her latest album in English finds her thoroughly at home in her second language, an assured rocker who radiates as much inner strength as outer sex appeal, making her a female Prince for a new generation. The new “Hey You” is as irresistible a chunk of catchy pop song craft as OutKast’s “Hey Ya!” “Don’t Bother” assertively tells an ex to what extent he missed the boat by leaving her, and in “Illegal” she has a gorgeous pop ballad that showcases her intensely expressive voice.

With any luck, the handlers of teen R&B; upstart Chris Brown, who preceded Shakira, required him to stay after his quick set and take notes on her standard-setting performance.

The music industry, ever hungry for new stars, has quickly -- too quickly -- anointed Brown as “the new Usher,” even though there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the old Usher. But Brown couldn’t muster more than sporadic flashes of the kind of electric excitement that Usher -- and Shakira -- exude merely by breathing.

He showed some spark, along with a few undeniably dazzling dance moves. But he clearly needs a lot more experience before even thinking about trying to dance in the footsteps of Usher.

Brown was sandwiched for a quick 15-minute set over recorded backing tracks between half-hour stints from rap-reggae singer Sean Paul and Shakira, both of whom used live bands.

Any textural dimensions of Paul’s rap-reggae fusion were pretty much obliterated by a sound mix that elevated the bass and bass drum above all else, and combined with a resonant frequency in the onstage speaker cabinets that reduced everything the bassist was playing to a single monotonous tone.

R&B; singer Frankie J has a winning smile and comfortable way with ballads that endeared him to the females on hand, but his seven-song set didn’t come across with anything truly special. The Pussycat Dolls were born as a satirical burlesque revue, but somewhere along the line someone forgot to tell the six sex kittens who now front the group that all the vamping is supposed to be a joke.

Show opener Rihanna, at 17, would like to be Beyonce, but she put more effort during her 15 minutes in the spotlight into her hip shakes than her vocals, which often continued emanating from speakers even when she moved the microphone away from her mouth during some of those kinetic dance moves.