Shakira Isabel Mebarak
Ripoll, known professionally as Shakira, was born in 1977 on February 2. This Colombian singer, songwriter, musician,
record producer, dancer, and philanthropist emerged in the music scene of
Colombia and Latin America in the early 1990s. Born and raised in Barranquilla,
Colombia, Shakira revealed many of her talents in school as a live performer,
demonstrating her vocal ability with rock and roll, Latin and Arabic influences
with her own original twist on belly dancing. Shakira is a native Spanish
speaker and also speaks fluent English and Portuguese as well as some Italian,
French and Arabic.
After commercial flops
with local producers on her first two albums, and being little-known outside
Colombia, Shakira decided to produce her own brand of music. In 1995 she
released Pies Descalzos, which brought her great fame in Latin America and
Spain, and her 1998 album ¿Dónde Están los Ladrones? was a critical success
selling over 7 million copies worldwide.
In 2001, aided by the worldwide success of her first English single
"Whenever, Wherever" that became the best selling single of 2002, she
broke through into the English-speaking world with the release of Laundry
Service, which sold over 13 million copies worldwide. Four years later, Shakira released two album
projects called Fijación Oral Vol. 1 and Oral Fixation Vol. 2. Both reinforced
her success, particularly with the best selling song of the 2000s, "Hips
Don't Lie".
In 1995, Shakira
founded the Pies Descalzos Foundation. It is a Colombian charity with special
schools for poor children all around Colombia. During her career, Shakira has
performed at a large number of benefit concerts. Among the most famous are the
Live 8 benefit concert in July 2005, the Live Earth concert, Hamburg where she
headlined the show, as well as the "Clinton Global Initiative"
created by former US President Bill Clinton. She was also invited to the Oval
Office by President Barack Obama in February 2010 to discuss early childhood
development.
She has won two Grammy
Awards, seven Latin Grammy Awards, twelve Billboard Latin Music Awards and has been
Golden Globe-nominated. She is also the
highest-selling Colombian artist of all time, and the second most successful
female Latin singer after Gloria Estefan, having sold over 60 million albums
worldwide according to Sony Music Entertainment. Her U.S. album sales stand at 9.9 million.
In the fall of 2009,
Shakira released her sixth studio album She Wolf worldwide gaining a lot of
critical praise for her eccentricity and writing skills. The album sold roughly
2 million copies around the world. Shakira's "Waka Waka (This Time for
Africa)", was chosen as the official song for the 2010 FIFA World
Cup. The song has received generally
positive critical reception, and has become a worldwide smash hit and the
biggest selling World Cup song of all time.
On YouTube, the English version of the music video is the 3rd most
watched video of all time with over 370 million views. When she released her seventh studio album,
the bilingual Sale el Sol in October 2010, she gained back her Latin following,
which Shakira described as being the main goal for the album. The album has
sold over 2 million copies worldwide.
She was engaged to the
son of the former President of Argentina, Antonio de la Rúa. Their relationship
lasted almost 11 years and ended in August 2010. She is now dating Spanish footballer Gerard
Piqué and confirmed their relationship in March 2011.