Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll (born February 2, 1977), known professionally as Shakira (pronounced /ʃəˈkɪərə/, Spanish: [tʃaˈkiɾa] or [ʃaˈkiɾa]),is a Colombian singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, dancer, and philanthropist who 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 Middle Eastern 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 50 million albums worldwide according to Sony Music Entertainment. Her U.S. album sales stand at 9.6 million.
In the fall of 2009, Shakira released her sixth album She Wolf worldwide. 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 300 million views. Her seventh studio album, the bilingual Sale el Sol, was released October 2010 and has shipped over 4 million copies worldwide.
Records and achievements:
According to Sony, Shakira is the highest-selling Colombian artist of all time, having sold more than 50 million albums worldwide.
According to Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems, "Hips Don't Lie" was the most-played pop song in a single week in American radio history. It was played 9,637 times in one week.
Shakira became the first artist in the history of the Billboard charts to earn the coveted number one spots on both the Top 40 Mainstream and Latin Chart in the same week doing so with "Hips Don't Lie".
"La Tortura" broke the record on the Billboard's Hot Latin Tracks chart, appearing at #1 more than any other single (a total of 25 non-consecutive weeks).
According to Yahoo!, "Hips Don't Lie" is the Best-Selling Single of the Last 10 Years.
According to Forbes Magazine, Shakira was the fourth highest-earning woman in music for 2008 behind Madonna, Barbra Streisand and Celine Dion.
According to Nokia, Shakira has topped more music downloads in the last year than any other Latino artist has in five, and She Wolf topped the Top 10 Latino downloads.
Additionally, she is the only artist from South America to reach the number-one spot on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, the Australian ARIA chart, and the UK Singles Chart.
Shakira was to be given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2009, but turned the offer down citing that she did not want to be considered a star of Hollywood.
In 2010, Shakira was ranked number five on the 'Online Video's Most Viral Artists of 2010' with 404,118,932 views.
Shakira has become a Youtube sensation having surpassed 1 billion views on the website with Waka Waka accounting for over 250,000,000 views this year alone. She is the third person ever to have done this, after Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber.
