Shakira was born on February 2, 1977 in Barranquilla, Colombia. She is the only child of Nidyadel Carmen Ripoll Torrado and William MebarakChadid who are of Lebanese, Spanish (Catalan) and Italian descent. She has 8 older half siblings from her father's previous marriage.
Shakira means "thankful" in Arabic. It is the feminine form of the name Shakir. Her second name, Isabel, is also that of her paternal grandmother, meaning "my God is my oath", "my God's house" or "my God is abundance", and her name is even and simply a Spanish given name for Elizabeth. Her second surname name Ripoll is Catalan. She spent much of her youth in Barranquilla, a city located in northern Colombia. Shakira is also noted for her keen intellect and has scored well on IQ tests.
Shakira wrote her first poem, entitled "La Rosa De Cristal" ("The Crystal Rose") when she was only four years old. As she was growing up, she was fascinated watching her father writing stories on a typewriter, and asked for one as a Christmas gift. She got her wish at age seven and continued writing poetry. These poems eventually evolved into songs. At the age of eight, after an older half-brother was killed in a motorcycle accident, Shakira wrote her first song entitled "Tusgafasoscuras" ("Your dark glasses").
When Shakira was four, her father took her to a local Middle Eastern restaurant, where Shakira first heard the doumbek, a traditional drum used in Arabic music and which typically accompanied belly dancing. Before she knew it, Shakira was dancing on the table, as restaurant patrons responded by clapping enthusiastically. It was then that Shakira said she knew she wanted to be a performer. She enjoyed singing for schoolmates and teachers (and even the nuns) at her Catholic school, but in the second grade was rejected for the school choir because her vibrato was too strong. The music teacher told her that she sounded "like a goat". At school, she says she had been known as "the belly dancer girl", as she would demonstrate every Friday at school a number she had learned. "That's how I discovered my passion for live performance," she says.
When she was eight, Shakira's father declared bankruptcy. While the details were sorted out, she stayed with relatives in Los Angeles. On returning to Barranquilla, she was shocked to find that much of what her parents owned had been sold; as she later said "In my childish head, this was the end of the world." To show her that things could be worse, her father took her to a local park to see orphans who lived there, sniffing glue. The images stayed with her and she said to herself "one day I?m going to help these kids when I become a famous artist."
Between the ages of ten and thirteen Shakira was invited to various events in Barranquilla and gained some recognition in the area. It was at about this time that she met local theater producer Monica Ariza, who was impressed with her and as a result tried to help her career. During a flight from Barranquilla to Bogot?,Ariza convinced Sony Colombia executive Ciro Vargas to hold an audition for Shakira in a hotel lobby. Vargas held Shakira in high regard and, returning to the Sony office, gave the cassette to a song and artist director. However, the director was not overly excited and thought Shakira was something of "a lost cause". Vargas, not daunted, was still convinced that Shakira had talent, and set up an audition in Bogot?. He arranged for Sony Colombia executives to arrive at the audition, with the idea of surprising them with Shakira's performance.
She performed three songs for the executives and impressed them enough for her to be signed to record three albums.Shakira's debut album, Magia, was recorded with Sony Music in 1990 when she was only thirteen years old. The songs are a collection penned by her since she was 8, mixed pop-rock ballads and disco with electronic accompaniment, however it was hampered by a lack of recording and production cohesion. The album was released in 1991 and featured Magia and three other singles. Though it fared well on Colombian radio and gave the young Shakira much exposure, the album did not fare well commercially: only 1,200 copies were sold. and the music video for Magia became first national pop video in Colombia. After the poor acclaim of Magia, Shakira's label urged her back into the studio to release a follow up with more hit songs, to give the album potential.
Although little known outside of her native Colombia, Shakira was invited to perform at Chile's Vi?a del Mar International Song Festival in February 1993. The festival gave aspiring Latin American singers a chance to perform their songs, and the winner was then chosen by a panel of judges. Shakira performed the ballad "Eres" ("You Are") and won the trophy for third place. One of the judges who voted for her to win was then 20-year-old Ricky Martin.
The second studio album Peligro of the same genre was released in 1993, but Shakira was not pleased with the final result, mainly taking issue with the production. The album was better received than ??Magia??, though it was also considered a commercial failure, due to Shakira's refusal to advertise it. Shakira then decided to take a hiatus from recording so that she could graduate from high school. In the same year, Shakira starred in the Colombian TV Series "The Oasis", loosely based on the Armero tragedy in 1985.
Shakira originally recorded the song ?D?ndeEst?sCoraz?n? (later released on her album Pies Descalzos) for the compilation album "Nuestro Rock" in 1995, released exclusively in Colombia. ?D?ndeEst?sCoraz?n? was the only hit off the album. This allowed Sony to give Shakira a third attempt at making an album.
Shakira returned to recording in 1995 with Luis F. Ochoa, using musical influences from a number of countries and an Alanis Morissette-oriented persona which affected some of her next albums, and made her third studio album, Pies Descalzos (English: Bare Feet). Recording for the album began in February 1995, after the success of her single ?D?ndeEst?sCoraz?n?. Sony gave Shakira $100,000 to produce the album since they predicted that the album would not sell past 100,000 copies. Starting with this album, Shakira began producing her own music, perfecting her vocals and most of all, creative control over her music. Highly influenced by American alternative market and British groups such as The Pretenders, the album was decently presented at small auditorium at La Castilian Theater in Bogot? on October 6, 1995. The tunes of the album are melodic, musically surprising and gritty, with intellectual lyrics and an electronic/acoustic blend that effectively broke the formulaic mold of Latin pop with an authentic sound that hadn?t been heard before.
The album released on February 13, 1996 internationally. It debuted at #1 in 8 different countries. However, in the U.S. Billboard 200 the album reached #180 peak position and #5 in the U.S. Billboard Top Latin Albums. The album spawned six ultimate hit-singles EstoyAqui (U.S. Latin #2), ?D?ndeEst?sCoraz?n? (U.S. Latin #5), Pies Descalzos, Sue?osBlancos, Un Poco De Amor (U.S. Latin #6), Antologia (U.S. Latin #15) and Se Quiere, Se Mata (U.S. Latin #8). In August 1996, RIAA certified the album platinum status.
In March 1996, Shakira went on to her first international tour named simply ?Tour Pies Descalzos?, that was saddened by death of several fans because of uncontrolled crowd of 50,000 people at the concert in the singer?s native city of Barranquilla. A year later, Shakira received three Billboard Latin Music Awards for Album of the Year (Pies Descalzos), Video of the Year (EstoyAqui) and Best New Artist.Pies Descalzos sold over 5 million copies, prompting the release of a remix album, titled simply The Remixes. The Remixes also included Portuguese versions of some of her best-known songs, which were recorded as a result of her success in the Brazilian market, where Pies Descalzos sold nearly one million copies.
Having received a World Music Award as the best selling Latin artist, Shakira already prepared some of new material of her second international record. She was chosen from dozens of Latin singers to grace the cover of Time magazine in the article titled Era of the Rockera.
Her fourth album, ?D?ndeEst?n Los Ladrones? (English: Where Are The Thieves?) produced entirely by Shakira herself and Emilio Estefan, Jr. as the executive, was released on September 28, 1998. The album, inspired by an incident in an airport in which a suitcase full of her written lyrics was stolen, became a bigger hit than Pies Descalsos.On the day of its official release in Miami the album sold to 300,000 copies in one day. All Music Guide and Rolling Stone gave to the album 4.5/5 stars and DondeEstan Los Ladrones has reached #131 peak position in the U.S. Billboard 200 and charting 11 weeks top spot on theBillboard Top Latin Albums. It sold over 1,500,000 copies in the U.S. alone, making it one of the best selling Spanish albums in the U.S. Eight of the album's eleven tracks became singles, including Ciega, Sordomuda (U.S. Latin #1), Moscas En La Casa (U.S. Latin #25), No Creo (U.S. Latin #9, U.S. #74), Inevitable (U.S. Latin #3), T? (U.S. Latin #1, U.S. #95), Si Te Vas, Octavo D?a, and the world-famous, Arabic tinged Ojos As? (U.S. Latin #22). The latter two songs wonShakira one Latin Grammy each.
Eventually, DondeEstan Los Ladrones has sold ten million copies worldwide. Shakira also received her first Grammy Award nomination in 1999 for Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album. Shakira's first live album,MTV Unplugged was recorded in New York City on August 12, 1999. Highly acclaimed by American critics, it is rated as one of her best-ever live performances. The acoustic album earned the Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop Album in 2001 and gained sales of 5 million CD?s worldwide. In March 2000, Shakira embarked on her Tour Anfibio, a two-month tour of Latin America and the United States. In August 2000, she won an MTV Video Music Award in the now-defunct category of People's Choice - Favorite International Artist for Ojos Asi. On September 9, 2000, Shakira performed Ojos As? at the inaugural ceremony of Latin Grammy Awards, where she was nominated in five categories: Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album for MTV Unplugged, Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for Octavo Dia, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Best Short Form Music Video for Ojos Asi, but she won only in two of them. Shakira's performance of Ojos Asi was voted as the Greatest Latin Grammy performance of all time.
Upon the success of ?D?ndeEst?n Los Ladrones? and MTV Unplugged, Shakira began working on a crossover album to English. Thanks to other successful crossover acts, most notably that of Ricky Martin and Enrique Iglesias, the crossover of Spanish artists to the English market had a great surge of popularity in mainstream music and it was the next logical step in the singer?s career. Shakira worked for over a year on new material for the album.
"Whenever, Wherever" ("Suerte" in Spanish countries) was released as the first and lead single from Shakira's first English album in October 2001. The song takes heavy influence from Andean music, including the charango and panpipes in its instrumentation. The track was produced by Shakira, and it was an international success.
The third international, the fifth studio and the first English language album Laundry Service (Servicio De Lavanderia in Spanish countries) was released on November 13, 2001.
The album debuted at number three on the U.S. Billboard 200 Albums chart. Seven tracks became international singles: "Whenever, Wherever" (U.S. #6) / "Suerte" (U.S. Latin #1), Underneath Your Clothes (U.S. #9), Objection (Tango) (U.S. #55) / TeAviso, TeAnuncio (Tango) (U.S. Latin #16), The One, TeDejo Madrid, Que Me Quedes T? (U.S. Latin #1) and Poem To A Horse, as the main theme of Shakira?s worldwide tour, the Tour of the Mongoose. Because the album was created with the intent of selling to an English language market, the rock and Spanish dance-influenced album gained mild critical success: some critics claimed that her English skills were too weak for her to write in it with Rolling Stone stating ?she sounds downright silly? or ?Shakira?s magic is lost in translation?.
Shakira also was criticized by her Latin fans for seemingly abandoning her folk and rock roots in favor of contemporary American pop music. Despite this fact, the album became the best selling album of 2002 worldwide, selling extremely well ?more than 20 million copies worldwide. and became the most successful album in singer?s career. Around this time, Shakira also released four songs for Pepsi for her promotion in the English markets: "Ask for More", "Pide Mas", "Knock on My Door" and "Pideme El Sol".
Shakira also was criticized by her Latin fans for seemingly abandoning her folk and rock roots in favor of contemporary American pop music. Despite this fact, the album became the best selling album of 2002 worldwide, selling extremely well ?more than 20 million copies worldwide. and became the most successful album in singer?s career. Around this time, Shakira also released four songs for Pepsi for her promotion in the English markets: "Ask for More", "Pide Mas", "Knock on My Door" and "Pideme El Sol".
At Aerosmith's MTV Icon in April 2002, Shakira performed "Dude (Looks Like a Lady)". Also in 2002, Shakira joined the likes of Cher, Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Mary J. Blige, Anastacia, and the Dixie Chicks for VH1 Divas Live Las Vegas. In September 2002, Shakira won the now-defunct International Viewer's Choice Award at the MTV Video Music Awards with "Whenever, Wherever". Shakira also won the Latin Grammy Award for the category of Best Short Form Music Video for the Spanish version of this video. In October of that year, she won five MTV Video Music Awards Latin America for "Best Female Artist", "Best Pop Artist", "Best Artist?North (Region)", "Video of the Year" (for "Suerte"), and "Artist of the Year".Laundry Service was certified triple platinum by RIAA in June and thus helped to establish Shakira's musical presence in the mainstream North American market.
In November 2002, Shakira?s label Sony BMG released her Spanish greatest hits compilation Grandes ?xitos. A DVD and ten-track live album, called Live &Off the Record, was also released in 2004, reaching sales of 3 million CDs worldwide, and commemorating the Tour of the Mongoose, which had a worldwide audience of 1.2 million people.
The English version, “Oral Fixation Vol. 2,” came out in November 2005. Like its predecessor, it set a few records of its own. The single “Hips Don’t Lie,” featuring Wyclef Jean, reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became the most played song in the history of pop radio as her fans could not get enough of the sexy tune. The trip to the top made Shakira the only Colombian artist to land at No. 1.
In another sign of Shakira’s now- realized status as both a Spanish and Anglo superstar, “Hips Don’t Lie” landed at #1 on Billboard’s Top 40 Mainstream chart and No. #1 on the Latin song chart in the same week, marking the first time a song hit the top of both charts simultaneously.
The song was also a digital phenomenon, selling a record-breaking 266,500 downloads in its first week. It hit the million downloads mark faster than any other tune and, to date, has been downloaded more than 1.5 million times. “Hips Don’t Lie” also proved to be an extremely popular ringtone worldwide.
“Fijacion Oral Vol. 1” proved as popular with critics as with fans: in February 2006, Shakira won the Grammy for Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album. The album also captured a slew of Latin Grammys, including album of the year. In April 2006, Shakira also received six Billboard Latin Music Awards for the album. Last year, she was additionally honored with the Spirit of Hope Award for her 12-year-old Fundación Pies Descalzos (Bare Feet Foundation), which aids child victims of violence in Colombia by providing education, emotional, nutritional, psychological and medical support.
The English version also captured its share of accolades. “Hips Don’t Lie” snared a Grammy nomination for best pop collaboration with vocals in 2007. She was the most nominated artist for the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards, taking home the statue for best choreography. “Oral Fixation” has sold more than 8 million copies.
With both the English and Spanish versions whetting her fans’ appetites around the world for the real thing, the Colombian star took to the road on her biggest world tour yet in June 2006. The 140-date outing touched fans in North America, Europe, Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America and sold out 98% of the shows, including concerts at New York’s prestigious Madison Square Garden, Miami’s American Airlines Arena and Los Angeles’ Staples Center. Shakira once again made history when she performed in front of more than 200,000 fans at Mexico City’s Plaza del Zocalo, the largest crowd in Mexican history. She also played in front of the pyramids in Egypt and for the first time in Dubai.
Shakira proved equally popular with her fellow superstars as with her fans. She became the go-to girl they sought out to sing with. Shakiraduetted with Alejandro Sanz on “Te lo Agradezco, Pero No.” In 2007, she teamed with Beyonce for their international hit “Beautiful Liar” from the deluxe edition of Beyonce’s “B’Day” album. In addition to topping the chart in 12 territories, the song set the record for the largest jump ever on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. by soaring 91 positions from No. 94 to No. 3 in one week. It also debuted at No. 1 on both the Hot Digital Tracks and Hot Digital Songs charts. Shakira also appeared on Miguel Bose’s “Si Tu No Vuelves,” from his career-spanning collection “Papito.”
Never known to sit still or rest on her laurels, Shakira is now trying her hand at writing music for films. She has co-written and recorded two songs for November’s “Love in the Time of Cholera,” the movie version of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s international bestseller starring Javier Bardem. She also plans to continue her education by studying both history and art. In addition to Fundación Pies Descalzos, she launched a new charity, ALAS (Latin America in Solidary Action) . The foundation, funded by private donations and non-governmental organizations, endeavors to contribute to building a prosperous Latin America that can provide health care for its children. Shakira and many of her fellow artists, including Juanes, Sanz, Bose, Ricky Martin, Maná and others, also committed to performing regular benefits to raise funds for ALAS.
Regardless of which direction her interests take her, Shakira will always return to music and to her fans but her place in music history is already secure. According to the United World Chart, with three years to go, she is already the fourth most successful artist of the 2000s. From the Grammys, the Latin Grammys and the MTV Video Music Awards to her role as an ambassador for the UNICEF to her foundations Pies Descalzos and ALAS, Shakira’s contributions have been ambitious and yet, at the same time, she makes them, somehow, appear effortless. Just like you’d expect from someone full of grace.According to BMI, 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, which is apparently the best-selling single since 2000.
