Shakira

Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll (/ʃəˈkɪərə/ shə-KEER-ə, Spanish: [ʃaˈkiɾa isaˈβel meβaˈɾak riˈpol]; born 2 February 1977), known mononymously as Shakira, is a Colombian singer-songwriter. She has had a significant impact on the musical landscape of Latin America and has been credited with popularizing Hispanophone music on a global level. The recipient of various accolades, she has won four Grammy Awards and fifteen Latin Grammy Awards, including three Song of the Year wins.

Shakira made her recording debut with Sony Music Colombia at the age of 14. Following the commercial failure of her first two albums, Magia (1991) and Peligro (1993), she rose to prominence with the next two, Pies Descalzos (1995) and Dónde Están los Ladrones? (1998). Shakira entered the English-language market with her fifth album, Laundry Service (2001), which sold over 15 million copies worldwide, becoming the best-selling album of all time by a female Latin artist. Her success was further solidified with the Spanish-language albums Fijación Oral, Vol. 1 (2005), Sale el Sol (2010), El Dorado (2017), and Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran (2024), all of which topped the Billboard Top Latin Albums chart, making her the first woman with number-one albums across four different decades. Her English-language albums Oral Fixation, Vol. 2 (2005), She Wolf (2009), and Shakira (2014) received platinum certifications in various countries worldwide.

Shakira scored numerous number-one singles and other top songs worldwide, including "Estoy Aquí", "Ciega, Sordomuda", "Ojos Así", "Whenever, Wherever", "Underneath Your Clothes", "Objection (Tango)", "La Tortura", "Hips Don't Lie", "Beautiful Liar", "She Wolf", "Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)", "Loca", "Rabiosa", "Can't Remember to Forget You", "Dare (La La La)", "La Bicicleta", "Chantaje", "Te Felicito", "Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53", and "TQG". Shakira served as a coach on two seasons of the American singing competition television series The Voice (2013–2014), had a voice role in the animated film Zootopia (2016), and executive produced and judged the dance competition series Dancing with Myself (2022).

With over 140 million records sold worldwide, Shakira is one of the world's best-selling musicians. Noted to be a "global phenom" whose impact has "reached every corner of the world", Shakira has been described as an "artistic link between the west and the east" for popularizing Middle Eastern sounds in the West, and western sounds in the East (mainly the Middle East). She is credited with opening the doors of the international market for other Latin artists. Billboard named her the Top Female Latin Artist of the Decade twice (2000s and 2010s). For her philanthropic work with her Barefoot Foundation and her contributions to music, she received the Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year and Harvard Foundation Artist of the Year awards in 2011. Shakira was appointed to the President's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics in the United States in 2011, and Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government in 2012.

Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll was born on 2 February 1977 in Barranquilla, Colombia. Her name means "thankful" in Arabic. She is the only child of William Mebarak Chadid and Nidia Ripoll Torrado. Her family is of Spanish and Lebanese descent. Shakira's great-grandmother on her father's side emigrated to Sincelejo, Colombia from Lebanon. After establishing in Colombia, Shakira's grandmother was born, who gave birth to Shakira's father, William, in New York City. When he was around five, his family moved back to Colombia. Shakira's grandfather on her mother's side, Tomás Eduardo Ripoll, was born in Barranquilla whereas her grandmother, Josefina Torrado Núñez, was born in Ábrego. The Spanish surnameTorrado of her grandmother on her mother's side is Catalan and originates from four brothers who immigrated from Catalonia to coastal Colombia in the 19th century. She has also stated that she has distant Italian roots through an ancestor with the surname "Pisciotti". She was raised Catholic and attended Catholic schools. She has eight older half-siblings from her father's previous marriage. Shakira spent much of her youth in Barranquilla, a city located on the northern Caribbean coast of Colombia.

Shakira wrote her first poem, titled "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 that typewriter at age seven, and has continued writing poetry since then. These poems eventually evolved into songs. When Shakira was two years old, her older half-brother was killed, at the age of nineteen, in a motorcycle accident; six years later, at age eight, Shakira wrote her first song, titled "Tus gafas oscuras" ('Your dark glasses'), which was inspired by her father, who for years wore dark glasses to hide his grief.

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 Middle-Eastern music and which typically accompanied belly dancing. She started dancing on the table, and the experience made her realize that she wanted to be a performer. She enjoyed singing for schoolmates and teachers (and even the nuns) at her Catholic school, but in second grade, she 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 was often sent out of the class because of her hyperactivity. She says she had also 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. To instill gratitude in Shakira for her upbringing, her father took her to a local park to see orphans who lived there. 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 this approximate 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 Bogotá, Ariza convinced Sony Music 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 Music Colombia 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". Undaunted and still convinced that Shakira had talent, Vargas set up an audition in Bogotá. He arranged for Sony Music 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 Entertainment (Colombia) from 1990, when she was only 13 years old. The songs are a collection composed by her since she was eight and by others, mixed pop-rock ballads and disco uptempo songs with electronic accompaniment and some live musicians. The album was released in June 1991 and featured "Magia" (provided with a music video, as was "Sueños") 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 as only 1,200 copies were sold in Colombia. After the poor performance of Magia, Shakira's label urged her to return to the studio to release a follow-up record. Little known outside of her native Colombia at the time, Shakira was invited to perform at Chile's Viña 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 the then 20-year-old Ricky Martin.

Shakira's second studio album, titled Peligro, was released in March 1993. More developed than Magia, it lists many musicians who participated in the recordings, has fuller sound and features a video for "Tú Serás la Historia de Mi Vida". But Shakira was not pleased with the final result, mainly taking issue with the production. The album was better received than Magia had been, though it was also considered a commercial failure due to Shakira's refusal to advertise or promote it. Of the eighteen songs presented on Magia and Peligro, nine were written by Shakira. In her later work, Shakira generally did not refer to or perform songs from the first two albums. From 1994 to 1997, Shakira starred in the Colombian TV series El Oasis, loosely based on the 1985 Armero tragedy.

Shakira originally recorded her song "¿Dónde Estás Corazón?" (later included on her album Pies Descalzos) for the compilation album Nuestro Rock Volumen II, released in Colombia in 1994.

Having been moved up in her class work ahead of her age, Shakira graduated from secondary school when she was 15, but her professional involvement in music prevented her from continuing formal education. On starting her career so early, she later said: "I wouldn't have done anything different myself [...] though I think I missed out on adolescence. I never misbehaved when I was a teenager and that's something you've got to do. I was so focused on my goals. I was already an adult when I was 14. Maybe I'll have a belated adolescence when I'm old".

Recording for Shakira's third studio album and her international debut album, titled Pies Descalzos, started in February 1995, after the success of her song "¿Dónde Estás Corazón?". Its reception motivated the Sony Music Entertainment (Colombia) label to commission Shakira to produce a complete rock album. She did songwriting and recording with Luis Fernando Ochoa, her principal music collaborator for her next three albums: Pies Descalzos, The Remixes and Dónde Están los Ladrones?. Pies Descalzos and Dónde Están los Ladrones? are Shakira's most important albums. The Remixes, mostly Pies Descalzos music redone as dance pieces, is a highly popular album where Shakira showcases newly recorded songs and vocals, while Ochoa demonstrates his instrument playing and music production skills. DJ Memê (Marcello Mansur), Pablo Florez and Javier Garza remixed many of the songs. With Pies Descalzos, Shakira began using musical influences from a number of world regions and genres, the trend she continued and cultivated later in her career.