Colombian singer-songwriter, dancer and record producer Shakira was born 49 years ago as Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll in Barranquilla, Atlantico, is in a relationship and has 2 kids.
When she was just 4 years old, Shakira wrote her first poem and continued to do so in the following years. She also started showing interest in music and composed her first song at the age of 8. Once, her dad took her with him in a restaurant and since she loved to dance, she gave a belly dancing show and continued giving these demonstrations in her school as well. Shakira then competed in a TV talent contest and won first prize. She continued performing in her local area and got recognised by a theatre producer who persuaded a record company to let her audition for them. She interpreted 3 songs which impressed the company’s executives, so much so, that at the age of 13 signed her very first record contract.
So, in 1990, she embarked on a singing career and her debut album was released the following year. Her second album came out two years later. i.e. in 1993, but both the debut and this album were commercial failures. Shakira then made a career breakthrough with the release of her third album in 1995 named ‘Pies Descalzos’. It reached number 5 on the US charts, featured 6 singles which made it in the US Latin chart Top 20 and sold more than 5 million copies. Following this big success, Shakira embarked on her first international tour which included 118 shows over a period of 2 years.
In 1998, Shakira’s 4th album came out and was even more successful than the previous one. So far, all her albums were in her native Spanish language and to enable her enter the US music market, she recorded her 5th album which including the majority of the tracks sung in the English language with the help of her manager Emilio Estefan and his wife Gloria, who also aided her in ameliorating her English.
This album featured the number one international hit single ‘Whenever, Wherever’ as well as other successful tracks like ‘Underneath Your Clothes’, ‘Te Dejo Madrid’ and ‘Que Me, Quedes Tu’.
From then to date, Shakira had 7 more studio albums and over 45 singles as lead artist. She has also collaboration with numerous other artists and sang in duet with them as well as appearing on their albums. Another famous track is undoubtedly ‘Waka Waka – this time for Africa’ which was the official song for the 2010 World Cup.
Shakira is also an avid philanthropist and over the years has founded as well as helped numerous charitable institutions, particularly those regarding children.
Apart from music, she is also involved in different businesses and has also appeared in some movies and TV shows.
To date, Shakira won an impressive 455 rewards out of 1012 nominations. These include 5 American Music, 9 BDSCertified Spin, 47 Billboard Latin Music, 24 BMI Latin, 4 Grammy and 6 World Music, amongst many others. She also received numerous others honours from several countries including the US, Spain, France and Argentina.
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