Shakira

One of the most influential female artists of the 21st century, Shakira is credited with opening the doors of the international market for other Latin artists.

Multiple sources:

She has received numerous awards, including three Grammy Awards, fourteen Latin Grammy Awards, five MTV Video Music Awards (including the 2023 Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award), seven Billboard Music Awards, thirty-nine Billboard Latin Music Awards, twenty-one Guinness World Records, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll (, ; born 2 February 1977), known mononymously as Shakira, is a Colombian singer and songwriter.

Born and raised in Barranquilla, she has been referred to as the "Queen of Latin Music" and has been praised for her musical versatility.

She made her recording debut with Sony Music Colombia at the age of 13.

Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll was born on 2 February 1977 in Barranquilla, Colombia.

She is the only child of William Mebarak Chadid and Nidia Ripoll Torrado.

She is of Spanish and Lebanese descent.

Her father William was born in New York City to a family from Lebanon.

When he was five, his family moved to Colombia.

Following the commercial failure of her first two albums, Magia (1991) and Peligro (1993), she rose to prominence in Hispanic countries with her next albums, Pies Descalzos (1995) and Dónde Están los Ladrones? (1998).

She was named the Top Female Latin Artist of the Decade by Billboard twice (2000s and 2010s).

She entered the English-language market with her fifth album, Laundry Service (2001), which sold over 13 million copies worldwide.

Buoyed by the international success of her singles "Whenever, Wherever" and "Underneath Your Clothes", the album propelled her reputation as a leading crossover artist.

Broadcast Music, Inc. described Shakira as a "pioneer" who extended the global reach of Latino singers.

In 2022, MTV included her in the list of "The Most Influential Women in the History of Music", being the only Latina on the list.

Her success was further solidified with the Spanish albums Fijación Oral, Vol. 1 (2005), Sale el Sol (2010), and El Dorado (2017), all of which topped the Billboard Top Latin Albums chart and were certified diamond (Latin) by the Recording Industry Association of America.

Meanwhile, her English albums Oral Fixation, Vol. 2 (2005), She Wolf (2009), and Shakira (2014) were all certified gold, platinum, or multi-platinum in various countries worldwide.

Some of her songs have charted at number one in multiple countries, including "Inevitable", "Whenever, Wherever", "La Tortura", "Hips Don't Lie", "Beautiful Liar", "Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)", "Loca", "Rabiosa", "Can't Remember to Forget You", "Dare (La La La)", "Chantaje", "Me Gusta", "Te Felicito", "Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53", and "TQG".

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.

She 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.

She served as a coach on two seasons of the American singing competition television series The Voice (2013–2014).

Her mother's side has two Spanish surnames, Ripoll and Torrado, the former of which 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.