Shakira Fans Blog

Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll was born on February 2, 1977 in Barranquilla, Atlántico in Colombia. She is popularly known as Shakira and is a singer, songwriter, instrumentalist, record producer, philanthropist, dancer and an actress but acts occasionally. Shakira means ‘grateful’ in Arabic. She has spent most of her childhood in Northern Columbia and is the only daughter of Nidia del Carmen Ripoll Torrado, who is a Columbian with ancestors from Spain and Italy and William Mebarak Chadid who is of a Lebanese descend. She wrote her first poem at the age of 4 which was titled “La Rosa De Cristal”. She grew up seeing her father writing stories who became her idol. She got typewriter as a gift from her father at the age of 7 and started writing poems which eventually turned into songs. At an early age of eight she lost her brother in a motorcycle accident. This incident inspired Shakira to write her first song "Tus gafas oscuras" ("Your dark glasses"). Shakira has played a major role in the world of pop music in Latin America after her debut in the 1990’s.

Shakira stands number one on the Billboard Hot 100, the Australian ARIA chart, the United world Chart and the UK Singles Chart making her the first and the only artist from South America to reach this spot. Shakira is largest selling Columbian star whose albums have been sold more than 50 million copies worldwide according to BMI. Shakira has won the Grammy Award twice and has won the Latin Grammy Award seven times. At an early age of four, Shakira had decided to become a performer as she enjoyed singing schoolmates and teachers. In the second grade of the Catholic school she was rejected from the choir as her vibrato was too strong.

From the very school days she was known as the belly dancer and her objective was clear in her mind. Shakira had already started gaining reputation from the age of ten as she was invited to various events in Barranquilla. It was at this time when she met a local theatre producer called Monica Ariza who helped her groom her career. In a journey from Barranquilla to Bogota, Ariza met Sony Columbia Executive Ciro Vargas. After Ariza convinced Vargas, he agreed to hold an audition for Shakira in the hotel lobby. Vargas liked Shakira’s performance and on his return to the office he handed over the cassette to the artist director who had no hope on Shakira after listening to the cassette. Vargas not losing hope organized an audition for Shakira at Bogota and made the director and executives of Sony visit the program. As planned they liked the three songs she sang and decided to sign her for the next three albums.

In 1991, Shakira recorded her debut album with Sony Music which was called Magia. She was only 14 years at this time but this album did not do well and not even 1000 copies were sold. Her second album Peligro was released in 1993 but Shakira was not pleased with the performance of this album too. In February 1993, for the first time Shakira was asked to perform at Chile's Viña del Mar International Song Festival. At this festival Shakira sang the song “Eres” which means You Are and won the third prize. Ricky Martin was among one of the judges who had voted for her to win. After this she decided to take a break from recording and persuade her studies in the high school. Shakira made a break with a very hit song and was called Dónde Estás Corazón and this album was sold in Columbia only. Seeing this success Sony allowed Shakira to record her third album which made Shakira to return back to recording in 1995.

She recorded her third album Pies Descalzos which was very successful in Latin America. More than 5 million copies of this album was sold and this led to the release of its mixes called The Remixes. The Remixes included some of her other hit songs making this album a super success also in Brazil, where there was a sale of about than 1 million copies. It was with the release of her fourth album in 1998 when she started gaining popularity in other countries like France, Turkey, Switzerland, United States and Canada. This album was called Dónde Están Los Ladrones and eight tracks of this album became singles like "Ciega, Sordomuda", "Moscas En La Casa", "No Creo", "Inevitable", "Tú", "Si Te Vas", "Octavo Día", and "Ojos Así". It was then that she composed her first live album "Estoy Aquí" which was called MTV Unplugged.

In August 2000 she won MTV Video Music Award which is now popularly called the People's Choice - Favorite International Artist. In 2001 along with Gloria Estefan she wrote and recorded the English version of the songs from Dónde Están Los Ladrones. It was followed by the album Laundry Service which was made to target the English market. This album also featured 4 other Spanish songs. This album made Shakira famous in the North American market as well as in India. In 2002, Shakira released Grandes exitos which is a compilation of her Spanish greatest hits. In 2004, a DVD and ten track compilation was released which was called the Live and Off The Band which sold around 3 million copies worldwide. This led to Shakira’s world tour called the Tour of the Mongoose. In October 2002, Shakira won 5 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.

In 2005 Shakira made public announcement for her project Fijación Oral Vol. 1. At first the project was released in Ireland, then in Europe, followed by North America, Latin America and Australia. The sound track "La Tortura", ruled the Billboard Hot Latin Tracks for 25 weeks. Fijación Oral Vol. 1 entered Billboard 2000 at number four on June 15. This became the highest selling debut album in Spanish language in U.S. the album recorded a sale of more than 1 million copies in 3 days. Her single “No” topped Argentina, Spain and Colombia for 14 weeks. On February 8 2006, Shakira won her second Grammy Award for Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album. On February 27 2006, Shakira won six Billboard Latin Music Awards. She was also awarded with the Spirit of Hope Award for the Fundación Pies Descalzos. On November 29 2005, Oral Fixation Vol. 2 was released in North America, Australia, and in continental Europe. Her famous singles “Hips Don’t Lie” received six nominations in the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards. In June 2006, Shakira started her biggest trip of the world called the Oral Fixation Tour. In 2008 she will release her new album and will take part in Live 8 Latino. Shakira had started dating Antonio de la Rúa in 2000, who is the son of the president of Argentina. Antonio de la Rúa and Shakira are engaged and in future they have plans to marry. Shakira is famous for her dancing too and is the founder of the Pies Descalzos Foundation.