171 Facts About Shakira

Shakira has had a significant impact on the musical landscape of Latin America and has been credited with popularizing Hispanophone music on a global level.

Shakira made her recording debut with Sony Music Colombia at the age of 14.

Shakira entered the English-language market with her fifth album, Laundry Service, which sold over 15 million copies worldwide, becoming the best-selling album of all time by a female Latin artist.

Shakira's success was further solidified with the Spanish-language albums Fijacion Oral, Vol.

Shakira served as a coach on two seasons of the American singing competition television series The Voice, had a voice role in the animated film Zootopia, and executive produced and judged the dance competition series Dancing with Myself.

Shakira is credited with opening the doors of the international market for other Latin artists.

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.

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

Shakira's grandfather on her mother's side, Tomas Eduardo Ripoll, was born in Barranquilla whereas her grandmother, Josefina Torrado Nunez, was born in Abrego.

Shakira has stated that she has distant Italian roots through an ancestor with the surname "Pisciotti".

Shakira 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", when she was only four years old.

Shakira got that typewriter at age seven, and has continued writing poetry since then.

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", 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.

Shakira started dancing on the table, and the experience made her realize that she wanted to be a performer.

Shakira enjoyed singing for schoolmates and teachers at her Catholic school, but in second grade, she was rejected for the school choir because her vibrato was too strong.

Shakira says she had been known as "the belly dancer girl", as she would demonstrate every Friday at school a number she had learned.

Between the ages of ten and thirteen, Shakira was invited to various events in Barranquilla and gained some recognition in the area.

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 Bogota.

Shakira arranged for Sony Music Colombia executives to arrive at the audition, with the idea of surprising them with Shakira's performance.

Shakira performed three songs for the executives and impressed them enough for her to be signed to record three albums.

Little known outside of her native Colombia at the time, Shakira was invited to perform at Chile's Vina del Mar International Song Festival in February 1993.

Shakira performed the ballad "Eres" and won the trophy for third place.

From 1994 to 1997, Shakira starred in the Colombian TV series El Oasis, loosely based on the 1985 Armero tragedy.

In October 1995, Shakira commenced her first international tour, named simply Tour Pies Descalzos.

Besides singing, dancing and speaking to the assembled, Shakira played the guitar and, prominently at that time, harmonica.

Shakira's singing and movements reflected an "angry-young-woman-rock attitude", enthusiastically applauded by her audiences.

In 1997, Shakira received three Billboard Latin Music Awards for Album of the Year for Pies Descalzos, Video of the Year for "Estoy Aqui", and Best New Artist.

At 19, Shakira was the best-selling female pop rocker in Latin America.

Shakira was named a national cultural ambassador by the president of Colombia, a distinction she shares with the writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

In 1999, Shakira received a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Latin Rock or Alternative Album.

Shakira worked for over a year on new material for the album.

Shakira wrote or co-wrote each of the songs and Laundry Service was produced by her alone.

Shakira won the Latin Grammy Award for the category of Best Short Form Music Video for the Spanish version of the video.

Shakira worked on it for a year, secluded on the farm in Uruguay and at a rented house in the Bahamas.

The "tensions and conflicting desires between Latinx, Latin American and Anglo audiences" of Shakira had become apparent.

Shakira insisted that her only motivation for blonding her hair was her own vanity.

Shakira received four Latin Grammy Awards in November 2006, winning in the categories of Record of the Year, Song of the Year for "La Tortura", Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album for Fijacion Oral, vol.

Shakira released the third and final single from the album, "Illegal", which featured Carlos Santana, in November 2006.

Shakira embarked on the Oral Fixation Tour, which comprised 120 shows that took place between June 2006 and December 2007; five continents were visited.

In 2006, Shakira was honored with the Billboard Spirit of Hope Award for her Fundacion Pies Descalzos.

Shakira collaborated with Miguel Bose on the duet "Si Tu No Vuelves", which was released in Bose's album Papito.

Shakira was featured on Annie Lennox's song "Sing", from the album Songs of Mass Destruction, together with 23 other female singers.

Shakira wrote the lyrics, and jointly composed the music, for two new songs that are featured in the movie Love in the Time of Cholera, based on the novel of the same title written by Colombian author and Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

On 17 May 2008, before an audience of over 150,000 people, Shakira was one of the artists who performed at the ALAS Foundation charity concert in Buenos Aires.

On 18 January 2009, Shakira performed in Washington, DC at the Lincoln Memorial "We Are One" festivities in honor of the inauguration of President Barack Obama.

In June 2009, a studio recording of "La Maza" by Sosa featuring Shakira was featured on Sosa's album Cantora, un Viaje Intimo.

In July 2009, Shakira released "She Wolf" as the lead single from an upcoming album with the same title.

Shakira released her eighth studio and third English album She Wolf in October 2009.

Beyond the chart-conquering smashes, Shakira has "often explored some truly mind-boggling pop territories, deep-drilling for veins of inspiration absolutely alien to so many of her peers".

In 2010, Shakira collaborated with the South African Afro fusion band Freshlyground to create the official song of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

In December 2011 Shakira released her fourth live album, Live from Paris.

On 9 November 2011, Shakira was honored as Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year for her artistic achievements and philanthropic undertakings; she was the youngest of the musicians who had had received this distinction.

Shakira herself sang a cover of Joe Arroyo's "En Barranquilla Me Quedo", as a tribute to the singer who had died earlier that year.

In early 2012, Shakira signed to Roc Nation as her management for the upcoming studio album.

Shakira collaborated with rapper Pitbull for the song "Get It Started", which was slated to be the lead single from Pitbull's 2012 album Global Warming.

Shakira served on the sixth season of the vocal competition series.

Shakira originally intended to release a new album in 2012, but plans to release the single and video were postponed due to her pregnancy.

On 13 July 2014, Shakira performed "La La La " with Carlinhos Brown at the 2014 FIFA World Cup closing ceremony at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro.

Shakira voiced a character named Gazelle and sang a song titled "Try Everything".

On 28 October 2016, Shakira released the single "Chantaje" with Colombian singer Maluma; the song was a track from the upcoming El Dorado.

Shakira was featured on the single "Comme moi" by French rapper Black M "Comme moi" and its English version were included on El Dorado.

On 7 April 2017, Shakira released the song "Me Enamore" as the second official single from El Dorado.

In January 2018, Shakira won her third Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop Album for El Dorado; it made her the only female Latin artist to have done so.

Shakira released "Trap", the fourth single off the album and her second collaboration with Maluma.

In January 2018, Shakira announced new dates for the El Dorado World Tour.

At the age of forty one, Shakira did stage performances, with all her dancing, running and jumping, largely by herself, without back-up dancers.

Shakira released her fifth live album, Shakira in Concert: El Dorado World Tour, in November 2019.

Shakira called attention to the Afro-Colombian community by doing a traditional champeta dance break.

In December 2020, Shakira teamed up with Black Eyed Peas on the single "Girl Like Me", written as a tribute to Latin women.

In January 2021, Shakira sold her catalog of 145 songs to Hipgnosis Songs Fund.

On 21 September 2021, Shakira released an NFT collection, named La Caldera, which features four audiovisual pieces.

On 21 April 2022, Shakira released the song "Te Felicito" with singer Rauw Alejandro, as the lead single of her upcoming but at that time yet unnamed twelfth studio album, the all-Spanish Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran.

Shakira became the first woman in US history to debut a Spanish language track in top-ten of the chart.

Shakira characterized the role of this song-making process for her as catharsis, relief and healing.

On 12 September, Shakira received the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards and performed a medley of her hits as the recipient; she became the first South American artist to receive the accolade.

Shakira's new album is "revelatory, raw but resplendent throughout"; it is a "fitting testimony to her strength and resilience".

Shakira celebrated the release of Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran, performing with her dancers and musicians "Hips Don't Lie" and songs from the new album.

On 12 April 2024, at Coachella Festival in California, Shakira joined Bizarrap onstage, to give, at his invitation, a surprise guest performance during his set.

Shakira announced there the Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour, her first tour in over six years, in support of the album.

On 14 July, Shakira gave a performance at the 2024 Copa America final, Argentina vs Colombia match, at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.

Shakira expected the tour to be the greatest in her career.

In September 2024, Shakira walked off stage mid-performance at the LIV Miami nightclub, reportedly after noticing fans filming up her dress.

Shakira received three nominations at the 25th Annual Latin Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year for Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran and Song of the Year for "".

Shakira gave a performance and dedicated the award on stage to her "brothers and sisters", immigrants in the United States.

Shakira spoke of "breaking barriers and making the world a more inclusive space where every woman feels confident being themselves".

Shakira was hospitalized with an abdominal issue that made her cancel a show in Peru.

Distressed Shakira wrote an emotional letter to her fans on social media.

Shakira said that the cancellations in Chile and the resulting stress made her physically really sick and medical treatment was necessary before she was able to perform in Argentina.

Shakira spoke of a more "intimate and profound" character of the tour now.

Shakira has an unbelievable voice; her vocal instrument is phenomenal and unique.

Shakira cited Depeche Mode's "Enjoy the Silence" as the song that "kick started her passion for music".

Shakira credited Gloria Estefan for "opening a big heavy door that was closed for many years" for Latin musicians in the United States, facilitating the kind of progress that Shakira herself was able to make later.

Shakira claimed that her motivation for entering the English-speaking market was strictly intellectual: being exposed to new cultures, building bridges, growing as a person.

The uptempo track features a bridge in which Shakira delivers "a genuinely peculiar rap".

Shakira calls Laundry Service "a formidable compendium of Shakira's sonic and corporeal world".

Shakira explores, as usual, "new musical territories", on other tracks of the record.

Shakira Wolf is primarily an electropop album that contains, in the first place, the "Shakira Wolf" celebrated anthem and its Spanish equivalent "Loba".

Shakira aimed at club-oriented dance music, electronic pop with strong basslines and harder sounds.

Shakira termed Shakira Wolf a "sonic experimental trip" and said she researched folk music from different countries in order to "combine electronics with world sounds, tambourines, clarinets, oriental and Hindu music, dancehall, etc".

Residente raps about "liking Shakira better when she was chubbier, had dark hair and was a rockera".

The ballad "Antes de las Seis" Shakira composed with Lester Mendez.

Shakira, describing herself as being in a survival and reflection stage, "celebrates the strength of womanhood".

The piano ballad "Ultima" was the last song that Shakira insisted on adding to the album.

Shakira wanted to tell "about coming to terms with the end of her relationship and leaving the past behind".

The reggaeton hit "TQG" and the video Shakira recorded with Karol G; its "fierce and unapologetic" lyrics were motivated by their comparable personal experiences.

Boutayna Chokrane wrote that Shakira's Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran is "a brutally honest look at her breakup" in which the singer "signals a deliberate and timely return to her roots".

In September 2024, Shakira released the lively, Afrobeats-influenced "Soltera" song.

Shakira told MTV that she learned how to belly dance by trying to flip a coin with her belly.

Shakira preferred to focus on her vocals, dance moves, and stage presence.

Shakira confessed to "getting lost in a cloud of hairdressers, make-up artists and assistants" for years, but declared "reclaiming her image" and doing her own make-up now.

Shakira greatly enjoys performing before large gatherings, but feels uncomfortable when the number of spectators is small.

Between Shakira's MTV Unplugged and Roseland Ballroom Manhattan shows, her stage appearance and style changed dramatically.

Shakira has written several hundred songs, of which at least several dozen have become widely-known hits.

Shakira is a contralto and is known for her "unique and mesmerizing" singing voice, which includes her "trademark" yodeling.

Shakira is a prominent figure in Latin and world music.

The New York Times called her "a titan of Latin Pop", adding that "even as a new generation of Spanish-speaking artists are crossing over into American music's mainstream, Shakira's output stands alone".

Shakira stressed her role as "one of the most serious and successful songwriters of the last 25 years, having written or co-written virtually every song she has ever recorded".

One example is Mexican pop star Paulina Rubio, of whom MTV wrote "there's no question that Shakira opened doors in this country for artists like Rubio to succeed".

The Middle Eastern newspaper El Correo del Golfo credits Shakira with "having opened the way" for several Hispanic singers today.

The authors of the book Reggaeton, published by Duke University Press, credited Shakira with popularizing the reggaeton genre in North America, Europe and Asia.

Alongside her impact on Latin and mainstream popular culture, Shakira has influenced popular culture in the Arab world.

In 1999, Shakira's MTV Unplugged concert was the first time an "unplugged" episode was broadcast entirely in Spanish.

In 2005, Sanz and Shakira performed "La Tortura" at the MTV Video Music Awards.

The Paper magazine wrote in 2020 about Shakira's longevity and her, a pre-digital era artist, ability to successfully crack the digital-streaming era of music: "The self-proclaimed 'She Wolf' is a titan in the digital era of music where she devours billions of streams with her catalog".

In 2010, Google revealed that Shakira was the most searched female entertainer of the year.

In December 2021, Shakira was named by Kiss FM as one of the most influential female artists of the 21st century; her being "an international star without abandoning her Latin American roots" was highlighted.

Shakira's influence has transcended the boundaries of pop culture; she has become a socio-political influencer and was named as one of the "World's Greatest Leaders" of 2017 by Fortune.

Shakira is, he concludes, "as sagacious as she is glam".

Shakira has received numerous awards and recognition for her work.

Shakira became the only artist from South America with number-one spots on the US Billboard Hot 100, the Australian ARIA chart, and the UK singles chart.

Shakira is the female artist with most top-ten hits on the Billboards Hot Latin Songs chart.

Shakira has had most number-one songs on the Latin Digital Song Sales chart and is the female artist with most number-one hits on the Latin Airplay chart.

In 2008, Shakira was named honorary chairperson of the Global Campaign for Education.

In 2014, Shakira became the first musical act to perform three times at the FIFA World Cup.

In 2020, Shakira became the first female artist to have four songs from different decades to have over 100 million streams on Spotify.

Shakira was the only artist with Spanish songs, the only Latin artist, and third overall, after Michael Jackson and Eminem, to achieve this milestone.

In 1997, Shakira founded Fundacion Pies Descalzos, a Colombian charity.

On 3 April 2006, Shakira was honored at a United Nations ceremony for creating the Pies Descalzos Foundation.

In December 2006, Shakira became a founding member of Latin America in Solidarity Action, a coalition of artists and business leaders seeking to promote integrated early childhood public policies in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Shakira is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and is one of their global representatives.

Shakira was honored at the Latin Grammy Awards as the Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year on 9 November 2011, for her philanthropy and contributions to Latin music.

On 26 April 2014, Shakira was honored with the Hero Award at the Radio Disney Music Awards for her work with Pies Descalzos Foundation and a number of other charitable organizations.

On 2 November 2018, during a visit to her birthplace, Barranquilla, Colombia, concerning the construction of a school through her foundation, Shakira spoke about the educational policies of President Ivan Duque's government.

Shakira's wrote an op-ed commentary for Time magazine, published on 30 October 2020 under the title "Shakira: The Parents of 545 Children Are Missing, and the Silence Is Blaring".

Shakira noted that "speaking up isn't always easy, especially when one is not an American citizen and can be perceived as an outsider commenting on domestic policies".

Shakira introduced herself as "the daughter of a New Yorker", referring to the place of birth of her father.

Shakira dedicated the award on stage to her "brothers and sisters", immigrants in the United States: " I want to dedicate this award to all my immigrant brothers and sisters in this country", she said.

Shakira acted in the Colombian telenovela El Oasis beginning in 1994, playing the character of Luisa Maria.

Shakira began her own beauty line, "S by Shakira", with parent company Puig, in 2010.

Shakira would give voice to Gazelle, the biggest pop star in Zootopia.

Shakira recorded a song for the film, titled "Try Everything", written and composed by Sia and Stargate.

On 8 November 2024, Shakira announced that she will return as Gazelle for Zootopia 2, slated for release in 2025, with new music.

In December 2021, it was announced that Shakira will be an executive producer for Dancing with Myself, an NBC dance competition series.

In December 2024, Puerto Rican actor Osvaldo Rios spoke of his past relationship with Shakira, which started when she was 20 and he was 36 and lasted nearly a year.

Shakira told of an "emotional and spiritual connection" between them and said that Shakira was very devoted to the Virgin Mary.

Shakira named Moscas en la Casa and Tu as songs inspired by their romantic bond and by their love letters in particular.

Shakira kept saying, almost until the end, that she desired and expected a permanent union and family with de la Rua.

Shakira entered a relationship with the Spanish football player Gerard Pique in 2011.

Pique, who is exactly ten years her junior, and Shakira first met in spring 2010 when shooting the music video for Shakira's song "Waka Waka ", the official song of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Shakira expressed her thoughts on the reasons why she had worked so hard, for so many years, on her professional development and career, what had been her "motivation to continue".

Between 2007 and 2009, Shakira studied the history of Western Civilization at UCLA.

In November 2017, Shakira was named in the Paradise Papers.

Shakira contended that her primary residence remained in the Bahamas during that time and that she was otherwise engaged in international touring.

In 2021, the Pandora Papers revealed that Shakira submitted applications for three offshore companies in 2019.

Shakira's representatives informed LaSexta that these applications were not intended to establish new companies but were part of the process of dissolving existing ones.

In July 2022, following unsuccessful negotiations with the Spanish Prosecution Ministry, Shakira opted to go to trial to prove her innocence.