►Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll (born February 2, 1977), known simply as Shakira,is a Colombian contralto singer, songwriter, instrumentalist, record producer, dancer, philanthropist and occasional actress who has been a major figure in the pop music scene of Latin America since the mid-1990s. In 2001, she broke through into the English-speaking world with the release of Laundry Service, which sold over fifteen million copies worldwide. A two-time Grammy Award-winning, seven-time Latin Grammy Award-winning and Golden Globe-nominated, Shakira is the highest-selling Colombian artist of all time, having sold more than 50 million albums worldwide according to BMI. She is also the only artist from South America to reach the number-one spot on the Billboard Hot 100, the Australian ARIA chart, the United World Chart and the UK Singles Chart.
►According to the United World Chart, Shakira is as of 2007 the 6th most successful artist so far from the 2000s. She is also the only artist to have two songs in the top ten of the most successful singles since 1999. She has a total of four, the lowest one being number 51.
►Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll was born on February 2, 1977 in Barranquilla, Colombia. She is the youngest of eight siblings of Nidya del Carmen Ripoll Torrado, a Colombian of Spanish and Italian ancestry, and William Mebarak Chadid, of Lebanese descent.
►Shakira means "grateful" or "thankful". Her second name, Isabel, is also that of her paternal grandmother, meaning beautiful. Her family name Ripoll is Catalan. She spent much of her youth in Barranquilla, a city located in northern Colombia.
►Shakira wrote her first poem, entitled "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 her wish at age seven and continued writing poetry. These poems eventually evolved into songs. At the age of eight, after an older brother was killed in a motorcycle accident (she was only two when this happened), Shakira wrote her first song entitled "Tus gafas oscuras" ("Your dark glasses"). The inspiration came from 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 Arabic music and which typically accompanied belly dancing.[8] Before she knew it, Shakira was dancing barefoot on the table, as restaurant patrons responded by clapping enthusiastically. It was then that Shakira said she knew she wanted to be a performer. She enjoyed singing for schoolmates and teachers (and even the nuns) at her Catholic school but in the second grade was rejected for the school choir because her vibrato was too strong. The music teacher told her that she sounded "like a goat".[8][9] At school, she says she had been known as "the belly dancer girl", as she would demonstrate a number she learned every Friday at school. "That's how I discovered my passion for live performance," she says.
►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 about this 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 Colombia executive Ciro Vargas to hold an audition for Shakira in a motel lobby. Vargas held Shakira in high regard and, returning to the Sony 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". Vargas, not daunted, was still convinced that Shakira had talent, and set up an audition in Bogotá. He arranged for Sony 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 in 1991, when she was only fourteen years old. The album did not fare well commercially, selling less than one thousand copies. After the poor acclaim of Magia, Shakira's label urged her back into the studio to release a follow up with more hit songs, to give the album potential. The album Peligro was released in 1993, but Shakira was not pleased with the final result. The album was better received than Magia, though it was also considered a commercial failure, due to Shakira's refusal to advertise it. Although little known outside of her native Colombia, 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 then 20-year-old Ricky Martin. Shakira then decided to take a hiatus from recording so that she could graduate from high school.
Discography
Collectors Items/No Longer Available
1991: Magia
1993: Peligro
Studio albums
1996: Pies Descalzos
1998: ¿Dónde Están los Ladrones?
2001: Laundry Service / Servicio De Lavanderia
2005: Fijación Oral Vol. 1
2005: Oral Fixation Vol. 2
2008/9: Forthcoming studio album
Soundtracks
2007: Love in the Time of Cholera (EP)
Live albums
2000: MTV Unplugged
2004: Live & Off the Record
2007: Oral Fixation Tour
Compilation albums
1997: The Remixes
2002: Laundry Service: Washed & Dried
2002: Colección de Oro
2002: Grandes Éxitos
2006: Oral Fixation Volumes 1 & 2
Read the full article at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakira
