Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll or most populalrly known as Shakira was born on February 2, 1977 in Barranquilla, Colombia and is the only child of Nidya del Carmen Ripoll Torrado and William Mebarak Chadid. Shakira’s bloodline consists of Colombian-Spanish-Italian ancestry from her mother and Lebanese-Maronite from her father. She has eight older half siblings from her father’s previous marriage but Shakira wants to drop the word “half” during interviews since all of them are so close to her. With such a unique name like Shakira, it meant in Arabic “thankful” and is derived form the original word “Shakir”, her second name Isabel was taken from her paternal grandmother which means beautiful and her family name Ripoll is Catalan.
When Shakira was only four years world, she wrote her very first poem “La Rosa De Cristal” (“The Crystal Rose”). She got so fascinated with poetry as she watched her father writing stories using the typewriter, and she even asked her father to make her one as a Christmas gift for her where she got one when she was seven years old and continued to do poetry. Eventually these poems slowly transformed into songs. When she was eight, Shakira wrote her first song titled “Tus Gafas Oscuras” (“Your Dark Glasses”) where she derived inspiration from an unfortunate incident in their family when her older half brother was killed in a motorcycle accident when she was just two years old and her father wore a pair of dark glasses to hide his grief. It was also during the age of four when Shakira’s father took her to a Middle Eastern restaurant and when she first heard the doumbek , a traditional Arabic drum, she knew right there and then that she wanted to become a performer. She would often dance barefoot on top of the table and the crowd would respond enthusiastically by giving her a round of applause. Shakira enjoyed performing for schoolmates and teachers and even with nuns since she studied in a Catholic school. She has always been known as “The belly dancer girl” in school since she would always demonstrate a number she has recently learned every Friday at school.
Between the ages of ten and thirteen, Shakira was often invited at various events in Barranquilla where she gained recognition in the area. It was also about this time that she met local theatre producer Monica Ariza who was so impressed with her that she was willing to help her with her promising career. Ariza was on a flight to Bogota from Barranquilla and convinced Sony Colombia executive Ciro Vargas to hold an audition for Shakira at a hotel lobby. Vargas had high regard for this budding artist that as soon as he went back to the office and gave the cassette to a song and artist director and have him listen to Shakira’s audition tape. The director was not overly excited about Shakira but Vargas was convinced that this girl has talent so he never gave up hope and he sets up an audition in Bogota where Vargas arranged Sony Colombia executives to show up during the audition. Shakira performed three songs for the executives and it was enough to impress the big wigs of the company that they had her sign a contract to record three albums.
Shakira came up with debut album entitled Magia which was recorded with Sony Music in 1991, she was only fourteen years old upon recording this album. Unfortunately, the album did was not commercially successful, selling less than one thousand copies upon its release. After the poor acclaim of Magia, Shakira’s label urged her back into the studio to release a follow up album with more hit songs to give the album potential. Thus the album Peligro was released in 1993, but Shakira was not pleased with the final result of her second album. Although the album was better received than Magia, she though it was also considered a commercial failure since Shakira refused to advertise it. Although little known outside of her native Colombia, Shakira got invited to perform at Chile’s Viña del Mar International Song Festival in February 1993. The festival gave aspiring Latin American singers the once-in-a-lifetime 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 third place trophy. One of the judges present who voted for her to win the contest was then 20-year-old Latin heartthrob Ricky Martin. Shakira then decided to take a long break from recording so that she could focus her attention on her studies and graduate from high school.
Shakira returned to recording in 1995 with Luis F. Ochoa, and armed with musical influences from a number of countries and an Alanis Morissette-oriented persona which somehow affected some of her upcoming albums and thus she made her third studio album called Pies Descalzos, which brought her much great fame in Latin America. Pies Descalzos sold over five million copies prompting the release of a remix album, simply entitled The Remixes. The Remixes also included Portuguese versions of some of her best-known songs which were recorded as a result of her success in the Brazilian market, where Pies Descalzos sold nearly one million copies.
Her fourth album “¿Dónde Están Los Ladrones?” was released in 1998. She began to gain more fans in non-Spanish-speaking countries like Turkey, France, Switzerland, Canada, and most especially in the United States. Eight of the album’s eleven tracks became singles, including “Ciega, Sordomuda”, “Moscas En La Casa”, “No Creo”, “Inevitable”, “Tú”, “Si Te Vas”, “Octavo Día”, and the world-famous “Ojos Así”. Shakira’s first live album, MTV Unplugged, was composed of “Estoy Aquí” and all the songs from” ¿Dónde Están Los Ladrones?” except the song Que Vuelvas.
In March of 2000, Shakira embarked on her first concert tour called Anfibio which is a two-month tour of Latin America and the United States. In August 2000, she won an MTV Video Music Award in the now-defunct category of People’s Choice - Favorite International Artist.
In 2001, Shakira released four songs for Pepsi and for her promotion in the English markets: “Ask for More”, “Pide Mas”, “Knock on My Door” and “Pideme El Sol”. In November 24, 2001, Laundry Service was released, although she chose not to include the four songs she did for Pepsi since it was created with the intent of selling to an English language market, the rock and Spanish dance-influenced album also featured four Spanish songs, including “Que Me Quedes Tú” (As Long as You Stay with Me). Critics claimed that Shakira’s English skills were too weak for her to write in it yet the album sold extremely well and was certified triple platinum in the United States (denoting sales exceeding 3 million copies) and thus helped to establish Shakira’s musical presence in the mainstream North American market. The album has sold approximately 13 million copies worldwide.
It was in 2002 that Shakira also released her Spanish greatest hits volume Grandes éxitos. A DVD and ten-track compilation album, called Live & Off the Record which was also released in 2004. It reached sales of over 3 million CD copies worldwide.
In September of 2002, Shakira won the now-defunct International Viewer’s Choice Award at the MTV Video Music Awards with “Suerte”. In October of that year, she won five 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. During the Aerosmith’s MTV Icon event in 2002, Shakira got the privilege to perform one of their hit song “Dude (Looks Like a Lady)”. Also in 2002, Shakira joined the likes of Celine Dion, Anastacia, Cher, and the Dixie Chicks for the VH1 Divas Live in Las Vegas.
Shakira has begun working on her next album in Uruguay where she has her own built-in studio in her own private estate. She has been working on her new album there since early February of 2008.
Shakira arrived at the Miami International Airport on April 3 and told a waiting reporter who asked, about the album, that she was “still working” on it and she would be heading to her studio in the Bahamas later that week. She also said that she was preparing for a trip to China.
Currently, Shakira is now UNICEF’s ambasador of goodwill and is closely working with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to promote their campaign called Global Campaign for Education where all the world’s children will have their formal education by 2015. Angelina Jolie served as last year’s chairperson.