Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll (born: February 2, 1977)[2] known simply as Shakira, (Arabic: شاكيرا) ([ʃəˈkiːrə] in English, [ʃaˈkirə] in Portuguese, [tʃa'kira] or [ʃa'kira] in Spanish ‭[3]) is a Colombian singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, dancer and philanthropist who emerged as a musical prodigy in the music scene of Latin America in the mid-1990s. Born and raised in Barranquilla, Colombia, Shakira revealed many of her talents in school as a live performer, demonstrating her vocal ability with rock and roll, Latin and Middle Eastern influences with her own original twist on belly dancing. Shakira is a native Spanish speaker and also speaks fluent English, Portuguese, Italian,[4] and some Arabic.

After a series of commercial flops with local producers on her first two albums and little-known outside Colombia, Shakira decided to produce her own brand of music: in 1995 she released Pies Descalzos, which brought her great fame in Latin America and Spain and marked Shakira as a musical phenomenon. But 1998's ¿Dónde Están Los Ladrones? remains most essential album of the artist that gained her highest critical success from influential issues such as Rolling Stone, All Music Guide and Billboard. Since that time she began to gain more fans in non-Spanish-speaking countries like Turkey, France, Italy, Switzerland, Canada, and especially the United States. In 2001, with the heavy rotation of the music video "Whenever, Wherever" on MTV and VH1, she broke through into the English-speaking world with the release of Laundry Service, which sold over twenty million copies worldwide.[5] Four years later, in the same year Shakira released two album projects called Fijación Oral Vol. 1 and Oral Fixation Vol. 2. Both albums fortified singer's success in the music industry, particularly with the most successful song in the twenty-first century so far (to date), "Hips Don't Lie".[6] Currently, Shakira is working on final touches of her upcoming eighth studio album that will be released approximately in the summer 2009.[7]

She has won two Grammy Awards, eight Latin Grammy Awards, and has been Golden Globe-nominated. She is also the highest-selling Colombian artist of all time, having sold more than 50 million albums worldwide, according to BMI.[8] She is also the only artist from South America to reach the number-one spot on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, Canadian Hot 100, the Australian ARIA chart, and the UK Singles Chart.[citation need]

Shakira was to be awarded with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which would have made her the first Colombian to receive this honor.

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