Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, known simply as Shakira, is a Grammy Award winning Colombian singer-songwriter, musician, composer, record producer, music-video director, dancer, choreographer, instrumentalist and philanthropist. Her success can be calculated by the number of record sales she has made worldwide, which is almost more than fifty million. Being in the music industry since 1990 in her native Columbia, it wasn’t until 2001 when Shakira broke through into the English-speaking market with the release of her first album in English, Laundry Service, which sold 3 million copies in the United States and 13 million copies worldwide. The success of the album largely came from its worldwide hit track, ‘Whenever, Wherever’. Ever since, Shakira has made waves in the music industry, producing super hit albums.
Born Barranquilla, Colombia, Shakira began writing poems and songs at age four and taught herself to play the guitar at age ten. The death of a half sibling and her father’s reaction to it inspired her to write her first full song at age eight. Today, she has become a superstar not only in Latin America, but also a pop sensation in other parts of the world. She is Latin pop’s biggest female crossover artist since Jennifer Lopez.
Profile
Full Name: Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll
D.O.B: February 2, 1977
Height: 5′ 2″
No. of Studio Albums: 7
Awards: 204