Shakira
Shakira
Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll is a Colombian singer, songwriter, dancer and record producer. Born and raised in Barranquilla, she began performing in school, demonstrating Latin American, Arabic, and rock and roll influences and belly dancing abilities. Shakira released her first studio albums, Magia and Peligro, in the early 1990s, failing to attain commercial success; however, she rose to prominence in Latin America with her major-label debut, Pies Descalzos, and her fourth album, Dónde Están los Ladrones?...
ProfessionPop Singer
Date of Birth2 February 1977
CityBarranquilla, Colombia
But you own the place, Where all my thoughts go hiding, And right under your clothes, Is where I find them.
The music industry is dominated by guys. I work with men 98 percent of the time - producers, arrangers, musicians, engineers.
On New York: This city sounds like jazz.
I pefer an ugly truth to a pretty lie. If someone is telling me the truth that is when I will give my heart.
There's no better makeup than self-confidence.
I started the Pies Descalzos foundation in Colombia when I was 18, and since then I have been very involved in the crusade for education.
I am trying to make my accent so it won't bother anyone, but I am not going to drive myself crazy trying to pretend I am an American girl when I am from Colombia.
I'm lucky to have family around me. Otherwise, I'll be taking the risk of falling in love with myself. But there are always people close to me who I trust, who will scold me and pull my ears if I need it. Fame isolates people from reality. That happens to many artists, and I don't want it to happen to me.
In the full light of day, I don't want to think about the sunset.
In 2006 I was asked to sing at the World Cup in Germany, and in 2010 I was fortunate enough to be asked again.
We know that many boys and girls leave school because of poverty, because they have to work. However, there are an important number of children who abandon their studies because of the abuses they're subject to by teachers and their own parents.
Nationalism is cured by traveling.
I consider myself a laborer, building my career brick over brick under the sun.
I apply the same amount of dedication to being a mom as I do to my music.