Music surely brings joy which helps us in our dull days and boring life. When we talk about singing as a passion we know that to know how to sing is surely a blessing. Some people have it naturally and some people require some practice to learn it. So in the article, we would be talking about the most famous singer Shakira, who has gained a huge amount of fame and position with her passion and love for music. She is a very successful singer who once ruled the music industry and has still maintained the position. She has launched tons of songs that are famous worldwide.
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Birth
Shakira, her full name is Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, was born on 2nd February 1977. She is a famous Colombian singer as well as a songwriter. Shakira was born and raised in Barranquilla. She is of Columbia and Lebanese descent. Her father was Lebanese and her mother was Colombian. She had been referred to by many nicknames such as the ‘Queen of Latin music’ because she has been versatile from the very start. People love that about her.
Shakira Early life-
Shakira is the only child of William Mebarak Chadid (father of Shakira) and Nidia Torrando (her mother). Her father was born in New York City. When Shakira’s father was 5 years old they moved to Columbia.
Shakira was raised catholic and therefore attended a catholic school. Her father got married previously as well as and from the previous marriage he had eight children. Therefore Shakira has eight half-older siblings. In Barranquilla, Shakira spent most of her youth.
She was a very enthusiastic child. Shakira has had a keen interest in writing since Childhood. She wrote her first poem titled “La Rose de Christia” which means ‘The crystal Rose’, just when she was only 4 years old. Since her father was an author, she was so inspired by her father while growing up that she asked for a typewriter as a Christmas gift when she was just 7 years old.
She continued writing and slowly this became her passion. Her poems now turn into songs. She was a very enthusiastic child and she had an interest in everything. Talk about Dance, songs, music, sports, etc. She has had her feet everywhere.
Her other interests-
Apart from singing and writing, she loves dancing. When Shakira was 4 years old her father, William Mebarak, took her to a restaurant that was a ‘local Middle Eastern’. In that restaurant, she heard the ‘Doumbek’. It is a traditional middle eastern music drum that is accompanied by belly dancing for the very first time. That mesmerized her and she decided to dance on the table then and there. This incident made her realize her love for dancing and she decided to be a performer.
Schooling
She did not get much support from her school. As a child, Shakira loved singing for teachers and schoolmates but her music teacher did not accept her in the school choir. But that did not bother at all; she still managed to gather herself and continued her singing and dancing. She was a very famous girl in her school for dancing and singing. Shakira was also known as ‘the belly dancer girl’. She says “That’s how I discovered my passion for live performances”.
She is now a philanthropist as well. This came from her father’s steps. When she was a child, in order to fill her gratitude for life in her, he used to take her to the orphanage. She was moved by them and promised herself to help those kids one day after becoming a famous artist.
She got a lot of popularity even in the Barranquilla when she was just 10. There she met Monica Ariza, who was the local theatre producer. She got so impressed by Shakira that during the Barranquilla to Bogota flight she convinced Sony Columbia executives to arrange an audition for Shakira. Ciro Vargas was the executive.
He gave her cassette to a director but he did not pay much interest. Vegas still thought that Shakira could do much more and therefore at the next event he made her sing 3 songs. All the executives got impressed and signed her to record three albums. This is how she started her career.
Shakira Career:-
Though Shakira’s career was indirectly started in early childhood when she wrote her first song at age 8 about her brother’s demise, titled, ” Tus Gafas o scuras” which means your “dark glasses”. The song inspired by her father, who in order to hide his pain used to wear black glasses.
But officially her career started in 1991. When she first signed to record an album. She got some help from a local theatre producer.
In 1990, her debut album released, titled “Mahia”, which recorded with Sony Music Columbia. It was a collection of her songs from when she was 8. The album released in 1991.
After that, she was invited to Chile’s ‘Vina del Mar International Song Festival’ to perform in 1993. Shakira performed the ballad “Eres” (You Are) and won the third prize.
Another studio album released titled, ‘Peligro’ in 1993 but Shakira did not like it and therefore did not promote or advertise it enough. Though it was better received than ‘Magia’.
Side by side she starred in the TV series ‘The Oasis. It was a Columbian series.
Song Recording
In 1994, for ‘Nuestro Rock’, Shakira recorded the song ‘¿Dónde estàs’ which released in Columbia. It was a huge success in radio stations. After this Sony decided to support her third record, financially.
In 1995, she made her first international debut album, ‘Pies Descalzos’, this was the result of her influence and inspiration from various countries. She worked really hard on the song. This album released in countries of Latin America. After that, it released in the United States in 1996. The album had six hit singles, “Estoy Aquí”, “¿Dónde Estás Corazón?”, “Pies Descalzos, Sueños Blancos”, “Un Poco de Amor”, “Antologia” and “Se Quiere, Se mata”.
First international tour
In 1996, she went on her first International tour named ‘Tour Pies Descalzos’. There she did 20 shows. After that, she released a remix album titled ‘The Remixes.
In 1998, her fourth album, ‘Dónde Están los Ladrones?’ released. It inspired by an airport incident. It was famous worldwide and the album is one of the best-selling Spanish albums in the US.
In 1999 in New York City her first live album MTV Unplugged was recorded. She gave one of her best live performances in that album.
In 2001, she released her first English song “Whenever, whenever” and it became an international success and hit. On the hot top 100, it was number 6 in the US in the album ‘Laundry Service’.
First English album
Her first English language album and her fifth studio album titled ‘laundry service’ (In English) and ‘Servicio De Lavanderia’ (in Latin America and Spain) released in 2001. This was number three on the Billboard 200 chart in the US.
Though she was criticized for using language which was not her but who cares she did it beautifully. Right?
Meanwhile, she also launched four songs for the promotion of Pepsi in the English market. They were titled ‘Ask for more’, ‘Pide más’, ‘Knock on my door’, and ‘Pideme el sol’.
In 2005, the 6th studio album released, titled ‘Fijación Oral’ Volumen Uni’. In the album, ‘La Tortura’ reached heights. It was widely received and considered the highest debut ever in the Spanish language. It has many platinum certifications.
Her seventh album also launched with name ‘Oral Fixation, vol 2’. It was not a very successful album but the single of it named ‘Hips Don’t Lie’, topped the charts.
More releases
In 2006, Alejandro Sanz and Shakira both collaborated and released “To Lo Agradezco, Pero No”.
In 2007, Shakira worked with Beyonce for ‘Beautiful Liar’.
She launched another album in English titled ‘she wolf’, In 2009,.
In 2010, she also launched her ninth album, ‘Sale el Sol’.
In 2010, Shakira gave another International hit ‘waka waka, ‘this time it was for Africa. It was a collaboration between Shakira and a South African band. It was chosen as the official African anthem in the world cup of 2010.
In 2013-14, she was a judge in the American show titled ‘The Voice’.
In 2014, she collaborated with Rihana in her album ‘Shakira’.
She launched her 11 studio titled ‘La Bicicleta’, In 2016, in which she collaborated with Carlos Clives and gained huge success. She even won Latin Grammys.
In 2017, her eleventh studio album ‘El Dorado’ launched.
In 2023, Shakira’s diss track for ‘Gerard Pique’ titled, ‘Out of your league’ reached a new YouTube record.
Apart from that she has done impeccable and memorable as well as numerous works that it is difficult for me to state all of them in this article.
More about her-
Shakira has many hobbies such as playing frisbee, skateboarding, watching horror movies, learning languages, tennis, swimming, basketball, and much more. Shakira loves learning different languages and therefore she can speak multiple languages like Spanish, English, and Portuguese. She is fluent in all of them.
Shakira loves dogs and she has three dogs whom she loves and adores a lot. She loves Bollywood and the music of Bollywood. Dance in her other love, she is very well popular for her dance and performance. (She is a great performer). Her dance style is a combination of Latin dancing and middle eastern Belly Dancing.
Awards-
Shakira has received and won several awards. This includes 3 Grammy awards she has also won 13 Grammy awards. She won five MTV video music awards. 7 Billboard music awards. After them 39 Billboard Latin muMusicwards. She is one of the best celebrities, isn’t she?
These are merely the numbers of what she has actually done, what she has done is not possible for me to state, and how much she has earned respect, reward etc is incredible.
Shakira Personal life-
Shakira kept her life private from the very beginning. But we do know some of the common noun facts about her personal life. Shakira began a relationship with an Argentine lawyer named ‘Antonia de la’ in 2000. They were pretty serious about each other. But later after 10 years, in 2010 they separated.
They said it was all mutual. After that in 2011, Shakira came into another relationship, he is a Spanish footballer with name ‘Gerard Pique’. They together have two kids ‘Sasha Pique Mebarak’ and ‘Milan Pique Mebarak’.
Though they (Shakira and Gerard) are not married yet.
About her Profile:-
Shakira, as we all know, is really beautiful. She is a singer, dancer, songwriter, entrepreneur, producer, and even a philanthropist. She is not that tall, her height is 5’2″. The color of her eyes is dark brown. And her hair dyed brown. Shakira’s zodiac sign is Aquarius. She follows the Roman Catholic religion. Moreover, she is indeed beautiful, she has a favorite black color.
Shakira net worth-
Shakira is extremely rich. But apart from that she has many lands and houses in different places. For instance, in Barcelona, Spain, she has her house there, apart from that she has a farmhouse named ‘La Colorado’ ($700,00) and a Star Island home (around $3.4 million).
Shakira loves cars and owns some of the most luxurious cars, such as Mercedes CLS, BMW X6, Audi A7, Porshe Carrera, BMW X5, Rangerover, etc.
Her sources of income are many like she has recently begun her own beauty line in fragrance “S by Shakira”. Moreover, apart from all this, she has worked really hard in the music industry as well. Her net worth is around $300 million. As other people say things related to luck and all, it’s not that or anything. It is because of her hard work and dedication towards her passion and goal.
Other activities-
In 1997 Shakira founded a Colombian charity with a special school named ‘The Pies Descalzos Foundation for poor children all around Columbia. The name has been taken by the 1995’s launched album ‘Pies Descalzos’. The main focus of this foundation was to help children who are in need, especially for education. This organization has 5 schools where education, as well as meals, are provided. She won many awards for this gesture and many hearts as well.
Conclusion-
To conclude, Shakira is a very talented singer and performer. Apart from her talents and worksheet is a very good human being. She is an environmental advocate who is concerned about the environment and its problems. Apart from that she has been a UNICEF ambassador since 2003.
She is commendable. All of that her net worth as well as her growth increases every day. We all should inspire by her and by how she treats the world around her. She has a heart of gold i must say.
Do let us know what else you want to know about Shakira or any other celebrity.
Punitag