Shakira
Isabel Mebarak Ripoll (born February 2, 1977), known simply as
Shakira, is a Colombian contralto singer, songwriter,
instrumentalist, record producer, dancer and philanthropist who
has been a major figure in the pop music scene of Latin America
since the mid-1990s. In 2001, she broke through into the
English-speaking world with the release of Laundry Service, which
sold over fifteen million copies worldwide.A two-time Grammy
Award-winning, seven-time Latin Grammy Award-winning and Golden
Globe-nominated artist, Shakira is the highest-selling Colombian
artist of all time, having sold more than 50 million albums
worldwide according to BMI. She is also the only artist from South
America to reach the number-one spot on the Billboard Hot 100, the
Australian ARIA chart, the United World Chart and the UK Singles
Chart. According to the United World Chart, Shakira is as of 2007
the 6th most successful artist so far from the 2000s. She is also
the only artist to have two songs in the top ten of the most
successful singles since 1999. Shakira maintains an intense
interest in history. She frequently studies the history and
languages of the countries she visits. After her Oral Fixation
tour ended in summer 2007, Shakira audited a class in Los Angeles
at UCLA, on the History of Western Civilization. She used her
middle and last names, Isabel Mebarak, and told the professor she
was visiting from Colombia so as to avoid being recognized as a
celebrity ... more
