Shakira (Isabel Mebarak Ripoll)

Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll (born February 2, 1977), known professionally as Shakira is a Colombiansinger, songwriter, musician, record producer, dancer, and philanthropist who emerged in the music scene of Colombia and Latin America in the early 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 fluentEnglish and Portuguese and is proficient in Italian.

After commercial flops with local producers on her first two albums, and being 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 her 1998 album Dnde Estn los Ladrones? was a critical success. Since then she has gained many fans in semi-Hispanophone countries, and many non-Spanish-speaking countries, especially the United States. In 2001, aided by the extreme popularity of the music video for "Whenever, Wherever", she broke through into the English-speaking world with the release of Laundry Service, which sold over 13 million copies worldwide. Four years later, Shakira released two album projects called Fijacin Oral Vol. 1 and Oral Fixation Vol. 2. Both reinforced her success, particularly with the best selling song of the 2000s, "Hips Don't Lie".

She has won two Grammy Awards, seven Latin Grammy Awards, twelve Billboard Latin Music Awards and has been Golden Globe-nominated. She is also the highest-selling Colombian artist of all time, and the second most successful female Latin singer after Gloria Estefan, having sold over 60 million albums worldwide according to Sony Music. Her U.S. album sales stand at 9.6 million.

Additionally, she is the only artist from South America to reach the number-one spot on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, the Australian ARIA chart, and the UK Singles Chart. Shakira is to be given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as well. In the fall of 2009, Shakira released her sixth album She Wolf worldwide. Shakira was ranked the 76th artist of the 2000-10 artist of the decade by Billboard.

Shakira's "Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)", was chosen as the official song for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, along with its Spanish language version, titled "Waka Waka (Esto es frica)". The song has received generally positive critical reception, and has become a worldwide smash hit, selling more than 4 million copies worldwide, becoming the biggest selling World Cup song of all time. On YouTube, the English version of the music video is the fourth most watched video, and third most watched music video of all time with over 215 million views. Her seventh studio album, the bilingual Sale el Sol, was released October 19, 2010.

Shakira is Roman Catholic. Shakira currently lives in The Bahamas. In 2000, she started dating Antonio de la Ra, a romance that made headline news throughout Latin America. In March 2001, he proposed to her. There have been many rumours regarding the couple over the years. In June 2010, Latin American media speculated that the couple had finally split up. On the previous days, Shakira and Antonio were seen in a restaurant in New York City, facing and denying the rumours one more time. Shakira's future mother-in-law Ins Pertin claimed the wedding would take place in September 2010 in the mansion which Shakira owns in the Dominican Republic, but the wedding did not happen. She also said that Shakira has already ordered Argentine designer Mara Pryor to design her wedding dress. All this was denied by Shakira herself in Mexico.

Antonio de la Rua and Shakira remain engaged. A Twitter update from her on September 4, 2009 stated (translated from the Spanish) "We are neither married nor fighting [contrary to rumours]. We are very together and very good. 9 years!" Shakira has stated their relationship already works as a married couple, and that "they don't need papers for that."

Shakira is interested in world history and frequently studies the history and languages of the countries she visits. After her Oral Fixation tour ended in summer 2007, Shakira attended 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. Shakira is a cousin of model and 20052006 Miss Colombia, Valerie Domnguez.