Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll (Spanish: Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll) is a Colombian pop and rock singer with a specific voice and a distinctive iodine sound. At the beginning of her career, she sang only in Spanish and was popular in Latin America and Spain, later she published songs in English. She has sold over 50 million albums.
Early ages
Shakira (‘Exquisite Woman’ translated from Arabic) was born on February 2, 1977, in Barranquilla, Colombia. She is the only child of Nidia Ripoll (Colombian) and William Mebarak Shadid (Lebanese). She has 8 half-brothers and half-sisters from her father’s previous marriage. Her paternal grandparents emigrated from Lebanon to the United States, New York, where her father was born and as a result has American citizenship. She is of Spanish (Catalan and Castilian) and Italian descent from her mother. At the age of 13, Shakira moved to Bogota and released her first album, Magic, which was a minor success in her home country.
Career and achievements
Her next album “Danger” had the same fate and Shakira took up acting. Her first role was in a Colombian series called “El Oasis”, but it turns out that acting is not given to her. At that time, the record company Sony Music produced her first 2 albums and commissioned her to write a song to be included in the music compilation “Rock en Espanol”. Shakira created the song “Dónde Estás Corazón”. So in 1995 he returned to his music career and released an album called “Pies Descalazos” (“Barefoot”), which included the song “Dónde Estás Corazón”, and finally contributed to the desired success of the singer. Shakira began collaborating with Emilio Estefan Jr. on his next album, “Where are the thieves”. The production cost 3 million dollars and was an unprecedented success as everyone named it the best realization of Shakira.
The most significant and successful performances of the album are “Inevitable” and the world hit “Ojos Asi”. The combination of rock and Latin rhythms in this album make it very popular all over the world and so Shakira was invited to MTV Unplugged, where the live version of “Where are the thieves” is from. Shakira decided to focus on the English-speaking market and began writing the album “Laundry Service”, which still contains several songs in Spanish. Some felt that Shakira’s English was not at a high enough level to create good lyrics for her songs, but her album was still a huge success. The single “Whenever, Wherever”, included in the album, shot him to the top of the charts for 2002.
Shakira’s popularity is growing rapidly, and the spectacular choreography of her stage and dance with numerous sensual movements and a certain amount of Arabic rhythms also contributes to this. In the same year, 2002 Shakira released a new compilation album with her biggest hits “Grandes Exitos. Shakira: Live & Off the Record, a DVD compilation and a CD from her 2002-2003 Tour of the Mongoose, released in March 2004. In 2005. Shakira has released 2 albums. The first is in Spanish, called “Fijación Oral Vol. 1 “and was launched in June 2005. The second is the English version and was released in November 2005 under the name “Oral Fixation Vol. 2 “. In June 2009 he released a new single entitled She-wolf.
It preceded her new album of the same name, which was released in October 2009. The official anthem “Waka Waka” at the 2010 FIFA World Cup was performed by Shakira and was well-received, unlike the Boom anthem at the 2002 FIFA World Cup, performed by Anastasia. Her new album, Sale el Sol, was released in October 2010. It includes mostly songs in Spanish, with several alternative versions in English. The first single from the album is “Loca”.
The recording of the tenth album lasted more than three years. Because of events in her personal life and to participate in other projects, Shakira constantly shifted the release date of the plate. On January 13, 2014, the audience heard the first song – the single “Can’t Remember to Forget You”, performed in a duet with the no less popular singer Rihanna. The song was well received by listeners and critics, winning first place in many charts around the world. In March of the same year, she released the artist’s tenth studio project under the name “Shakira”.
