Shakira

She is a record producer, singer, songwriter, dancer, choreographer, and model. She is famous for her music videos in which sings and performs as well. Her belly dancing abilities influence people towards her videos. Her song ‘Hips don’t lie’ was one of the best-selling songs of its era. Along with two Grammy Awards and Golden Globe nomination, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame makes her one of the most celebrated Latin artists of all time. Born in Barranquilla, Columbia, she was raised as a Roman Catholic. Lone child of William Mebarak Chadid and Nidia Ripoll, her name is derived from an Arabic word ‘sakirah’ which means grateful. She started writing poems at the age of four which eventually evolved into songs for her music albums. She started performing in various events of Barranquilla and gained some recognition. About this time, she met a local producer Monica Ariza, who convinced a Sony Colombia executive to hold an audition for Shakira. After which, she was signed for three albums. Her debut album, Magia, a collection of all songs she has made since she was eight was released when she was thirteen years old.

Though this album didn’t go well commercially, but it gave her a lot of exposure. In 1993, she performed in an international song festival on ballad “Eres” and came third. The second album came out while she was graduating from high school. She also starred in a TV series named The Oasis. Her third music album ‘Pies Descalzos’ topped the US Billboard Latin albums chart. It won three awards for the best music album and video of the year followed with best new artist. Pies Descalzos sold over five million copies. Her next album was even bigger sellout than the previous one selling over seven million copies. Until this point, she was recording songs in Latin, Spanish and Portuguese. In 2001, she switched herself to English releasing her first English song called ‘whenever, wherever.’ It became an international success by topping the music charts of different countries. Music album “Laundry service” became a grand success selling over twenty million copies worldwide.

Despite being criticized for her weak English skills in lyrics, the album turns out to be the most successful one for her to date. Shakira began dating an Argentinian lawyer Antonio de la Rúa in 2000. In January 2011, she posted on her website that after eleven long years they have decided to put their relationship to an end. After this, their relationship went to hate mode, when Antonio decided to sue Shakira for 100 million dollars and filed a lawsuit in California. Currently, Shakira is dating Gerard Piqué, a Spanish football player whom she met in 2010 while shooting for ‘Waka Waka’ the official song for FIFA world cup 2010. She has two children (both sons) with Gerard Piqué. Along with her music videos, she has also appeared in few episodes of TV series like ‘The Bahamas Triangle’ and ‘Wizards of Waverly Place’. She has also launched her beauty products starting with perfumes. She was also featured as a contending bird in the Angry Birds game for a limited time. ‘Love rocks starring Shakira’ was the first ever video game starring her. ‘Hips don’t lie’ was termed as the most-played song on American radio in a week. It was played more than 9000 times within a week. Her song ‘Waka Waka’ has been viewed more than one billion times on YouTube. Shakira also appeared as a judge on NBC’s popular singing reality show The Voice. In her latest music video, where she has been featured along with Rihanna, named ‘can’t remember to forget you’ was released in August 2014. Shakira also performed in the official song for FIFA world cup 2014. In 2015, Disney announced that Shakira will be playing a character in an animated movie called ‘ Zootopia Click to look into! >> Read More... .’ She will be playing Gazelle, the biggest pop star in an imaginary place named Zootopia.