Shakira

Background information
Birth name: Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll
Born: February 2, 1977 (1977-02-02) (age 32)Barranquilla, Colombia
Genres: Latin pop, rock en Español, pop rock, alternative, world, dance
Occupations: Singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, philanthropist, dancer Instruments: Vocals, guitar, harmonica, drums, percussion
Years active: since 1990
Labels: Epic, Live Nation Artists, Columbia, Sony Music Colombia

Personal life
Shakira currently lives in The Bahamas. In 2000, she started dating Antonio de la Rúa, the son of then president Argentina Fernando de la Rúa, a romance that made headline news throughout Latin America. In March 2001, he proposed to her.
There have been many rumors regarding the couple over the years. In June 2007, 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 rumors one more time. Shakira's future mother-in-law Inés Pertiné claimed the wedding would take place in September 2007 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 María Pryor to design her wedding dress. All this was denied by Shakira herself in Mexico.

De la Rúa 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 rumors]. We are very together and very good. 9 years!"

Shakira is intensely interested in world 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.
Shakira is a cousin of model and 2005-2006 Miss Colombia, Valerie Domínguez.
Dancing

‎Shakira is well known for her dancing in various music videos and in concert. Her moves are based on the art of Arabic belly dancing, a part of her Lebanese heritage: her father has a Lebanese background but was raised in Colombia. She often performs barefoot. Shakira says she learned this form of dance as a young teen to overcome her shyness. She also mentioned in a MTV interview that she learned how to belly dance by trying to flip a coin with her belly. The intense training has afforded her a fluidity in her body movement most seen in the videos to her hits "Ojos Así", "La Tortura", "Hips Don't Lie", Whenever, Wherever / Suerte, "Beautiful Liar" and She Wolf / Loba. She has had several belly dance choreographers, including award-winning Bellydance Superstar Boženka. As the MTV Making the Video for "La Tortura" reveals, she worked with Jamie King on the choreography, but ended up creating most of it herself.

Music and voice
Shakira is known to have adopted many genres, including folk, mainstream pop and rock. In the interview to ‘’Rolling Stones’’ she said: My music, I think, is a fusion of many different elements. And I'm always experimenting. So I try not to limit myself, or put myself in a category, or . . . be the architect of my own jail. Her earlier Spanish albums, including Pies Descalzos and ¿Dónde Están Los Ladrones? were a mix of folk music and Latin rock, while her cross-over English album, Laundry Service and her later albums were influenced by pop rock and pop Latino. Her yet-to-be-released album, She Wolf, is more like Electropop and dance music.Shakira’s songs are about survival and being alive, and involve self-analysis. Most of her songs are based on classic Latin folklore rhythms mixed to rock musical context with strong sophisticated lyrics. As she says, and as the Led Zeppelin-influenced guitar on some of her songs reflects, she is a pop artist with a rock & roll heart.

Records, chievements and trivia
According to BMI, Shakira is the highest-selling Colombian artist of all time, having sold more than 50 million albums worldwide.
According to Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems, "Hips Don't Lie" was the most-played pop song in a single week in American radio history. It was played 9,637 times in one week.

Shakira became the first artist in the history of the Billboard charts to earn the coveted number one spots on both the Top 40 Mainstream and Latin Chart in the same week doing so with "Hips Don't Lie".
Shakira La Tortura broke the record on the Billboard's Hot Latin Tracks chart, appearing at #1 more than any other single (a total of 25 non-consecutive weeks)
According to yahoo,Hips Don't Lie is the Best-Selling Single of Last 10 Years,which is apparently the best-selling single since 2000.

Love in the Time of Cholera soundtrack
Shakira wrote the lyrics and co-wrote the music for two new songs that are featured in the movie Love in the Time of Cholera, based on the acclaimed novel by Colombian author Gabriel García Marquez. García Marquez himself asked Shakira to write the songs.The songs are called "Pienso en ti", a song from Shakira's breakthrough album Pies Descalzos, "Hay Amores" and "Despedida". All the songs can be downloaded via iTunes, as well as the score by Antonio Pinto.

Despedida was nominated for Best Original Song at the 65th Golden Globe Awards but did not win. It was rumored that the song would also be nominated for an Academy Award, but it was not, with a source calling the fact that it was left off the nominees the Academy's "worst snub."