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90,00,10
Shakira Born: 02.02.1977
Age: 35
Barranquilla, Atlántico, Colombia
Website: shakira.com
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She, is the only child of Nidya del Carmen Ripoll Torrado, a Colombian of Italian and Spanish ancestry, and William Mebarak Chadid who is of Lebanese descent. She has 8 older half siblings from her father's previous marriage. When Shakira was only 15, she decided to take up belly dancing. Shakira was very passionate about belly dancing.
Shakira means "thankful" (شاكِرة) in Arabic. It is the feminine form of the name Shakir. Her second name, Isabel, is also that of her paternal grandmother, meaning "my god is my oath", "my god's house" or "my god is abundance", and her name might be mistaken by Colombians and other Spanish-speaking people as a Spanish given name only for Elizabeth. Her family name Ripoll is Catalan. She spent much of her youth in Barranquilla, a city located in northern Colombia. Shakira is widely noted for her keen intellect and is reported to have an IQ of 140.
Shakira wrote her first poem, entitled "La Rosa De Cristal" ("The Crystal Rose") when she was only four years old. As she was growing up, she was fascinated watching her father writing stories on a typewriter, and asked for one as a Christmas gift. She got her wish at age seven and continued writing poetry. These poems eventually evolved into songs. At the age of eight, after an older half-brother was killed in a motorcycle accident, Shakira wrote her first song entitled "Tus gafas oscuras" ("Your dark glasses"). The inspiration came from her father, who for years after the accident wore dark glasses, to hide his grief.
When Shakira was four, her father took her to a local Middle Eastern restaurant, where Shakira first heard the doumbek, a traditional drum used in Arabic music and which typically accompanied belly dancing. Before she knew it, Shakira was dancing on the table, as restaurant patrons responded by clapping enthusiastically. It was then that Shakira said she knew she wanted to be a performer. She enjoyed singing for schoolmates and teachers (and even the nuns) at her Catholic school, but in the second grade was rejected for the school choir because her vibrato was too strong. The music teacher told her that she sounded "like a goat". At school, she says she had been known as "the belly dancer girl", as she would demonstrate a number she learned every Friday at school. "That's how I discovered my passion for live performance," she says.
Between the ages of ten and thirteen Shakira was invited to various events in Barranquilla and gained some recognition in the area. It was at about this time that she met local theater producer Monica Ariza, who was impressed with her and as a result tried to help her career. During a flight from Barranquilla to Bogotá, Ariza convinced Sony Colombia executive Ciro Vargas to hold an audition for Shakira in a hotel lobby. Vargas held Shakira in high regard and, returning to the Sony office, gave the cassette to a song and artist director. However, the director was not overly excited and thought Shakira was something of "a lost cause". Vargas, not daunted, was still convinced that Shakira had talent, and set up an audition in Bogotá. He arranged for Sony Colombia executives to arrive at the audition, with the idea of surprising them with Shakira's performance. She performed three songs for the executives and impressed them enough for her to be signed to record three albums.
Shakira's debut album, Magia, was recorded with Sony Music in 1991, when she was only fourteen years old. Though it fared well on Colombian radio and gave the young Shakira much exposure, the album did not fare well commercially, selling fewer than a thousand copies. After the poor acclaim of Magia, Shakira's label urged her back into the studio to release a follow up with more hit songs, to give the album potential. The album Peligro was released in 1993, but Shakira was not pleased with the final result, mainly taking issue with the production. The album was better received than Magia, though it was also considered a commercial failure, due to Shakira's refusal to advertise it. Although little known outside of her native Colombia, Shakira was invited to perform at Chile's Viña del Mar International Song Festival in February 1993. The festival gave aspiring Latin American singers a chance to perform their songs, and the winner was then chosen by a panel of judges. Shakira performed the ballad "Eres" ("You Are") and won the trophy for third place. One of the judges who voted for her to win was then 20-year-old Ricky Martin. Shakira then decided to take a hiatus from recording so that she could graduate from high school. In the same year, Shakira starred in the Colombian TV Series "The Oasis", loosely based in the Armero tragedy in 1985.
Shakira originally recorded the song ¿Dónde Estás Corazón? (later released on her album Pies Descalzos) for the compilation album "Nuestro Rock" in 1995, released exclusively in Colombia. ¿Dónde Estás Corazón? was the only hit off the album. This allowed Sony to give Shakira a third attempt at making an album. Shakira returned to recording in 1995 with Luis F. Ochoa, using musical influences from a number of countries and an Alanis Morissette-oriented persona which affected some of her next albums, and made her third studio album, Pies Descalzos, which brought her great fame in Latin America. Pies Descalzos sold over five million copies, prompting the release of a remix album, titled simply The Remixes. The Remixes also included Portuguese versions of some of her best-known songs, which were recorded as a result of her success in the Brazilian market, where Pies Descalzos sold nearly one million copies.
Her fourth album, ¿Dónde Están Los Ladrones? was released in 1998. She began to gain more fans in non-Spanish-speaking countries like Turkey, France, Switzerland, Canada, and especially the United States. Eight of the album's eleven tracks became singles, including "Ciega, Sordomuda", "Moscas En La Casa", "No Creo", "Inevitable", "Tú", "Si Te Vas", "Octavo Día", and the world-famous "Ojos Así". The latter two songs won Shakira one Latin Grammy each. Shakira's first live album, MTV Unplugged, was composed of "Estoy Aquí" and all the songs from ¿Dónde Están Los Ladrones? except Que Vuelvas.
For this album Shakira received several Platinum certifications and plaques.
In March 2000, Shakira embarked on her Tour Anfibio, a two-month tour of Latin America and the United States. In August 2000, she won an MTV Video Music Award in the now-defunct category of People's Choice - Favorite International Artist.
In 2001, upon the success of ¿Dónde Están Los Ladrones? and MTV Unplugged, Shakira began working on a crossover album to English. Collaborating with Gloria Estefan, she wrote and recorded English versions of the tracks from ¿Dónde Están Los Ladrones?. However, she later decided against using translations of older songs for the album and worked for over a year on new material for the album. Around this time, Shakira also released four songs for Pepsi and for her promotion in the English markets: "Ask for More", "Pide Mas", "Knock on My Door" and "Pideme El Sol". In November 24, 2001, Laundry Service was released, although Shakira chose to exclude the four Pepsi songs. Although it was created with the intent of selling to an English language market, the rock and Spanish dance-influenced album also featured four Spanish songs, including "Que Me Quedes Tú" ( that you remain (for me)). Some critics claimed that Shakira's English skills were too weak for her to write in it. Fueled by the success of the international hits Whenever, Wherever and "Underneath your clothes" the album sold extremely well and was certified triple platinum in the US (denoting sales exceeding 3 million copies) and thus helped to establish Shakira's musical presence in the mainstream North American market. The album has sold approximately 13 million copies worldwide.
In 2002, Shakira also released her Spanish greatest hits volume Grandes éxitos. A DVD and ten-track compilation album, called Live & Off the Record, was also released in 2004, reaching sales of 3 million CDs worldwide, and commemorating Shakira's world tour, the Tour of the Mongoose.
In September 2002, Shakira won the now-defunct International Viewer's Choice Award at the MTV Video Music Awards with "Suerte". In October of that year, she won 5 MTV Video Music Awards Latin America for Best Female Artist, Best Pop Artist, Best Artist — North (Region), Video of the Year (for Suerte), and Artist of the Year. At Aerosmith's MTV Icon in 2002, Shakira performed "Dude (Looks Like a Lady)". Also in 2002, Shakira joined the likes of Celine Dion, Anastacia, Cher, and the Dixie Chicks for VH1 Divas Live Las Vegas.
Shakira stayed out of the spotlight for over two years. She announced the Oral Fixation project in early 2005. Fijación Oral Vol. 1, the first album of the project, was released on June 3, 2005 in Ireland, on June 6, 2005 in Europe, and on June 7, 2005 in North America, Latin America and Australia. The lead single from the album, "La Tortura", which features Alejandro Sanz, was released as a single in April and achieved large-scale success in different radio and chart formats. It spent a record of twenty-five weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot Latin Tracks chart.
Fijación Oral Vol. 1 was very well received by the public. It debuted at number four on the Billboard 200 chart on the week of June 15. According to that publication, the album sold 157,000 copies in its first week of release in the U.S., becoming the highest debut ever for a Spanish language albums. In Latin America, on the very day of its official release in Venezuela, it went Platinum, in Colombia, triple Platinum and in Mexico, it was sold-out. The album sold over one million copies in three days. The second single from the album, "No", was released in July 2005, and peaked at number one in Argentina, Spain and Colombia, there for 14 non-consecutive weeks. This single was number one in several countries in Latin America, but it did not have the same success of the previous two singles in the United States.
On February 8, 2006, Shakira won her second Grammy Award. She was awarded in the category of Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album.
In late 2006, Shakira released "La Pared" as the fourth single from Fijación Oral Vol. 1. The song reached number one in her native Colombia, Argentina and Spain. Later in 2007, "Las de la Intuición" was released as a single in Spain and Latin America. It became an instantaneous success, topping the radio chart Los 40 Principales for eight non-consecutive weeks and peaking at number one, charting just four weeks in Argentina. In mid-April, Shakira filmed a video for the song in Miami, which was then premiered via the internet on May 7. The video, inspired by the work of photographer Helmut Newton, features Shakira with a bright purple wig, alternating between wearing a tight black corset and either a black shirt with a white tie or a white shirt with a black tie. According to Mexican media, "Las de la Intuición" is to be the fifth and final single from Fijación Oral Vol. 1.
Before the release of Oral Fixation Vol. 2, the second CD of the Oral Fixation project, Shakira appeared at the 2005 MTV Europe Music Awards in Lisbon, Portugal were she performed "Don't Bother", the lead single from the album, just minutes before winning an award in the category of Best Female Artist.
Oral Fixation Vol. 2 was released on November 29, 2005 in North America, Australia, and continental Europe. Two tracks from the album, "How Do You Do" and "Timor", sparked some controversy at the time of its release. The cover of the album was also considered controversial, and had to be altered in several countries. "Don't Bother" failed to peak within the top 40 in the United States. "Hips Don't Lie", the second single released from the album, became Shakira's first number one single on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. On March 28, 2006, the album was re-released and featured "Hips Don't Lie". Shakira received the most number of nominations for the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards with "Hips Don't Lie", but she won only the award for Best Choreography. Shakira embarked on her longest tour, the Oral Fixation Tour, in June, 2006. This tour was used to help promote her albums Fijación Oral Vol. 1 and Oral Fixation Vol. 2. The tour had 125 shows between June 14, 2006 and July 9, 2007. She performed on 5 continents: Asia, Europe, North America, Latin America, and Africa. During this tour, Shakira performed a free concert in Mexico on May 27, 2007 with over 210,000 in attendance. This concert set the record for the highest attendance of any concert in Mexican history. On November 12, the "Oral Fixation Tour" DVD was released (November 13 in North America). It is also available in High Definition Blu-ray format.
During an online chat with her fans in "El Heraldo", she revealed that she was going to start writing her New Album in February 2008. No official release date has been announced. Furthermore, at the CD release party for Shakira's singer-songwriter cousin Isa Mebarak in Colombia, Shakira's father William Mebarak stated that Shakira is currently at work beginning to write and produce new songs for her upcoming album. This is being done in "her own studio", which many fans thought to mean the studio at her home in the Bahamas. Shakira recorded 2005's Fijación Oral Vol. 1 and Oral Fixation Vol. 2 there, as well).
However, according to an exclusive interview in "El País," an Uruguayan newspaper, Shakira has begun working on her forthcoming album in Uruguay, where she has a built-in studio on her estate. She worked there in early February for twenty days.
Early in the morning on April 3, Shakira arrived at Miami International Airport and told a waiting reporter who asked about the album that she was "still cooking" and would be heading to her studio in the Bahamas later that week. She also said she was preparing a trip to China, although whether she has gone yet and if this was for album-related or for other reasons is unknown.
On April 27, 2008, Shakira arrived in her hometown of Barranquilla, Colombia to help oversee the plans for the new, massive school her foundation is building there. She told reporters in an interview with RCN news that because of her visits to Washington D.C. before the U.S. Congress, she has been very busy and has only worked on the new album for "exactly four days" in the month of April. She confirmed the album should be out in the upcoming year (2009).
Speaking to "El Tiempo" newspaper in Madrid in the days prior to her top-bill performance at Rock In Rio 2008, Shakira said that the day after her performance (July 5) she would fly to London to meet with several producers with whom she is working on her new album.
After two weeks in London, Shakira flew to Colombia for a peace concert in Leticia (at the three way border of Colombia, Peru and Brazil) with Carlos Vives. Afterward, it was reported by Noticias Caracol in Colombia that Shakira returned to her home studio in the Bahamas and continued recording "a little something" with members of Vives' band.
In an exclusive interview with Elenco Magazine in Colombia, Shakira confirmed that she has already written nearly 30 songs for the new album but still continues writing, although it is still too early to reveal too much. It is known that Swedish-Moroccan producer RedOne is working on Shakira's upcoming album. He previously worked with Shakira on the "Bamboo Mix" of her hit "Hips Don't Lie" which she performed at the World Cup in 2006.
On her official forum , the Admin/moderator posted some new info on Shakira's new album. He said that Shakira is still doing some experimental phases of the album in various parts of the world (Miami, Florida with Wyclef Jean (Producer), Vancouver, Canada (with Luis F. Ochoa), Los Angeles, California (with Red One), London, Uruguay and Bahamas). Her new album is scheduled to be released in Spring, 2009. Rumors have spread that she will be collaborating with Madonna, James Blunt, and Black Eyed Peas.
On November 30, a picture of Shakira and Pharell Williams surfaced on the net. In the photo, the pair are seated together in a music studio. The blurb accompanying the photo offered no additional information as to what the two were recording, but it is assumed to be at least one track for her upcoming album. |
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This page was last updated 30.01.2010 12:50:34 AM
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