Name: Shakira

Nickname: Shaki

Full Name: Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll

Date of Birth: February 02, 1977

Age: 41 years

Birth Place: Barranquilla, Colombia

Profession: singer, composer, philanthropist, musician, producer, Occupation, dancer

Zodiac sign/Sun sign: Aquarius

Nationality: Columbian

Hometown: Barranquilla

Educational Qualifications: University drop-out

Debut Album: Magia (1991)

Father's Name: William Mebarak Chadid

Mother's Name: Nidia Del Carmen Ripoll Torrado

Children: Milan Piqué Mebarak

Religion: Roman Catholic

Ethnicity: Italian, Spanish and Labenese

INTRODUCTION

Shakira is a very well known pop singer belonging to Colombia and she is most known for her hits 'Hips Don't Lie' and 'Hips Don't Lie'. She was born on 2nd February 1977 and she is popularly known as a singer and dancer. She also has received a number of American music awards, Latin Grammy and Grammy awards. Of all the times Shakira is believed to be the highest selling artist. According to estimates, around 70 million copies of her albums have been sold around the world. In addition to that, she has also judged 'The Voice', one of the most popular singing competition shows.

PERSONAL LIFE

In addition to her singing and dancing career, Shakir took philanthropic work seriously as a part of her responsibility. She founded the Pies Descalzos Foundation in Colombia to help children in her native place to take up best quality of education. She has also been appointed as the Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF and in the year 2010, she was also honoured for her philanthropic work by the United Nations' International Labour Organization.

Shakira and the Spanish soccer player Gerard Piqué are in relationship and the couple have two children. They gave birth to their first child in January 22nd 2013 whom they named as Milan which means loving, dear, eager, laborious, gracious, and unification. They together gave had their second child in 2015, January 29. Before this relationship, Shakira had also dated son of former Argentine President Fernando de la Rua, Antonio de la Rua.

Career and Early Life

Shakira was born to a Colombian mother and Lebanese father in Barranquilla, Colombia in 1977, and February 2. Both of her parents were from music fraternity and she wrote her first song when she was 8 years old. And, she was 13 years old; she signed her first recording deal. Two of her first albums were flop and it was after that she made her mind to get involved in every part of her third album production. It was released in 1996 with name Pies Descalzos which means 'bare feet' and more than 3 million copies of her album were sold. It was followed with Dónde Están Los Ladrones, translated as 'where are the thieves' in 1998 and it reached the Billboard's Latin chart. And, in 2000, she got the Grammy award for the best Latin pop album (Shakira: MTV Unplugged).

International Fame

While she became a huge hit throughout the other parts of the world, she could not get much of fame in the US pop charts. For increasing her fan base in the US, she moved to Florida Miami at the age of 20 in 1997 and there she started learn writing songs in English.

Later in the year 2001, Shakira came up with her first English song called, Laundry service. And, it was this Laundry service that brought her the fame in US that she had been waiting for long. More than 200,000 copies of the album were sold and it soon reached to the no. 3rd rank on the chart.

In 2005, Shakira returned to album chart of top 10. In June, she released the Spanish language Fijación Oral, Vol. 1, which was followed by English-language Oral Fixation, Vol. 2 in the November month. She got her second Grammy award for Fijación Oral, Vol. 1 garnered and it was for being the best Latin rock album.

And, after that she came out to release two of her concert albums that is 2007's and 2008's Oral Fixation Tour. In the year 2009, she came up with "She Wolf" and it soon hit the billboard chart at No. 15 and 2010 it became platinum. Her song, "Waka Waka", around the same time became a huge hit and was named as the theme song for FIFA World cup 2010. And, she shortly went on to promote her album and around January 2016, "Waka WAka", got around Billion views on the internet.

Around 2012, her album sale in U.S. had reached 10 million and the worldwide sales were around 70 millions. After Gloria Estefan, Shakira is believed to be the highest selling artist of all times. In the 2014, Shakira came up with a studio album with her own name and this album included the country Black Shelton. She closed out the FIFA World 2014 in Brazil and took her signature grooves to the global stage.

Some Important Information about Shakira

• Shakira speaks many languages and she has got fluency in speaking English, Spanish and Portuguese.
• Shakira is great lover of Dogs and she owns three whom she had named Gordita, Coquito and Chan.
• Her single song named, Hips Don't Lie has been found to be the best selling song of the century.
• Shakira was the first person to have more than 100 Million followers on the facebook.
• It was just at the age of 4 that she wrote her first poem.
• She watched her father writing stories with typewriter and she always wanted one for herself. And, she got one when she was seven years old.

Her father wore dark glasses and that led her to write song called "Dark Glasses". Behind these glasses her father used to hide the tears because of the death of her brother in an accident.