Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll is a Colombian singer-songwriter born in Barranquilla, Colombia on February 2, 1977. She is also an actress, record producer, fashion designer, perfumist, goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, and philanthropist.
Her contralto voice is her most defining characteristic, marked by the great sonority and range she brings to her songs. Since her debut in the Spanish-speaking music market in 1995 with the album Pies descalzos, Shakira has sold over 75 million albums and singles. She is considered the Queen of Latin pop for being a global icon of this music, whose melodic and danceable roots are present in all her compositions. The influence of her Lebanese heritage on her father's side has also led her to fuse Caribbean rhythms with Arabic origins, as well as to create choreographies that prominently feature the typical belly dance always present in her performances.
Three of her singles, "Chantaje," "La tortura," and "Suerte," are among the top twenty most important in Billboard history. In 2011, she became the youngest artist to receive the Person of the Year tribute.
One of Shakira's great passions is education, which is why in 1997 she founded the Pies Descalzos foundation in her hometown of Barranquilla with the aim of providing support to the underprivileged child community in Colombia and other developing countries. For her humanitarian work, she was named a goodwill ambassador and honored at the United Nations in 2006.
In 2009 and 2010, Shakira recorded in collaboration with American of Cuban descent Pitbull the singles "Lo hecho está hecho" and "Rabiosa," respectively. In 2012, they reunited with the song "Get It Started."
In October 2019, her song "La bicicleta," performed alongside Carlos Vives, became embroiled in a certain controversy after Cuban Livam Rafael Castellanos appealed to Spanish courts for the alleged plagiarism of a fragment from a song he wrote in 1995 titled Yo te quiero tanto. Livam then claimed that he had sent Vives, through Sony ATV, a sample of his song for him to sing, indicating that the Colombian had reproduced a fragment without his consent.
The success of the controversial song took place in 2017. The occasional duo reached the top spots in the major global charts and in just six months garnered almost 800 million views on YouTube and a Latin Grammy in the Song of the Year category. Ultimately, the lawsuit was dismissed.
In February 2020, following their participation in the famous Barranquilla Carnival, the Cuban duo Gente de Zona took the opportunity to openly request a collaboration from the Colombian artist: "your land is asking for it," expressed Alexander Delgado.
In August 2020, Shakira made some statements about Trump through her social media, while encouraging Americans to vote in the upcoming general elections with the goal of removing Trump from the White House. “Donald Trump has shown that he is not the right person to lead the United States” and “why do they administer psychological tests to pilots before allowing them to fly, but not to presidents?” are some of her remarks regarding the role of the current American leader.
On February 2, 2020, Shakira, along with Jennifer López , headlined the halftime show of Super Bowl LIV in Miami Gardens, Florida, which became one of the most-watched halftime shows of all time.
