Birth Name: Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll

Shakira means "thankful" 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 is even and simply a Spanish given name for Elizabeth. Her second surname name Ripoll is Catalan.

Date of Birth: 2nd. February, 1977

Birth Place: Barranquilla, Colombia.

Father: William Mebarak Chadid, Italian

Mother: Nidya del Carmen Ripoll Torrado, Lebanese, Spanish

Siblings: 8 older half siblings from her father's previous marriage

Music and Voice: Shakira is known to have adopted many genres, including folk, mainstream pop and rock. Her 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.

Influences: Shakira has told many interviewers that she had grown fond to listening to oriental music, which influenced many of her earlier works. She was also deeply influenced by Rolling Stones, AC/DC, The Who, The Pretenders, Scorpions, Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Cure, Richard Daniel Roman, Tom Petty, Depeche Mode, Clash, Ramones. She also has been strongly influenced by Andean music and South American folk music, using her native instrumentation for the Latin dance-pop Whenever, Wherever and in more serious and mournful Despedida, marking it the song of my dreams.

Records, Achievements 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".

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 the Last 10 Years, which is apparently the best-selling single since 2000.

According to Forbes Magazine, Shakira is the 4th richest woman in music behind Madonna, Barbra Streisand and Celine Dion.

Discograghy:

Studio albums in Spanish:

Pies Descalzos (1995)

Dónde Están Los Ladrones? (1998)

Fijación Oral Vol. 1 (2005)

Forthcoming new studio album (2010)

Studio albums in English:

Laundry Service (2001)

Oral Fixation Vol. 2 (2005)

She Wolf (2009)

Live albums:

MTV Unplugged (2000)

Live & off the Record (2004)

Oral Fixation Tour (2007)

Compilation albums:

The Remixes (1997)

Colección de Oro (2002)

Grandes éxitos (2002)

Oral Fixation Volumes 1&2 (2007)

Tour:

1996-1997: Tour Pies Descalzos

2000: Tour Anfibio

2002–2003: Tour of the Mongoose

2006–2007: Oral Fixation Tour

2010: Untitled Upcoming Tour

Awards:

Shakira began her career in 1990 with Sony Music and has been one of the most popular Latin acts in the world since the mid-1990s. Shakira sold 58 million albums and has won 2 Grammy Awards and 8 Latin Grammy Awards. Other awards including World Music Awards, Billboard Latin Music Awards, MTV Video Music Awards, American Music Awards and so on.