Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll known mononymously as Shakira, is a Colombian singer-songwriter who has significantly shaped the Latin music landscape and played a pivotal role in globalizing Hispanophone music. Over her career, she has received numerous accolades, including four Grammy Awards and fifteen Latin Grammy Awards, with three wins for Song of the Year.
Shakira began her music career at the age of 14, signing with Sony Music Colombia. Despite the commercial disappointment of her early albums Magia (1991) and Peligro (1993), she gained recognition with Pies Descalzos (1995) and Dónde Están los Ladrones? (1998). Her crossover into the English-language market with Laundry Service (2001) was a major success, selling over 15 million copies worldwide and becoming the best-selling album by a female Latin artist. Subsequent albums, both in Spanish (Fijación Oral, Vol. 1, Sale el Sol, El Dorado, Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran) and in English (Oral Fixation, Vol. 2, She Wolf, Shakira), achieved widespread commercial success and critical acclaim.
Her global popularity is also reflected in her chart-topping singles, including hits like “Hips Don’t Lie,” “Whenever, Wherever,” “La Tortura,” “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa),” and recent songs like “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53” and “TQG.” Beyond music, Shakira has contributed to entertainment as a coach on The Voice (2013–2014), voiced Gazelle in Zootopia (2016), and executive produced and judged Dancing with Myself (2022).
With over 140 million records sold globally, Shakira is among the best-selling musicians of all time. Recognized as a cultural ambassador, she has bridged Western and Middle Eastern musical influences, earning praise for expanding the global reach of Latin music. Billboard named her the Top Female Latin Artist of both the 2000s and 2010s. In addition to her musical achievements, she has been honored for her philanthropy through her Barefoot Foundation and received the Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year and Harvard Foundation Artist of the Year awards in 2011. That same year, she was appointed to the U.S. President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics and named a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by France in 2012.
