Shakira-Pop Star

Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll

(born February 2, 1977),

known simply as Shakira, is a Colombian contralto singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, dancer and philanthropist who has been a major figure in the pop music scene of Latin America since the mid-1990s. She speaks fluent English, Portuguese (Brazilian Portuguese), Spanish, some Arabic, French and Italian. In 2001, she broke through into the English-speaking world with the release of Laundry Service, which sold over fifteen million copies worldwide. Shakira is the highest-selling Colombian artist of all time, having sold more than 50 million albums worldwide, according to BMI. She has also won numerous awards worldwide, including two Grammy Awards, seven Latin Grammy Awards, fifteen Billboard Music Awards, three MTV Video Music Awards and a People's Choice Award. She is also the only artist from South America to reach the number-one spot on the Billboard Hot 100, the Australian ARIA chart, the United World Chart and the UK Singles Chart.
According to the United World Chart, Shakira is as of 2007 the 6th most successful artist so far from the 2000s. She is also the only artist to have two songs in the top ten of the most successful singles since 1999.

2008-present: Next studio album

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 in her own private estate.She has been at work there since early February.
Early in the morning on April 3rd, 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 this is album-related or for other reasons is unknown.