Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll Bio
Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, known professionally as Shakira, is a Colombian singer, songwriter, dancer, and record producer born on 2 February 1977 in Barranquilla, Colombia. Referred to as the “Queen of Latin Music,” she is widely regarded as one of the most successful Latin artists in history, with a career that has helped popularize Hispanophone music across the globe. She has won four Grammy Awards and fifteen Latin Grammy Awards, the second highest tally for a female artist in the latter category.
Shakira rose to prominence in the 1990s with Spanish-language albums before achieving global crossover success with Laundry Service in 2001 and hit singles such as “Whenever, Wherever” and “Hips Don’t Lie.” Known for blending Latin, rock, and Middle Eastern influences and for her distinctive vocal yodeling and dancing, she has sold over 95 million records worldwide. Beyond music, she founded the Pies Descalzos Foundation to improve education for underprivileged children in Colombia.
Early Life and Background
Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll was born on 2 February 1977 in Barranquilla, a city on Colombia’s northern Caribbean coast. She is the only child of William Mebarak Chadid, a jeweler of Lebanese descent, and Nidia Ripoll Torrado, who has Spanish roots. Through her father, Shakira has distant Italian ancestry via an ancestor with the surname Pisciotti. She was raised Catholic and attended Catholic schools, and she has eight older half-siblings from her father’s previous marriage.
Shakira wrote her first poem, “La Rosa de Cristal,” at the age of four. When she was two, her half-brother died in a motorcycle accident; six years later, having received a typewriter and a guitar, she composed her first song, “Gafas Oscuras,” inspired by her father’s prolonged grief. At age four, her father took her to a local Middle Eastern restaurant where she first heard the doumbek drum and spontaneously climbed onto a table to belly dance. She attended Colegio La Enseñanza, a convent school in Barranquilla, where the nuns encouraged students to help teach reading and writing to children in the poorest areas of the city.
The early years were comfortable until her father’s jewelry business went bankrupt when she was eight. Shakira was sent to stay with relatives in Los Angeles for a time. She later credited those modest conditions, and the formative visit to a local park where she saw orphans, with shaping her lifelong commitment to children’s education. With money earned from the release of her debut album Magia, she was able to buy her parents a car at the age of fourteen.
Path to Music
Shakira’s path to music began with a local television talent contest in Barranquilla, which she won at the age of ten, earning a bicycle as the top prize. Between the ages of ten and thirteen, she performed at various events in the city, gaining recognition as a singer and dancer. Her teacher rejected her from the school choir in second grade for having too strong a vibrato, yet her persistence never wavered. She was introduced to local theater producer Monica Ariza, who arranged an audition for her with Sony Music Colombia executive Ciro Vargas. After singing three songs in Bogotá, Shakira was signed by Sony at the age of thirteen to record three albums.
She recorded her debut album Magia beginning in 1990, with the album released in June 1991. Though the album sold poorly, it marked her entry into the professional music industry. In February 1993, she performed at Chile’s Viña del Mar International Song Festival, where her rendition of “Eres” earned third place. She released her second album, Peligro, in March 1993, followed by a role in the Colombian telenovela El Oasis. Her professional music career began in 1990 and continues to this day.
Shakira Career
Early Career (1990–1995)
Shakira’s debut album, Magia, was released in June 1991 under Sony Music Colombia, featuring pop rock ballads and disco uptempo songs that she wrote as a teenager. The album sold only 1,200 copies in Colombia, and her follow-up release Peligro in March 1993 also underperformed commercially despite better reviews. Having been advanced in her schoolwork, Shakira graduated from a convent secondary school at fifteen, but her early immersion in the music industry prevented her from continuing formal education.
In 1994, Shakira recorded “¿Dónde Estás Corazón?” for the compilation album Nuestro Rock Volumen II, and the song became a hit in Colombia. This success prompted Sony Music Colombia to move forward with her third studio album, which she began recording with Luis Fernando Ochoa, who would become her principal music collaborator. Her third studio album, Pies Descalzos, was released in October 1995 and reached number five on the U.S. Billboard Top Latin Albums chart, eventually selling over 5 million copies and achieving top ranking in eight countries.
Breakthrough (1995–2001)
Pies Descalzos produced six singles that all charted within the top 20 of the U.S. Latin chart, with “Estoy Aquí” and “¿Dónde Estás Corazón?” reaching the top five. In October 1995, Shakira embarked on her first international tour, Tour Pies Descalzos, which featured 118 shows across Latin America, the United States, and Spain over two years. The album’s success earned her three Billboard Latin Music Awards in 1997, including Album of the Year for Pies Descalzos, Video of the Year for “Estoy Aquí,” and Best New Artist. That same year, at the age of nineteen, she was named a national cultural ambassador of Colombia by the country’s president, a distinction she shares with writer Gabriel García Márquez.
Shakira’s fourth studio album, Dónde Están los Ladrones?, was released in September 1998 and became an even larger worldwide hit than its predecessor. The album held the top spot on the U.S. Latin Albums chart for 11 weeks, sold over 7 million copies globally, and produced eight singles, including “Ciega, Sordomuda” and “Tú,” which both reached number one on the U.S. Latin chart. In 1999, she released her first live album, MTV Unplugged, which was the first Spanish-language broadcast in the series’ history. The performance received widespread critical acclaim in the United States, and in March 2000, Shakira launched Tour Anfibio, a two-month series of concerts across Latin America and the United States.
Notable Works and Milestones
Laundry Service, released in November 2001, marked Shakira’s crossover into the English-language market and sold over 15 million copies worldwide, becoming the best-selling album of 2002. Its singles “Whenever, Wherever” and “Hips Don’t Lie” (with Wyclef Jean) both reached number one in dozens of countries. “Hips Don’t Lie” became the biggest-selling single of the 21st century worldwide, while “Hips Don’t Lie” and “Whenever, Wherever” established her as a global superstar and a powerful force in Latin crossover music.
Shakira Award Nominations
Shakira has received numerous award nominations throughout her career spanning more than three decades. Her most prominent nominations include a Grammy Award for Best Latin Rock or Alternative Album in 1999, a Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals for “Hips Don’t Lie” in 2007, and a Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals for “Beautiful Liar” in 2008. At the 24th Annual Latin Grammy Awards, she received seven nominations, including Record of the Year and Song of the Year, becoming the first artist in the show’s history to receive three nominations for Song of the Year in a single ceremony. She was also nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2026 and has received nominations at the 25th Annual Latin Grammy Awards for Album of the Year and Song of the Year.
Shakira Awards Won
Shakira has won four Grammy Awards and fifteen Latin Grammy Awards, the second highest total for a female artist. Her Grammy wins include Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album in 2006, Best Latin Pop Album for El Dorado in 2018, Best Latin Pop Album for Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards in 2025, and an earlier Latin Grammy Award. In 2011, she received the Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year and the Harvard Foundation Artist of the Year. Additional honors include a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2011, the Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters from the French government in 2012, the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards, and Billboard’s Latin Woman of the Year in 2023.
Shakira Family
Shakira is the only child together with her parents, William Mebarak Chadid and Nidia Ripoll Torrado, though she has eight older half-siblings from her father’s previous marriage. Her family has Lebanese, Spanish, and distant Italian roots, and she was raised in the Catholic faith. Shakira has two sons, Milan, born on 22 January 2013, and Sasha, born on 29 January 2015. Both Milan and Sasha provided voices for characters in the animated film Zootopia 2.
Personal Life
Shakira began a relationship with Argentine lawyer Antonio de la Rúa in 2000. They were engaged from 2001 onward, though they never married, and de la Rúa managed her business and career interests for several years. The couple announced their separation in August 2010. In June 2010, Shakira met Spanish football player Gerard Piqué on the set of her “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)” music video, and the two began a relationship that was not publicly revealed at first. They took residence in Barcelona, and Shakira gave birth to their sons Milan and Sasha in 2013 and 2015, respectively. In June 2022, Shakira and Piqué announced their separation after twelve years together. Between 2007 and 2009, Shakira studied the history of Western Civilization at the University of California, Los Angeles, and in 2020, she announced the completion of an ancient philosophy course through the University of Pennsylvania.