Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll was born on February 9, 1977 in Barranquilla, Colombia. She is the daughter of a Colombian mother and a Lebanese father whose Arabic background greatly influenced his daughter.

Shakira's love and talent for music was apparent at early age when she started winning local and national talent contests at age 10. Shakira moved to Bogota to become a model, and instead emerged with a recording contract for Sony. Her debut album "Magia", released in 1991 when she was just 14, consisted entirely of self written songs. Shakira appeared on the Colombian soap opera El Oasis beginning in 1994, but returned to music the following year.

For the millions that already bought her albums, Shakira is already the voice of a new generation. She is perhaps the most recognizable and certainly the most intriguing voice in Latin pop-rock music today. Shakira recorded the phenomenally successful "Pies Descalzos", a smash hit album, which has sold close to four million copies worldwide. She became an international sensation, touring for almost solid two years, playing her songs to sold-out audiences throughout the world. In Brazil alone, "Pies Descalzos" sold an excess of 900,000 copies.

Shakira was chosen among dozens of female Latin singers to grace the cover of Time Magazine in a recent article titled "Era of the Rockera".

Last year, the Colombian government designated Shakira as an official goodwill ambassador, and the Pope granted her an audience in the Vatican. She was named Latin Female Artist of the Year at the World Music Awards in Monaco.
 

Misspellings & aliases:
Shekira, Shakirra, Shacira, Sakira, Mebbarak, Mebarakk, Mebarack, Mabarak, Mibarak, Mebarrak, Ripol, Repoll, Rippol, Rippoll, Reepoll.