Shakira
Shakira
Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll is a Colombian singer, songwriter, dancer and record producer. Born and raised in Barranquilla, she began performing in school, demonstrating Latin American, Arabic, and rock and roll influences and belly dancing abilities. Shakira released her first studio albums, Magia and Peligro, in the early 1990s, failing to attain commercial success; however, she rose to prominence in Latin America with her major-label debut, Pies Descalzos, and her fourth album, Dónde Están los Ladrones?...
ProfessionPop Singer
Date of Birth2 February 1977
CityBarranquilla, Colombia
People think I like to expose my body. But I don't. It's just because the dance moves require it.
A good fragrance should have a certain personality that makes people identify the scent with you.
Fame isolates people from reality. That happens to many artists, and I don't want it to happen to me.
I admire Madonna because she always did whatever she felt like doing. She went through some controversial periods when people rejected her, but she kept on reinventing herself.
I can be like a lioness when defending my people.
You collect impressions from people, from life, from your own daydreams.
I'm a firm believer that education is the most efficient tool we have to make people aware and make our children aware, and to protect them from the scourge of the century, which is AIDS
It's not easy to work with me, I recognize that. It's not easy if those people aren't as perfectionistic as I am.
The music industry is dominated by guys. I work with men 98 percent of the time - producers, arrangers, musicians, engineers.
On New York: This city sounds like jazz.
It's a very interesting process to write in English because all my literary resources come from Spanish, ... I must confess that I felt really handicapped, creatively, when I accepted the proposal to sing in English. ... I thought that I would encounter more difficulties, but everything has come together.
But you own the place, Where all my thoughts go hiding, And right under your clothes, Is where I find them.
'Elixir' means magical potion, so I wanted to depict the kind of bottle that was used in ancient times, but that looked modern and chic as well. I also wanted it to have a golden tint to evoke the memories of sands and sunsets.
The worst frustration for a singer is choosing a career in making music and then not being able to make music because you're always giving interviews.