Shakira

Shakira turned the folk rhythms of the Colombian coast into a sound that conquered both Spanish and English-speaking markets, and she did it without ever fully abandoning either one. Born Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll on February 2, 1977, in Barranquilla, Colombia, to a family of Lebanese and Colombian descent, she wrote poetry as a child, signed her first record deal as a teenager, and grew into the best-selling Colombian artist of all time. With four Grammy Awards and fifteen Latin Grammys, she was the first Colombian act to win a Grammy at all, and her belly-dancing stage presence and distinctive voice made her one of the defining pop stars of the 2000s.

From Barranquilla to Latin stardom

Shakira’s first two albums, Magia (1991) and Peligro (1993), made little commercial impact, and she briefly acted in a Colombian telenovela before returning to music with renewed focus. Pies Descalzos (1995) changed everything in the Spanish-speaking world, producing hits like “Estoy Aquí” and establishing her as a rock-tinged Latin songwriter who wrote her own material. ¿Dónde Están los Ladrones? (1998) built on that success, and her MTV Unplugged performance, released in 2000, won her a first Grammy for Best Latin Pop Album. By then she was one of the biggest names in Latin music.

The crossover

In 2001 Shakira entered the English-language market with Laundry Service. Its lead single, “Whenever, Wherever,” became a worldwide hit and one of the best-selling singles of its year, and the album made her a global name. Rather than leave Spanish behind, she committed to working in both languages at full effort, often releasing parallel Spanish and English projects. In 2005 she did exactly that with the twin albums Fijación Oral, Vol. 1 and Oral Fixation, Vol. 2. The Spanish set won Latin Grammys for album, record and song of the year, while the English album produced “Hips Don’t Lie,” featuring Wyclef Jean, which topped charts around the world and became one of the best-selling singles of the decade.

World Cups and a Super Bowl

Few artists are as tied to global sporting events as Shakira. Her 2009 album She Wolf gave her another international hit in its title track, and the following year “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa),” recorded for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, became one of the most-watched music videos on the planet and a song now permanently linked to the tournament. In 2020 she co-headlined the Super Bowl halftime show alongside Jennifer Lopez, a performance watched by more than a hundred million viewers, cementing her standing as a pop institution rather than a passing crossover act.

Reinvention through heartbreak

After a long relationship with the footballer Gerard Piqué ended in 2022, Shakira channeled the fallout into Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran (2024), her first album in seven years. Defiant and personal, it turned public heartbreak into a commercial and critical comeback and won a Grammy for Best Latin Pop Album. Across her career she has balanced music with philanthropy, founding the Barefoot Foundation to support education for underprivileged children in Colombia, and serving as a UNICEF goodwill ambassador.

What makes her distinctive

Shakira’s signature is the blend itself: Andalusian and Middle Eastern textures inherited from her Lebanese roots, Colombian folk and rock, pop hooks and, later, reggaeton. Her voice, with its unmistakable vibrato, sits on top of all of it. She has often performed barefoot, a habit she traces to dances she learned as a shy teenager, and her music videos, full of movement and color, helped define the look of crossover Latin pop. That mix is why her catalogue still sounds like no one else’s.

Beyond the charts

Shakira’s career has spread well past recording. She served as a coach on the American singing competition The Voice, holds a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in 2014 became the first musical act to perform three separate times at FIFA World Cup events. The Latin Recording Academy named her its Person of the Year in 2011 in recognition of both her music and her charitable work. In 2021 she sold the publishing rights to her catalogue of songs, a deal that reflected just how valuable two decades of hits had become. Albums like the Grammy-nominated El Dorado (2017) kept her creatively active even as she balanced motherhood and a move between Barcelona and Miami.

A songwriter at the core

For all the spectacle, Shakira built her career as a writer. She wrote poetry as a child, played guitar and harmonica, and from her earliest successful albums insisted on composing her own material rather than performing songs handed to her. That control is part of why her work feels personal across languages: whether writing in Spanish or English, she shapes her own melodies and words, and her best records carry a clear authorial voice. It is also why her catalogue holds together despite covering rock, dance, reggaeton and folk over thirty years.

Most loved songs

A spread across her career. Each title opens through the in-site player.

From Colombian coffee-country folk to World Cup anthems, Shakira’s catalogue moves easily between languages and styles. If one of her songs is stuck in your head, type it into the search box above to find the track.