SHAKIRA is a colombian latin-rock, latin-pop and brown-eyed soul chanteuse born SHAKIRA ISABEL MEBARAK RIPOLL on the 02/02/1977 in Baranquilla. Her father is a writer, DON, and her mother vocalist, NYDIA DEL CARMEN RIPOLL TORRADO.

At the age of 8, she writes her first song. At 13 years old, she signs her first contract with Sony. She lives in Miami with the lawyer ANTONIO DE LA RUÁ, son of the ex-argentinan president. GLORIA ESTEFAN translates her lyrics from spanish to english.

After she has met FREDDY DE MANN, the ALANIS MORISSETTE's manager, the success will be very great in the international charts with "WHENEVER, WHEREVER (SUERTE)" (#1 in Germany on the 04/02/2002 for 11 weeks, #1 in Brazil during 5 weeks, #1 in France on the 30/03/2002 for 4 weeks, #1 in Europe, Australia, Ireland, Israel, Chile, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zeland, Sweden, Belgium, Greece, Switzerland, Argentina, Portugal, Austria, Lebanon, Algeria, Finland and in Denmark, #2 in Great Britain, #4 in Canada and #6 in the USA).