Shakira
Shakira is the Colombian singer-songwriter who turned Latin pop into a global language. Dubbed the "Queen of Latin Music," she built a career on restless reinvention—folk, rock, dance, reggaeton—and a voice and hip-shake that became instantly recognizable worldwide.
Origins
Born Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll in Barranquilla, Colombia, she signed her first record deal as a teenager and broke through across Latin America in the late 1990s with the rock-tinged albums Pies Descalzos and Dónde Están los Ladrones?. Her crossover into English with Laundry Service in 2001 made her one of the first Latin artists to dominate the U.S. mainstream on her own terms.
The sound
Her music fuses Colombian and Middle Eastern influences—a nod to her Lebanese heritage—with rock guitars, Andean folk, and later full-blown pop and reggaeton. The throaty vibrato, the belly-dance rhythms, and lyrics she writes herself are the through-line across every stylistic turn.
Legacy
Credited with opening the international market for a generation of Latin artists and with popularizing Spanish-language music globally, she has won four Grammys and numerous Latin Grammys and sold tens of millions of records. Her 2006 World Cup-adjacent ubiquity and her 2020 Super Bowl halftime show cemented her as a cultural ambassador for Latin music.
Signature song
Hips Don't Lie
"Hips Don't Lie" (2005), her Wyclef Jean collaboration, became one of the best-selling singles of the 2000s and the song most people first picture when they hear her name—a perfect distillation of her ability to make Latin rhythm feel like global pop.
Top songs
- 1
Hips Don't Lie ★
Oral Fixation, Vol. 2 (Expanded Edition) · 2005
- 2
TQG
MAÑANA SERÁ BONITO · 2023
- 3
Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)
Sale el Sol · 2010
- 4
La Tortura
Fijación Oral Volumen 1 (Expanded Edition) · 2005
- 5
Whenever, Wherever
Laundry Service · 2001