Our Lips Don’t Lie!
SHAKIRA HONORED WITH STAR ON THE HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME
The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce honored Shakira with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Tuesday, November 8, 2011 at 6270 Hollywood Boulevard in front of the W Hollywood Hotel on the world famous corner of Hollywood and Vine.
Leron Gubler, President/CEO of Hollywood Chamber and Los Angeles Council President Eric Garcetti and Shakira’s family helped her unveil the 2,454th star in the Category of Recording.
Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll (born February 2,), known professionally as Shakira is a Colombian singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, dancer and philanthropist who emerged in the music scenes of Colombia and Latin America in the early 1990s. Born and raised in Barranquilla, Colombia, Shakira revealed many of her talents in school as a live performer, demonstrating her vocal ability with rock and roll, and Latin and Arabic influences with her own original twist on belly dancing.
Shakira’s debut album, “Magia,” was released in June 1991, when she was 13 years old. In 1995 she released “Pies Descalzos.” which brought her great fame in Latin America and Spain, and her 1998 album “¿Dónde Están los Ladrones?” was a critical success selling more than 7 million copies worldwide. In 2001, aided by the worldwide success of her first English single “Whenever, Wherever” that became the best selling single of 2002, she broke into the English-speaking world with the release of “Laundry Service,” selling more than 13 million copies worldwide. Four years later, Shakira released two albums called “Fijación Oral Vol. 1” and “Oral Fixation Vol. 2.” Both reinforced her success, and the best-selling song of the 2000s, “Hips Don’t Lie” won her a Grammy.
She has won two Grammy Awards, seven Latin Grammy Awards, 12 Billboard Latin Music Awards and has been Golden Globe-nominated. She is also the highest-selling Colombian artist of all time.
Shakira’s “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)”, was chosen as the official song for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The song has received positive critical reception and has become a worldwide smash hit and the biggest-selling World Cup song of all time. On YouTube, the English version of the music video is the 3rd most watched video of all time.
The lead single from the album “La Tortura” spent a record of twenty-five weeks at number one on the U.S. Latin chart. Shakira became the first artist to perform a Spanish-language song at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2005. The album debuted at number four on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 157,000 copies in its first week. It has since sold more than two million copies in the U.S., earning a 2x Platinum certification from the RIAA, and the album became the highest debut ever for a Spanish-language album.
The compassionate side of Shakira is most obvious in the remarkable work of her “Pies Descalzos” (Barefoot) Foundation, which she started at the age of 18 and has recently, opened its sixth school. The foundation provides education and nutrition to more than six thousand impoverished children in Colombia and is expanding its work to other countries, including newly-launched projects in Haiti and South Africa.
Shakira has also become a leading advocate for universal education, speaking to world leaders on the topic and advocating policy change to governments around the world. (The remarkable position she has reached was evident during a recent trip to New York, when she addressed President Bill Clinton’s Global Initiative summit one day, then headlined a sold-out show at Madison Square Garden the next.)
In October 2011, Shakira was named to the White House Education commission. This appointment confirms Shakira’s status as an important international philanthropist and advocate for social causes.
