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                                                                 Shakira

                   Shakira Ripoll was born on February 2, 1977. She is a Columbian of Spanish and Italian Ancestry and has a father who is of Lebanese decent. Shakira means "thankful" in Arabic, and it is the feminine form of the name Shakir. In her early years of her life, she  took her first belly-dancing classes and enjoyed singing for her classmates and teachers. She was known as the "belly dancer girl" in her school, and will give performaces for her class every fridays of the week. From here is where she discovered her passion for live performance.

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       Shakira's debut album Magia was recorded by Sony Music in 1991, where she was only fourteen years old. Two years later she released the album Peligro, but was not pleased with the final result of it, mainly taking the issue of production. Shakira was invited to perform at Chile's Vina del Mar International Song festival in 1993. The festival gave inspiring Latin American singers a chance to perform their songs which brought up the famous artist "Ricky Martin" to the industry.  The same year she starred in the Columbian tv series called "The Oasis" losely based on a Amero tradegy in 1985.

   Shakira has produced 13 albums and been on 1 soundtrack for the past 13 years, and recently started making a new album since February of this year 2008. She has won 2 grammy awards, and 8 Latin grammy awards in her past years. She is a very well known Artist and has done collaboration songs with many artists like Beyoncé Knowles, Tim Mitchell, Alejandro Sanz, Lil Wayne, and Carlos Santana. She has also collaborated with many other artists this list is almost inumberable.

                          Shakira is the highest selling Columbian artists of all time having sold 60 million albums according to BMI. She also won Awards from MTV, People's Choice, and Golden Globe. She has a star on Hollywood's walk of fame, making her the first columbian to recieve this honor.

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              Till this very day, Shakira still reamins a singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, dancer, performer, belly-dancer and a philantrophist. She is still working with the pop music industry, and is contined to be well known among Americans, Latinos, and Arab Americans. She is Bilingual in three different languages.Shakira is multitalented, and many people admire her for her abilities in arts and music

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Tokie J Akinwumi - Arab Americans in Music