Shakira is a 21-year-old singer and songwriter, who's been catapulted to international fame with the multi-million selling "Pies Descalzos". Her sound, like her hit single "Estoy Aquí", are musically surprising and gritty, with intellectual lyrics and an electronic and an acoustical blend. Her gutsy, rock infused album, "Donde Están los Ladrones", assures her position as a pioneer who has redefined the scope of Latin American singers. Shakira won a Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "Ojos Así" at the first annual Latin Grammy Awards in fall 2000.

Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll was born on February 9, 1977, in the Colombian city of Barranquilla. Her name, Shakira, which in Arabic means "woman full of grace", comes from her ancestry. She is the daughter of a Colombian mother and a Lebanese father whose Arabic background greatly influenced his daughter.

Shakira's love and talent for music was apparent at early age when she started winning local and national talent contests at age 10. Shakira moved to Bogota to become a model, and instead emerged with a recording contract for Sony. Her debut album "Magia", released in 1991 when she was just 14, consisted entirely of self written songs. Shakira appeared on the Colombian soap opera El Oasis beginning in 1994, but returned to music the following year.

Shakira is the most exciting singer songwriter to come out of Latin America in years. For the millions that already bought her albums, she is already the voice of a new generation. She is perhaps the most recognizable and certainly the most intriguing voice in Latin pop-rock music today.

Shakira recorded the phenomenally successful "Pies Descalzos", a smash hit album, which has sold close to four million copies worldwide. Shakira became an international sensation, touring for almost solid two years, playing her songs to sold-out audiences throughout the world. In Brazil alone, "Pies Descalzos" sold an excess of 900,000 copies.

Shakira who was chosen among dozens of female Latin singers to grace the cover of Time Magazine in a recent article titled "Era of the Rockera". Last year, the Colombian government designated Shakira as an official goodwill ambassador, and the Pope granted her an audience in the Vatican. She was named Latin Female Artist of the Year at the World Music Awards in Monaco.