Wednesday, April 16, 2008

The life and the music of Shakira


Shakira's complete name is Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll. She was born in Barranquilla, Colombia the 2nd of February in 1977. She wrote her first poem "La Rosa Negra" when she only was 4 years old.

Style

Shakira has told many interviewers that she had grown up listening to oriental music, which influenced many of her earlier works. Shakira is known to be a fan of rock music, especially those of The Police, AC/DC, and Led Zeppelin.
Shakira is known to have adopted many genres, including folk, mainstream pop and rock. Her earlier Spanish albums, including Pies Descalzos
and Donde Estan Los Ladrones were a mix of folk music and Latin rock, while her cross-over English album, Laundry Service and her later albums were influenced by pop and rock.
Shakira is recognized for her powerful, melismatic voice. Her 1999 MTV Unplugged
performance in New York was critically acclaimed by many American critics and is said to have paved her path towards the English markets.


Shakira is known to write and produce all of her music. She has been recognised as "an incredible and powerful songwriter" and "a remarkable producer" by numerous critics. She is a self professed perfectionist.

Shakira is influenced greatly by her Arabic roots. This urged for the release of Ojos Asi
. Shakira is also very influenced by Rock, such as AC/DC, and this resulted in her performance of "Back in Black" in her Tour of the Mongoose.


Shakira appeared in the Colombian soap-opera El Oasis in 1994, playing the character of Luisa Maria. She has also done a few voices on TV shows and has been acting on some, too.

Shakira is well known for her dancing in various music videos and in concert. Her moves are based on the art of Arabic belly dancing, a part of her Lebanese heritage (her father is Lebanese). She knows the power of her feet and often performs barefoot. Shakira says she learned this form of dance as a young teen to overcome her shyness. She also mentioned in a MTV interview that she learned how to belly dance by trying to flip a coin with her belly.

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