Shakira was born on 2nd February 1977 in Barranquilla, Colombia, in South America. She has Lebanese and Spanish descent. Her name means “thankful” in Arabic.
William Mebarak Chadid, Shakira’s father, says all her career was built in overcompensation. Her oldest half-brother was killed in a road accident when Shakira was two years old and the aftermath became one of the singer’s earliest memories, by always seeing her dad with dark glasses.
Shakira learned to write and read very early and wrote her first poem “La rosa de cristal” to her mother at age 4, and her father even registered it officially.
She knew she wanted to perform when she heard a doumbek, a traditional drum used in Middle Eastern music, when she was in a restaurant. She declares herself obsessed with movement and later with applauses, when she began showing her dances to the Catholic School where she studied.
Singing came right after. She wanted to join the school choir, but the teacher said she sang like a goat. Her father encouraged her to keep going saying she had a powerful vibrato.
When her father went bankrupt, he took her to the park to see children in worse condition than ther sniffing glue and walking barefoot. It had a deep psychological impact on her.
At 15 years old, she bought her first car with money she had saved from music performances over the years, including television performances where she showed excellent posture and entertainment skills.
She participated in Festival Viña del Mar (1993) in Chile, with the song “Eres” and come up in third place.
After two records that didn’t sell well and participating on a soap opera, Shakira created an album who would be completely congruent with her vision: “Pies Descalzos” [Barefoot] and a foundation of the same name to help kids with education and nutrition. She was only 18.
Tragedy stroke in her hometown, Barranquilla, in the Estadio Romelio Martínez, which was overfilled in capacity, resulting in the death of three people by being stepped over. The singer questioned her career in such dire circumstances but decided to keep going.
When preparing her next project, her suitcase containing the lyrics and demo recordings for it, was stolen or lost in the Bogota airport. The prospect of losing material is one of the biggest nightmares for artists but Shakira bounced back and released her aptly titled second major album “Dónde están los ladrones ¿” [Where are the thieves].
She decided to color her hair red after seeing the movie “The avengers” (1998). She gains her first Grammy in the category Best latin pop album with her superb MTV Unplugged.
Then it was time to do the crossover, which Shakira describes as a huge mountain to climb as she wasn’t fluent in english yet. She decided her black hair was “like a prison” and she didn’t look “too shabby” as a blonde so she went for it. In her musical presentation she was increasingly seen as very talented performer, who could sing, dance, without missing a beat. Or a breath. “Laundry service” came out on November 2001 and was a big success, followed by extensive touring. She retreated to Bahamas afterwards and released the works “Fijación Oral Vol.1” “Oral Fixation Vol.2” in
Shakira was always pro-active in taking care of her mental health, having at a time two psychologists from different schools of thought.
When she released “She wolf”, she admitted she was suffering from loneliness and a bit depressed. The outcomes were not as desired and her long-term relationship with Antonio de la Rua was disintegrating. He would soon become “persona non grata” after suing her in million of dollars after they broke up. She would find love again in Fifa World Cup 2010 (who could escape her song “Waka waka (This time for Africa”?)”, with Spanish soccer player Gerard Piqué, with whom she would have two sons: Milan (born 2013) and Sasha (2015). Her album “Sale el sol” reflected that positive state of mind.
Becoming a mother would change Shakira’s outlook on life completely. From a nomad artist, she would settle in Barcelona and music would become a hobby in her life. After the release of “El Dorado” (2017) she sustained a vocal hemorrhage and choose to stay silent until her vocal cords healed on their own.
After the tour, seven years went by with just single releases here and there. Then life gave Shakira lemons. Lots of them. The Spanish authorities prosecuted her in reasons of tax evasion, Piqué left her for another woman destroying her dream of a perfect family and her dad had two falls at her place, one of the injuries requiring brain surgery.
Shakira is someone who has dealt with a lot. Coming from a country with lots of difficulties, from being betrayed, a bit of everything, good and bad, seems to already had happened to her. But her resilient spirit carries on. In tour for her latest musical project “Las mujeres ya no lloran”[Women no longer cry] (2024), Shakira says nobody can tell her what to do. And we listen.
Paula Cristina Gouveia
