A few days ago I heard the song "Hips Don't Lie" on the radio, and I realized that Shakira would be an interesting person to do a blog on. She was born on February 2, 1977 in Barranquilla, Colombia. Her father was Lebanese and her mother Colombian. Shakira honors her Latino heritage throughout her music. Her major breakthrough was her album Pies Descalzos. The album had Latin, rock and Arabic music. She was very famous in the Spanish-language markets, but also wanted to be famous in the U.S. Pop Charts. Shakira moved to Miami and taught herself how to write songs in English. In 2001, her first English album Laundry Service was a big hit. Shakira has won two Grammy Awards and seven Latin Grammy Awards. By 2006 she had won 32 awards.

Learning about Shakira made me realize that she worked really hard to get to where she is today. Teaching herself how to write songs in English could not have been easy and today she is a very popular singer because of that. She had a goal of becoming a singer and creating English albums and she achieved that goal.

http://www.biography.com/people/shakira-189151