Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll (born February 2, 1977), known simply as Shakira, is a Colombian contralto singer, songwriter, instrumentalist, record producer, dancer, philanthropist and occasional actress who has been a major figure in the pop music scene of Latin America since the mid-1990s. In 2001, she broke through into the English-speaking world with the release of Laundry Service, which sold over fifteen million copies worldwide. A two-time Grammy Award-winning, seven-time Latin Grammy Award-winning and Golden Globe-nominated, Shakira is the highest-selling Colombian artist of all time, having sold more than 50 million albums worldwide according to BMI. She is also the only artist from South America to reach the number-one spot on the Billboard Hot 100, the Australian ARIA chart, the United World Chart and the UK Singles Chart.According
to the United World Chart, Shakira is as of 2007 the 6th most successful artist so far from the 2000s. She is also the only artist to have two songs in the top ten of the most successful singles since 1999. She has a total of four, the lowest one being number 51.
