To create her signature dance style, the superstar is able to draw on her diverse cultural heritage - having tapped into her Lebanese background in particular to master the art of belly-dancing. Her Colombian-born mother had Spanish and Italian roots, while her father was born in New York to Lebanese immigrants. Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll was born in Barranquilla, Colombia, on February 2, 1977, as the youngest of eight siblings. And maybe we can't sing like Shak, a wunderkind who wrote her first song at age eight. So maybe we can't dance like Shak (see #ChantajeChallengeContest). 'But the stylistic breadth of Shakira's music - elements of folk, Middle Eastern and traditional Latin styles over a foundation of rock and pop - gave her a degree of credibility the American teen queens lacked.'Īnd perhaps that - besides her sheer vocal and dance talent - is what makes Shakira not only the inevitable superstar, but also all the more relevant in times of insular politics. She was already a big star in Latin America, but with her North American breakthrough at the beginning of the 2000s, 'some people associated the Colombian singer with her American pop-music contemporaries Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera,' wrote music magazine 'Rolling Stone.' While with her midriff tops, skimpy dresses and erotic moves and lyrics, she may not embody the emancipated modern woman - and certainly didn't in 2001 when she stormed onto the US music scene with her steamy 'Laundry Service' video and run-of-the-mill pop album of the same name. A quick scan of #ChantajeChallengeContest offers a few moments of what the Germans would call 'fremdschämen' (being embarrassed for someone else) - and proof that at 40 Shakira herself still has the world's fastest, sexiest hips.

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