The Early Years
Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll or better known professionally as Shakira was born on February 2, 1977. She was the lone child to parents of Lebanese, Spanish, and Italian origin. She did however have eight older half-siblings from her father's previous marriage.
Much of her youth was spent in the city of Barranquilla, situated in northern Colombia. She developed a writing habit while growing up and wrote poems which ultimately evolved into songs. Her first experience of belly dancing occurred at age four, when her father took her to a local Middle Eastern restaurant for the first time. At that moment, she knew she wanted to be a performer. Her passion for live performance developed at her Catholic school where she was known as "the belly dancer girl".
Between the ages of ten and thirteen, Shakira was invited to perform at various events in Barranquilla. Having gained some recognition in the area, she finally met local theatre producer Monica Ariza, who was impressed with her talents. Ariza wanted to help her career and assured Sony Colombia executive Ciro Vargas to hold an audition for Shakira in a hotel lobby. Vargas was impressed and held Shakira in high regard and later prepared for Shakira to audition for Sony Colombia executives. She impressed the executives with three songs and they signed her up to record three albums.
This was the outset to her music career.