Shakira Free Screensaver. Photos slideshow. Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll (born February 2, 1977), known simply as Shakira, is a two-time Grammy Award and eight-time Latin Grammy Award-winning Colombian singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer 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 market with the release of her first album in that language, Laundry Service, which has sold over 3.5 million copies in the United States and 15 million copies worldwide. She is the daughter of a Colombian mother and a Lebanese father whose Arabic background greatly influenced his daughter. Her sound, like her hit single Estoy Aqui , are musically surprising and gritty, with intellectual lyrics and an electronic and an acoustical blend. Her gutsy, rock infused album, Donde Estan los Ladrones , assures her position as a pioneer who has redefined the scope of Latin American singers. Shakira won a Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for Ojos Asa at the first annual Latin Grammy Awards in fall 2000. Shakira's love and talent for music was apparent at early age when she started winning local and national talent contests at age 10. Shakira moved to Bogota to become a model, and instead emerged with a recording contract for Sony. Her debut album Magia , released in 1991 when she was just 14, consisted entirely of self written songs. Shakira is the most exciting singer songwriter to come out of Latin America in years. For the millions that already bought her albums, she is already the voice of a new generation. She is perhaps the most recognizable and certainly the most intriguing voice in Latin pop-rock music today.