Artist of the Week: Shakira

Here's the deal, so last week I talked about how I saw a couple of cool concert performances on New Year's Eve. Well one of them was Maná which was my artist of the week last week. The other, just so happens to be this week's artist. So how bout I help you get to know this artist a little better. Just like last week, this week's artist has been around longer then most people know. To be honest, one of the first times I ever heard her music was in a Pepsi commercial. Growing up in Columbia, since an early age it was easy to see that she was very smart. She wrote her first poem, "La Rosa De Cristal" at the age of 4. She is a native Spanish speaker but also speaks fluent English, Portuguese, Italian, and some Arabic. Her name actually means "Thankful" in Arabic. At the age of 8 she took up belly dancing and became very passionate about it. She would even perform at school ever Friday for her fellow classmates, which earned her the nickname "The Belly Dance Girl". Around the age of 13, she met local theater producer Monica Ariza, who wanted to help her build music career. Ariza even got her an audition with a Sony Colombia exec Ciro Vargas in a hotel lobby. Vargas was very impressed and when he returned to the Sony office, he gave the cassette to a song and artist director. Sadly, the director was not as impressed and even thought she was something of "a lost cause". But Vargas, was still convinced that She had talent and set up and audition with some other Sony execs. She performed a couple of songs and impressed them so much that they signed her to a three album deal. Her debut album, Magia, was recorded and released in 1991 when she was only 14 years old. Though the album got some radio time in Colombia and got her some exposure, the album did not fare well commercially, selling around a thousand copies. The album was followed up with her second album, Peligro in 1993. But after having the album rushed out, she was not happy with the final result and refuse to promote it. That same year, she was invite to perform at Chile's Viña del Mar International Song Festival. The event gives young Latin artist a chance to perform their music and have a panel of judges pick a winner. She would eventually get third place thanks to one of the judges who was then a 20 year old Ricky Martin. Shortly after, she decided to take a hiatus to finish high school. In 1995, with many musical influences such as Alanis Morissette, she went back into the studio to record and release her third album Pies Descalzos. The album would sell over 5 million copies and spawn a remix album simply named The Remixes. In 1998, she released her fourth album ¿Dónde Están los Ladrones?

which sold over 300,000 copies on it's first day. The album also gained her popularity in many new regions selling over a millions copies in the US and eight million worldwide. Because of this, eight out the album's 11 tracks became singles including "Inevitable", and "Ojos Así". Thanks to the success of the album, she was asked to do a MTV Unplugged album, which would also sell very well. In 2001, she started recording an English album collaborating with Gloria Estefan. At first she started writing English versions of some of her earlier songs, but later on decided against it and in November of that yeah Laundry Service was released. The album would do very well in the US selling over three million copies and 13 million worldwide thanks to singles like "Whenever, Wherever" and "Underneath Your Cloths". The following year she released a Spanish greatest hits album titled Grandes Exitos. After spending over two years out of the spotlight, in 2005 she announced the Oral Fixation project. The first album off the project Fijación Oral Vol. 1, was released in June of 2005. The first single from the album, "La Tortura", which featured Alejandro Sanz, spent a record of twenty-five weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot Latin Tracks chart. The album sold 157,000 copies in its first week. The album also went Platinum in Venezuela, triple Platinum in Colombia, and sold out in Mexico on it's first day of release. Later that year, she released Oral Fixation Vol. 2 which two hit singles, "Don't Bother" and "Hips Don't Lie", helped it sell over ten million copies worldwide. In June of 2006, She embarked on the worldwide Oral Fixation Tour, which last over a year, and had 125 shows in 5 different continents. Since the end of the tour, she has been slowly working on a new album, but she hasn't said anything about when the album will be finished. Hopefully it will be this year, lets keep our fingers crossed. That being said, this week's artist is Shakira with her song Inevitable, enjoy.