Shakira the Superstar

The artist and the humanitarian , Shakira If you went to her concert on Friday night, you would have been formally introduced to Shakira as the hip-shaking siren of pop music. If you didn\'t then just head to

YouTube and check out the music video for Hips Don\'t Lie. It\'s all pretty self-explanatory.
But after just a few words from the little (just 4ft 11in) Latino, it doesn\'t take long to work out this is one she wolf with a lot more on her mind than which way to wiggle.

The fourth richest woman in pop, after Madonna, Barbra Streisand and Celine Dion, Shakira could sit back, relax, and worry about which colour to paint her nails next. Instead, Shakira, born Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, is intent on making her advocacy work as well-known as her hips.

Educating impoverished children by building schools and community centres in some of the poorest neighbourhoods in her native Colombia, and convincing other Latin American leaders to invest in early childhood education, it looks like the nails will have to wait.
\"I think that with fame comes an obligation and a greater sense of duty,\" she said. \"I have always felt that the best thing I can do with my voice is use it to help others who don\'t have one, and to draw focus to more important issues like the right to a quality education.\"

She knows about deprivation all too well having grown up in the extremely poor city of Barranquilla, on the Caribbean side of Colombia. \"Being a militant or a drug trafficker are the only options,\" she said of the port where more than 50 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line.
So, in 1996 armed with a thin cheque book in her tiny hand, Shakira started the Barefoot Foundation in a bid to reverse the trend. At just 18, things began very small, the singer writing cheques for orphanages as she could afford it.
\"When I was eight years old, my Lebanese father\'s jewellery business went bankrupt and he sent us to Los Angeles for a couple of months while he was figuring things out,\" she recalls. \"I was surprised and disappointed when I came back to see how much our lifestyle had changed in such a short time. My parents took me to a local park to see the kids that had no place else to go; they were barefoot and some were sniffing glue to keep warm. Right then and there I decided that when I was able, I would find a way to give back to kids like those that I saw that day.\"
Two years later in 1998 and thanks to the success of hit Where Are The Thieves?, which sold one million copies, the cheque book was now accompanied with a credit card and the services of Maria Emma Mejia, a former Colombian Minister of Education, who agreed to help her run Barefoot. \"I was lucky that she said yes. I was only 20 years old. And she was so well-known.\"

Children

She may have moved to Miami, determined to conquer the US musically, but her heart was always with the children she promised to save. \"Every time I get the chance to visit our schools and interact with the children I am able to see first-hand the impact of the work we do, it inspires me,\" she said. \"This year our students achieved some of the highest scores in the country on the standard national tests for Colombia, and that was a huge achievement for us.\"

Laundry Service in 2001 sold 18 million copies and by 2006, her music and hard work started to open the doors she\'d always dreamed of.
US President Barack Obama met her last year in the Oval Office to get her advice on education for Latino children and she was asked by the Brookings Institution to be the celebrity behind its proposal to create A Global Fund for Education.
\"I am always pleasantly surprised to see that leaders around the world are so willing to meet us and really understand what an important issue universal access to education is,\" she said. \"We still have a long way to go but I think we\'ve built a solid foundation so far.\"

In March, Shakira doesn\'t mind admitting, she shed a few tears at a ground-breaking ceremony for her foundation\'s seventh school in Cartagena.
\"I know that the world, little by little, will understand that wherever there is a kid who is hungry and can\'t attend school…that kid should be a concern to all of us and our responsibility,\" she said. \"I\'m sure that this awareness will grow in each one of us because the world has become a small neighbourhood, and we should all be concerned about the issues that others have to face.\"
Accompanied by the philanthropist Howard Buffett, Shakira lay the first brick of what will be a new mammoth school in an area of high vulnerability and displacement in the coastal Colombian city.

The project will provide change for 1,500 boys and girls who receive an education and for more than 58,000 residents of the Cerro de Popa community.

Shakira has now sold some 50 million records, scooped two Grammy Awards and seven Latin Grammies and transcends many borders, partly due to the artists she has also been lucky enough to collaborate with.
Hips Don\'t Lie was recorded with Wyclef Jean in 2006 and topped the charts in 55 countries. The music video for Gypsy, also a bit of a tribute to her famous curves, stars a shirtless tennis ace Rafael Nadal. She extended her fan base to black America by joining forces with Beyoncé and worked with legendary songwriters Donna Summer and Wyclef Jean.
But no matter how many times you try to make it about the music, conversation comes back to the children as talk of crossing borders morphs to education.
\"For me, Waka Waka was the best example of how music can cross borders and help serve a greater purpose,\" she said, sure the chat would turn to the World Cup. \"I think that the reach of the song truly surprised us all. And the campaign with 1Goal not only helped me become closer to my fans but also afforded me the opportunity to advocate for the cause that is most important to me: universal education.\" Sigh.
That said, anyone who can enjoy fame the way this lady has and still put the needs of many others before herself deserves credit. Nope, she won\'t even take that.
\"My parents have always been a huge part in shaping who I am, as I think you can see from the experience I recounted from my childhood,\" she said. \"They continue to be very present in my life; they travelled with me for a good part of the Latin American tour. For me, having my family close by grounds me and keeps me focused on what really matters. My family and loved ones always have and always will be the most important people in my life.\"
It\'s not easy but I finally get her onto the music. Just.
\"Right now I am still very much in tour mode and excited about this upcoming leg — starting off with Abu Dhabi, of course. The Middle East holds a special place in my heart because of my Lebanese roots. But I also just released the next single off my last album, Rabiosa. We shot the video this week and it\'s a fun song with Caribbean influences, particularly from the Dominican Republic where I recorded it.\"
A sense of relief floods over me as I reconsider my career.
\"I couldn\'t get one of the most famous women in music to talk about, well, the music,\" I told a friend. \"Maybe she\'s so much more than that,\" came her wise words back.
And everything fell into place.

From : Gulf News