How Shakira turned her disappointments into art: her best-selling albums and concerts

Three World Cups, a Super Bowl, and more than 13 million copies sold in a single album, are some of the achievements of the best-selling Latin female artist of all time: Shakira. His career began at the age of 13 when he signed his first record deal with Sony Music Colombia.

For this record company she recorded her first album, Magia (1991), with songs composed by herself and two years later she presented her second album, Peligro (1993). But it would not be until 1995 with Pies Descalzos, the album that she began to give her international visibility.

In addition to being a singer-songwriter, she is an actress, choreographer, philanthropist, UNICEF goodwill ambassador and mother. Her success is due to her discipline, her talent and her exotic voice. Her songs have been framed in pop, rock and alternative sounds. One of the great inspirations of the Barranquillera, who is currently 45 years old, has been love, hence songs like “Si te vas” is one of the most successful on the album “Where are the thieves?” with which she was finally catapulted to fame.

The album sold more than seven million copies, making it part of the list of the 500 best Rolling Stone albums in history. It was published on September 29, 1998 and other singles such as “Ciega, Sordomuda” and “Inevitable” stand out. Themes of love are accompanied by those such as lack of love. Disappointment has also appeared in the artist’s life, a pain that she seems to channel into the lyrics she composes.

His best-selling album was “Laundry Service” (2001), the fifth of his career, with more than four million copies in the US alone and more than 13 million sales worldwide. With this album she reached the top positions on the Billboard Hot 100 charts worldwide.

Oral Fixation Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. were her sixth and seventh studio albums by the artist. the first gave him an Anglo Grammy in the category of Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album and four Latin Grammys. Oral Fixation Vol. 2 became the first made entirely in English and has sold over eight million copies worldwide. One of the most successful songs, to date turned into an anthem was “Hips don’t lie”, the song of the summer of 2006. By that year she was already an established artist, which led her to become the first woman America to close the FIFA Germany Cup.

She has been the only Latina to appear in three World Cups. For South Africa 2010 she was in charge of the official song of the Fifa World Cup with which she made hundreds of people around the world dance: “Waka Waka”, a collaboration between Shakira and the South African group Freshlyground. Four years later and consecutively, Shakira sang her single ‘La La La (Brazil 2014)’ at the World Cup closing ceremony.

Other of the artist’s successes have been “Antología” (Barefoot Feet), which she composed for her first boyfriend, when she was still at school. One of her live performances in Miami has more than 140 million views on YouTube. This is probably one of the most remembered Latin American ballads of the 90s.

“I wrote this song when I was 17 years old, yes because at 15 I had already fallen in love,” he said in one of his concerts on the “El Dorado Tour” tour.

Other songs that have immortalized love have been songs like “La Bicicleta” in featuring (collaboration) with fellow Colombian Carlos Vives. This song was dedicated to his partner, the soccer player Gerard Piqué and, the father of her two children, Milan and Sasha, with whom she lived for more than a decade, to whom he also dedicated “Me enamoré”.

Shakira is currently on the verge of releasing a new single that, without a doubt, has the nuance of the recent breakup with the soccer player, of whom she has already shown some previews of ‘Monotonia’. Prior to this release, she presented “I congratulate you”, along with reggaeton player Rauw Alejandro, which was apparently also dedicated to Piqué. The video already has more than 300 million views on the artist’s official YouTube account.

In his career he has ventured into pop, rock, ballads, reggaeton and even bachata. One of the most emblematic moments of his career was in the participation of the 2020 Super Bowl halftime with Jennifer Lopez.

The Colombian artist, creator of the Pies Descalzos Foundation -focused on helping low-income boys and girls in the country- has more than 300 awards among her winners. Among these, five American Music Awards and 41 Billboard Latin Music Awards stand out.

Shakira’s performances are also a sign of her worldwide success. In 2007 she broke audience records in Mexico, where she managed to gather 210,000 people in the Zócalo, the largest square in Latin America.

That same year, setting the record for the largest attendance in Egyptian concert history at the time, Shakira was able to draw 100,000 attendees to the Egyptian Pyramids plateau in just one night, and it makes sense, as there was always a connection. between Shakira and the Arab world, with her ancestry and music.