Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll (/ʃəˈkɪərə/ shə-KEER-ə, Spanish: [ʃaˈkiɾa isaˈβel meβaˈɾak riˈpol]; born 2 February 1977) is a Colombian singer-songwriter. Referred to as the "Queen of Latin Music", she has had a significant impact on the musical landscape of Latin America and has been credited with popularizing Hispanophone music on a global level, which in turn contributed to increased learning and use of the Spanish language worldwide. The recipient of various accolades, she has won four Grammy Awards and fifteen Latin Grammy Awards, including three Song of the Year wins.

Shakira made her recording debut with Sony Music Colombia at the age of 14. Following the commercial failure of her first two albums, Magia (1991) and Peligro (1993), she rose to prominence with the next two, Pies Descalzos (1995) and Dónde Están los Ladrones? (1998). Shakira entered the English-language market with her fifth album, Laundry Service (2001), which sold over 13 million copies worldwide, becoming the best-selling album of all time by a female Latin artist. Her success was further solidified with the Spanish-language albums Fijación Oral, Vol. 1 (2005), Sale el Sol (2010), El Dorado (2017), and Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran (2024), all of which topped the Billboard Top Latin Albums chart, making her the first woman with number-one albums across four different decades. Her English-language albums Oral Fixation, Vol. 2 (2005), She Wolf (2009), and Shakira (2014) received platinum certifications in various countries worldwide.

Shakira is one of the world's best-selling musicians. She scored numerous number-one singles and other top songs worldwide, including "Estoy Aquí", "Antología", "Ciega, Sordomuda", "Ojos Así", "Whenever, Wherever / Suerte", "Underneath Your Clothes", "Objection (Tango)", "La Tortura", "Las de la Intuición", "Hips Don't Lie", "Beautiful Liar", "She Wolf", "Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)", "Loca", "Rabiosa", "Can't Remember to Forget You", "Dare (La La La)", "La Bicicleta", "Chantaje", "Te Felicito", "Monotonía", "Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53", and "TQG". Shakira served as a coach on two seasons of the American singing competition television series The Voice (2013–2014), had a voice role in the animated film Zootopia (2016), and executive produced and judged the dance competition series Dancing with Myself (2022). She is credited with opening the doors of the international market for other Latin artists. Billboard named her the Top Female Latin Artist of the Decade twice (2000s and 2010s).

Shakira has written or co-written a vast majority of the material she recorded or performed, music and lyrics, during her career. Noted to be an "international phenomenon" whose music, story, and legacy "resonate in every corner of the globe", Shakira has been described as an artistic link between the West and the East for popularizing Middle Eastern sounds in the West, and Western sounds in the East. For her philanthropic and humanitarian work, such as the Barefoot Foundation, and her contributions to music, she received the Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year and Harvard Foundation Artist of the Year awards in 2011. Shakira was appointed to the President's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics in the United States in 2011, and was granted the honor of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government in 2012. She has been an advocate for equitable development of the Global South, the rights and interests of children, the Latino minority in the U.S. and Canada, women, and other under-represented groups.

Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll was born on 2 February 1977 in Barranquilla, Colombia. Her name means "thankful" in Arabic. She is the only child of William Mebarak Chadid and Nidia Ripoll Torrado. Her grandparents are of Spanish and Lebanese descent. Shakira's great-grandmother on her father's side emigrated to Sincelejo, Colombia, from Lebanon. After establishing in Colombia, Shakira's grandmother was born; she gave birth to Shakira's father, William, in New York City. When he was around five, his family moved back to Colombia. Shakira's grandfather on her mother's side, Tomás Eduardo Ripoll, was born in Barranquilla whereas her grandmother, Josefina Torrado Núñez, was born in Ábrego. The Spanish surname Torrado of her grandmother on her mother's side is Catalan and originates from four brothers who immigrated from Catalonia to coastal Colombia in the 19th century. Shakira has stated that she also has distant Italian roots through an ancestor with the surname Pisciotti. Her father was born to a Lebanese Christian family. She was raised Catholic and attended Catholic schools. Shakira has eight older half-siblings from her father's previous marriage. She spent much of her youth in Barranquilla, a city located on the northern Caribbean coast of Colombia.

Shakira wrote her first poem, titled "La Rosa de Cristal" ('The Crystal Rose'), when she was only four years old. As she was growing up, she was fascinated watching her father writing stories on a typewriter and prayed for one for herself when she was seven. She kept writing poems and her mother thought she would become an author. As her music interests crystallized, the poetry turned into song lyrics. When Shakira was two years old, her half-brother was killed at the age of nineteen, in a motorcycle accident. Six years later, writing lyrics on her typewriter and having been given a guitar by her aunt, she composed her first song, titled "Gafas Oscuras" ('Dark Glasses'). It was inspired by her father, who for years wore dark glasses to hide his grief.

Shakira grew up in reasonably comfortable family conditions until her father, a jeweler, went bankrupt when she was eight. Her parents sent her to stay for a while with relatives in Los Angeles. When she came back, their two cars, furniture and color TV were gone and she had to adjust to a different reality. She was able to buy her parents a car when she was 14, after receiving some money for the release of the Magia album.

When she was four, Shakira's father took her to a local Middle Eastern restaurant, where she first heard the doumbek, a traditional drum of Middle-Eastern music, used to accompany belly dancing. Spontaneously, she climbed onto a table and started to dance; soon she wanted to do it for anyone who would watch. At her Catholic school, she demonstrated belly dancing on every Friday morning, encouraged by her parents, teachers and students in the audience, who were convinced of her bright future as a performer. "Just her, singing and dancing on the stage", recalled a former classmate. However, in second grade, Shakira was rejected for school choir because, according to the music teacher, her vibrato was too strong; classmates told her she sounded like a goat. She was often sent out of class because of her hyperactivity. To make Shakira appreciate more the modest conditions of her upbringing, her father took her to a local park so she could see orphans who lived there. The images stayed with her and she said to herself, "one day I'm going to help these kids when I become a famous artist". Having regained some confidence in her singing, she entered a local TV station talent contest when she was ten and won the top prize, a bicycle.