Whenever, Wherever, Shakira Strives

Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll ‒ more commonly known as Shakira ‒ is one many for whom life didn’t go quite as planned. Yet for her everything worked out perfectly in the end. From switching her career path three times, becoming an international sensation in both Spanish and English speaking markets, and recently releasing a new album since becoming a mother in 2013, the Barranquilla, Colombia, native has proven herself a master of reinvention.

Though she initially wanted to model, Shakira received the offer of a record deal from Sony Colombia. After releasing two albums titled Magia (Magic) and Peligro (Danger), she began to doubt her talents as a singer and instead focused on acting. She landed a role in the Colombian soap opera, El Oasis in 1994, but left acting three years later to pursue a career in music once again, and with Emilio Estefan Jr. as her manager and producer, had a hit single ‘Ojos Asi’ and a successful album were in 1998. The album Donde Estan Los Landrones? (Where Are the Thieves?) reached number one spot on US Billboard’s Latin charts for 11 weeks and sold over 4 million copies.

She was now a famous singer worldwide and her talent for belly dancing became her signature, performed in music videos and on stage. Not content with being successful in Latin America, she learned English, allowing her to have full ownership to her work when translated and to release albums and songs in English. She would win multiple awards such as the Latin Grammys and MTV Video Music Awards of Latin America.

Despite all of her success, there were also hardships. Although born into a middle class family, her father’s business went bankrupt when she was eight and the family had to sell most of their belongings. “The new reality was a shock to me,” she stated in an interview with the UK’s Telegraph newspaper in 2009. “My parents decided to take me to the park where orphans were sniffing glue to put my situation in perspective. I remember it so vividly: I made myself a promise that one day I would, one, vindicate my parents’ social and economic situation and, two, do something about those kids. That image of those kids that day in the park has never left my mind.”

The memory led her to focus on giving something back by creating her own foundation and becoming a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF. She created the Barefoot Foundation to promote education and provide help to child-victims of violence in Colombia. Commenting on her foundation she reflects, “That is the part in my life I will always have. Even when I am 60 and no one pays attention to me anymore, I’ll be able to go to the schools I’ve helped found and see the progress of these kids.”

After becoming a mother in 2013, she did not think she could create another album, “I was full of doubts, and I thought I was never going to make good music again,” she said in an interview promoting her latest album El Dorado, released in May 2017. Whilst raising her two sons, she did not have much time left over for her music. Although she yearned to let the musician out, she acknowledged, “My two-year-old was in the same need. The person, the mother, the creator ‒ all of those little Shakiras were fighting inside of me, so it was very tumultuous.” In the end, she was able to create a new album because she didn’t think of it as an album project but instead as songs she released as she created them, which became manageable for her. Her song Chantaje (Blackmail) quickly became a hit upon its release last autumn and has gone on to rack up over 1.6 billion views on YouTube and over 325 million plays on Spotify in the nine months since. “The studio became the place to let some steam off, away from everyday life as a mother ‒ that became my hobby,” she said while adding “And then it became a pleasure like all hobbies are. So now music is my hobby. Oh, I never thought I would say that!”

Not only did she have a successful music career Shakira then tackled the challenge of being a mother so gracefully. We can all learn from a woman whose path was certainly uncertain for a while but who strived and made a name for herself while never forgetting where she came from or losing sight of where it was she planned to go.

Michelle Marcial

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