Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll is a Colombian singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress also known by her stage name Shakira. She is known as the ‘Queen of Latin Music’ and was born and raised in Barranquilla, Colombia. Approximately 85 million of her recordings have been sold worldwide, making her one of the most popular performers. Moreover, she is Latin America’s best-selling female musician. In addition, she has won several accolades such as 12 Latin Grammys, seven Billboard Music Awards, and three Grammys.
Shakira was born to parents Nidia Ripoll Torrado and William Mebarak Chadid in Colombia. She is Colombian along of Lebanese descent as her father is from a Lebanese family. Her mother is from two Spanish families Torrado and Ripoll and has Catalan descent. She also has Italian roots. As a result of such a multicultural family, Shakira is fluent in multiple languages. She is fluent in six languages.
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Shakira’s Multilingual Prowess
Shakira is fluent in languages such as English, Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese, French, and Italian. She can also understand Catalan and has sung in languages like German and Latin. As Shakira was born in Colombia, a predominantly Spanish-speaking country, she has been fluent in Spanish since childhood. She also grew up learning Arabic as her father is Lebanese and is fluent in Arabic as a result of her father’s teaching. In fact, her name Shakira is also inspired by Arabic as it means grateful in Arabic.
Shakira can also speak Portuguese as she used to tour and perform in Brazil in her early years as a singer. Brazil was one of the countries where young Shakira spent months touring. As a result, she learned the major language of Brazil, Portuguese to be able to communicate with her fans and she became fluent in Portuguese. It is also noted that as a result of her touring, she picked up Brazilian Portuguese instead of European Portuguese.
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The Singer’s Fluency In Languages
Shakira is also fluent in English. Given that English is the language that is most commonly spoken worldwide, her label wanted to push her to the English-speaking factions. Her early albums were also translated into English to widen their audience. She learned English to make songs in English and slowly became proficient in the language. Today, she speaks English flawlessly and it’s hard to believe that it’s not her first language.
She also speaks Italian. She learned the language as she has Italian descent from her mother’s side of the family. Shakira has also traveled a lot in Italy. She can converse in Italian and has been seen speaking Italian in interviews as well as in concerts. The singer can also converse in French but she doesn’t consider herself as fluent. She also speaks Catalan which is a major language in Spain and Andorra. It is believed that she learned the language with the help of her then-partner Gerard Pique and also by spending the majority of her time in Barcelona, Spain.
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