When it comes to Shakira, you already know that her hips don’t lie. But what else do you know?
Well, if you caught this year’s Super Bowl halftime show, you would know that she’s the only woman in the world who can outshine JLo.
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She’s also a charitable woman, as she gives back to children in need. Here are 10+ other facts.
1. Her career started at the age of 10.
This was after she won a singing content. At 13, she signed her first record deal .
By the time she was 20, she was living in Miami and looking to crossover to American music.
2. Her full name is Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll.
Shakira means “grateful” in Arabic, as well as “full of grace.”
She comes from a mixed-race family, as her father is Lebanese and her mother is Spanish-Italian. Get this: she’s the youngest of eight siblings!
3. She is incredibly smart.
She has an IQ of 140! Talk about beauty and brains.
In 2013, she even made Mensa International’s list of celebs with the highest IQ.
Also on the list was Madonna (140) and Quentin Tarantino (160).
4. She learned how to belly dance from her Lebanese grandmother.
Grandma’s got moves!
Shakira got to perform at the Lebanon village where her grandmother is from in 2018.
“This means so much to me to be singing in the land of my grandparents,” she said while on stage.
“I feel so proud of these cedars, so proud of my heritage, and so proud of you,” she added.
For Shakira, dance is a way to highlight her “mixed ethnicity” .
“I am a fusion. That’s my persona. I’m a fusion between black and white, between pop and rock, between cultures.”
“Between my Lebanese father and my mother’s Spanish blood, the Colombian folklore and Arab dance…”
Thanks to this mix (and her high IQ), she can speak four different languages.
This includes Spanish, Portuguese, English, and Italian.
5. She was engaged to Antonio de la Rua, son of the then-president of Argentina.
They were together for 11 years and even talked babies before their split.
Shakira told Rolling Stone : “My body feels like it is asking to reproduce, to have a huge belly and carry babies.”
6. She only makes songs that make her want to dance.
Those hips truly don’t lie.
“I listen to music through my body,” she said in an interview with 60 Minutes .
“Even when I’m mixing songs in the recording studio, if I don’t move, I know that there’s something wrong.”
“I say, ‘Do you see them moving? Do you see my hips moving? It’s not working.'”
While she added that her mom finds some of her moves provocative, she has to feel what she’s singing.
Hey, it seems to work in her favor, that’s for sure.
7. She originally wanted to be an anthropologist.
This is someone who studies humans within past and present societies. I bet you didn’t expect that, did you?
While she didn’t become that, she does believes that she’s ” vicariously being one ” through her music.
8. Marriage scares her.
She’s currently dating soccer superstar, Gerard Piqué. While the couple has two kids, marriage is currently off the table.
“I don’t want him to see me as the wife. I’d rather him see me as his girlfriend,” she said.
9. Being a mother is the hardest job she’s ever had.
“I’m never sure if I’m doing it right,” she told The Guardian .
“I’m always second-guessing myself. I love being a mother but it’s challenging to keep the balance – to not let motherhood prevent you from reading a good book, going out with your boyfriend-slash-husband, having an adult conversation.”
10. She’s very charitable.
When she was growing up, she saw many kids in her community who went without shoes and homes.
When she earned enough money, she gave back by building six schools in Colombia.
This has helped educate more than 23,000 kids.
She sees helping children as her life’s purpose.
“I’ve always been convinced that my purpose in life is not to shake it endlessly. My musical career has served as a vehicle to work for children, which is the project of my life.”
11. She almost lost her voice completely.
2017 was a difficult year for the star. She suffered a hemorrhage in her vocal cords that left her unable to speak.
“I always thought there were going to be things in my life that would go away, like beauty, youth, all of that stuff,” she told The Guardian .
“But I never thought that my voice would leave me, because it’s so inherent to my nature. It was my identity.”
She said that not being able to sing left her so depressed.
Thankfully, her voice returned eventually, no surgery required.
12. She agreed to do the Super Bowl halftime show as a way to represent her Latin roots.
“I think it’s the right thing to do for the Latino community because we’ve also been through so much in Trump’s America, ” she told The Guardian .
“With walls being built and … it’s an opportunity to celebrate our culture, you know?”
13. Her anti-aging secret is a lot of hard work.
It’s hard to believe that the singer is 43. She looks like she’s still in her 20s!
Looking as good as she does requires a lot of dedication, as she stays in shape with dance-based fitness.
According to her trainer, Anna Kaiser, this includes 90-minute dance interval workouts.
She also brings belly dancing into the mix.
“She will make some of the movements her own, adding flair with her hips,” the trainer said . “Even though it’s super intense, she’s still having fun!”
