Category:
Richest Celebrities › Singers
Net Worth:
$300 Million
Birthdate:
Feb 2, 1977 (47 years old)
Birthplace:
Barranquilla
Gender:
Female
Height:
5 ft 1 in (1.57 m)
Profession:
Record producer, Singer-songwriter, Musician, Dancer, Choreographer, Model, Entrepreneur, Philanthropist
Nationality:
Colombia
Shakira is a Colombian-born international pop star who has a net worth of $300 million. Shakira is a singer, songwriter, producer, belly dancer, and philanthropist. As of this writing, she has sold more than 125 million albums and singles worldwide, which makes her one of the most successful female singers of all time. She is the second-most successful Latina singer of all time behind Gloria Estefan. She is the highest-selling Colombian singer of all time.
Shakira has won a number of awards for her work, including three Grammy Awards, thirteen Latin Grammy Awards, four MTV Video Music Awards, seven Billboard Music Awards, thirty-nine Billboard Latin Music Awards, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2009, Billboard listed her as the Top Female Latin Artist of the Decade. She is ranked as the most-streamed Latin artist on Spotify and is one of only three female artists to have two YouTube videos exceeding two billion views.
In 2001, Shakira released her fifth album and the first one in English. “Laundry Service” launched the number-one international singles “Whenever, Wherever” and “Underneath Your Clothes” and sold 20 million copies. Her next several albums in Spanish and English topped album charts and were certified gold, platinum, multi-platinum, or diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America.
In 2008, Shakira signed a ten-year, $300 million deal with Live Nation.
In January 2021, Shakira sold the rights to her publishing catalog to Hipgnosis Songs Fund. The deal included publishing rights to roughly 145 songs. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but based on comparable sales, it was likely worth at least $100 million.
Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll was born on February 2, 1977, in Barranquilla, Colombia. The name Shakira is Arabic for grateful. She is the only child of William Mebarak Chadid and Nidia Ripoll Torrado. Her paternal grandparents emigrated from Lebanon to New York City, where her father was born. When Shakira’s dad was five, he immigrated to Colombia. She is Spanish (Catalan and Castilian) and Italian on her mother’s side. She was raised Roman Catholic and attended Catholic schools. She has eight older half-siblings from her father’s previous marriage. Shakira spent most of her childhood in Barranquilla, a city on the northern Caribbean coast of Colombia. She wrote her first poem, “La Rosa De Cristal (The Crystal Rose),” when she was four years old. Growing up, she was fascinated watching her father write stories on his typewriter and asked for one for Christmas. She got one when she was seven and has been writing poetry ever since. Those poems eventually morphed into songs.
When Shakira was four, her dad took her to a Middle Eastern restaurant where she first heard the doumbek, a traditional drum used in Arabic music, typically accompanied by belly dancing. She started dancing on the table and through learning how to belly dance over the years, realized she wanted to be a performer. She became known at school as the “belly dancer girl,” as she showed off her new dance moves every Friday for her classmates. She enjoyed singing for her classmates and teachers at her school. However, in second grade, she didn’t make the school choir because her vibrato was too strong. The music teacher actually told her she sounded like a goat. Shakira struggled with ADHD in school and was often sent out of class due to her hyperactivity.
Between the ages of 10 and 13, Shakira started getting recognition for her singing at local events in Barranquilla. She met local theatre producer Monica Ariza, who wanted to help launch her career. During a flight from Barranquilla to Bogota, Ariza convinced a Sony Colombia record executive, Ciro Vargas, to allow Shakira to audition in the hotel lobby. Vargas was impressed with Shakirah, but Sony’s song and artist director was not. Vargas set up an audition for her in Bogota and arranged for Sony Colombia executives to be there. He intended to surprise them with her performance. She sang three songs and that was enough to get her a three-record deal.
Shakira’s debut album, “Magia,” was released in June 1991 when she was only 13 years old and featured “Magia” and three other singles. The songs are a collection made by her since she was eight years old. The album fared well on Colombian radio and gave the young Shakira much exposure, but it did not fare well commercially, as only 1,200 copies were sold worldwide. Her second album, 1993’s “Peligro,” was also not successful.
Success did start to roll in with 1995’s “Pies Descalzos” and 1998’s “Donde Estan los Ladrones?”, which were both hits in Spanish-speaking countries. Shakira entered the English-language market with her fifth album, “Laundry Service” (2001). It sold over 20 million copies and spawned the international number-one singles “Whenever, Wherever” and “Underneath Your Clothes.”
Her Spanish albums “Fijacion Oral, Vol. 1” (2005), “Sale el Sol” (2010), and “El Dorado” (2017) all topped the Billboard Top Latin Albums charts and were certified diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America. Her English albums “Oral Fixation Vol. 2” (2005), “She Wolf” (2009), and “Shakira” (2014) were all certified gold, platinum, or multi-platinum in various countries worldwide. Some of her songs have hit number one on the charts in multiple countries, including “La Tortura,” “Hips Don’t Lie,” “Beautiful Liar,” “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa),” “Loca,” and “Chantaje.” In 2022, she was honored with the Special International Award at the Ivor Novello Awards in recognition of her success as one of the most influential songwriters and musical artists in the world. Shakira served as a coach on two seasons of the American singing competition television series “The Voice” from 2013 to 2014.
Shakira has sold more than 125 million albums worldwide and is the second most successful Latina singer of all time after Gloria Estefan. She is the highest-selling Colombian singer of all time. She has won a number of awards for her work, including three Grammy Awards, thirteen Latin Grammy Awards, four MTV Video Music Awards, seven Billboard Music Awards, thirty-nine Billboard Latin Music Awards, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2009, Billboard listed her as the Top Female Latin Artist of the Decade. Shakira is one of the world’s best-selling music artists. She is ranked as the most-streamed Latin artist on Spotify and became one of only three female artists to have two YouTube videos exceeding two billion views.
Shakira was in an 11-year relationship with Argentinian attorney Antonio de la Rua from 2000 to 2011. In a 2009 interview, she said that their relationship was like a married couple and that “they don’t need papers for that.” When they split, de la Rua continued to oversee Sharkira’s business and career interests. In the fall of 2012, he sued Shakira for $100 million he believed he was owed after she terminated her business partnership with him in October 2011. His lawsuit was dismissed by a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge in August 2013.
Shakira and Spanish football player Gerard Piqu began dating in 2011. He plays for FC Barcelona and the Spanish national team. He is ten years younger than Shakira. They met in the spring of 2010 when he appeared in the music video for her song “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa),” the official song of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Shakira and Gerard have two sons, Milan, born January 22, 2013, and Sasha, born January 29, 2015. Unfortunately, Gerard and Shakira announced their split in June 2022.
When she was a child, her father took her to a local park to see orphans who lived there as a way of instilling gratitude in her. 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.” Shakira is the founder of the Pies Descalzos Foundation, which raises money for poor children in Colombia.
In 2020, Shakira completed an ancient philosophy course at the University of Pennsylvania as a hobby.
In 2013, it was reported that Shakira earned $12 million for “The Voice.”
In November 2017, Shakira was named in the Paradise Papers as the sole shareholder of a company transferring $30 million in music rights. In 2018, Spanish authorities began looking into her finances. Prosecutors would eventually argue that despite claiming the Bahamas to be her legal residence, Shakira spent more than six months living in Spain between 2012 and 2014. She did not pay taxes to Spain during those years. She was accused of owing $13.9 million in taxes connected to those years. Shakira claimed she had paid all she owed plus $2.8 million in interest.
In September 2023, Spanish prosecutors alleged that Shakira failed to pay $7.1 million on her 2018 income. This was a new charge on top of the 2012-2014 tax charges.
On November 20, 2023, the first day of her trial, Shakira settled her case with Spanish tax authorities. In the settlement, she answered “yes” to confirm her acknowledgment of six charges of failure to pay around $16 million in taxes to the Spanish government for tax years 2012 to 2014. The terms of the settlement allowed Shakira to avoid jail time. She instead will serve a three-year suspended sentence and pay an $8 million fine. Technically speaking, she was legally found guilty of committing tax fraud.
In 2018, Shakira listed her minimalist Miami mansion for $11.6 million. The 20,726-square-foot property on Miami’s North Bay Road overlooks the water and has more than 100 feet of access to Biscayne Bay. The 8,708-square-foot house has six bedrooms and seven and a half bathrooms. Neighbors include Matt Damon, Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez, Alex Rodriguez, and Michael Bay.
After the split from Piqu in 2022, the couple listed their $16 million Barcelona home, and Shakira decided to move back to Miami with her sons, Milan and Sasha. She is allegedly renting a $15 million waterfront home while looking to spend upwards of $50 million on a new mega-mansion. She also has a residence in the Bahamas.
