Shakira is a Columbian Singer of mixed heritage, part of which is Arab. This is a video of Shakira in Dubai singing in Arabic. Her father is of Lebaneses extraction. Her mother is Spanish and Italian. Her names means full of grace in Arabic.
Shakira was born on February 2, 1977 in Barranquilla, Colombia. She is the only child of Nidia Ripoll and William Mebarak Chadid. Her paternal grandparents emigrated from Lebanon to New York City, where her father was born. From her mother, Nidia Ripoll, she has Spanish (Catalan and Castilian) and Italian descent
What is interesting is that it was ethnic Arab music which started her career.
When Shakira was four, her father took her to a local Middle Eastern restaurant, where Shakira first heard the doumbek, a traditional drum used in Arabic music and which typically accompanied belly dancing. She started dancing on the table, and the experience made her realize that she wanted to be a performer. She enjoyed singing for schoolmates and teachers (and even the nuns) at her Catholic school, but in the second grade was rejected for the school choir because her vibrato was too strong. The music teacher told her that she sounded “like a goat”. At school, she says she had been known as “the belly dancer girl”, as she would demonstrate every Friday at school a number she had learned.
