Shakira

Pop superstar Shakira is going to sing for the freedom of the hostages held by a Colombian rebel group, when she will perform in her birth country on 20th July.

The singer met with released FARC hostage Ingrid Betancourt- ex Colombian presidential candidate to raise awareness about the hostage’s plight.

Shakira is going to accompany Colombian pop star Carlos Vives for the Independence Day show.

The event is organized to pressurize the terrorist group FARC to release its 700 hostages.

A Shakira look-alike and sing-alike has been creating waves at America’s favourite reality show American Idol.

She hails from Columbia, coincidently. She sang Blondie’s Call Me at the beginning but the judges weren’t very impressed. And out of something, Randy asked her to sing Shakira’s “Hips Don’t Lie”…and she imitated that very well.

She said she had almost chosen that song but the fear of being compared to Shakira and lacking originality. But I guess she more or less tries to emulate Shakira in every way… even her blonde tresses reveal that.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez is the same person who collaborated with Shakira in establishing her charitable organisation ALAS. Apparently Marquez is a huge fan of Shakira and so is Shakira a huge fan of Marquez.

He has written and said pretty good things about Shakira and Shakira says,

“I’m a big fan of his. May be my favorite novel of his “One Hundered Years of Solitude,” not only because it’s the most well knowln all over the world, but because it has allowed people around the world to get to know a piece of my country’s idiosyncrasies.”

Marquez is so impressed by the woman that he might just write a character similar to her persona.

“Marquez has the power to make the really simple things in life so special that that they are magical, so, yes, I could be one of his characters - so could you or anyone. I really admire him.”

Beyonce Knowles seems to be absoultely in awe of our Columbian crooner Shakira. She is re-releasing her latest album B’Day after a Spanish remake of one of her songs became a surprise hit.

Beyonce has decided to remake one of her latest song Beautiful Liars that recently took the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart by storm and made a huge English cross-success.

‘Beautiful Liars’ is a wonderful song… now what I’m waiting for is the video of the song featuring to beautiful women in Beyonce and Shakira.

As they say… It takes two to tango!

Shakira has Lebanese-Spanish roots and she holds fast to them as she stood for the Arab world, when the world started looking down upon Arabs as terrorists, after the unfortunate September 11 attacks at the World Trade Centre.

On the 9-11 attacks she said,

” When I received the news… I reacted like the other millions of people, very nervous and confused. The fear that I have is that… this tragedy will turn into an even worse tragedy, because it is very easy to fill ourselves with hatred and bitterness…When we are filled with this hate, it affects our actions. Therefore, I was worried that a war might occur and that the entire world might suffer for the irresponsible acts committed by a few people.”

She defended the Arabs saying,

“I’m also afraid of generalizations, because the Arabic world is a very large and grand culture. The Arabic world is not all Muslims, nor are all Muslims terrorists. I don’t think the US or any other country for that matter should retaliate against this terrorism. There is way to end terrorism without hurting innocent people,” she protested.

“These generalizations and the tendency to generalize bother me alot. My father is 100 percent Lebanese, and he is not a terrorist. I come from a Catholic Arabic family, and I have never even met a terrorist in my whole life,”

confessed Shakira.

Garcia Marquez is coming up with a movie and Shakira is going to sing three songs for the film.

A source was quoted saying, “On his own initiative, he convinced hip-shaking pop star Shakira, who hails from the nearby city of Barranquilla, to provide three songs for the film. “I could‘ve wandered a long time looking for that haunting, lilting sound that‘s so particular to this place and which he was able to put his finger on instantly,” said Newell.

The 2006 Napster Awards have now been annouced. The USP of these awards is that they honor artists and their songs based on the fan’s buying and Listening Habits.

“The Napster Awards provide insight into how music fans behave when they can listen to an enormous variety of music away from restrictive radio playlists, limited retail shelf space and 30-second clip, buck a track digital stores,” said Chris Gorog, chairman and CEO of Napster.

Among the Latin category, our Columbian crooner won the honors for Most-Played Latin Artist, Most-Played Latin Song for her song “Whenever, Wherever”.

We congratulate all of the 2006 Napster Award winners, and look forward to continuing to honor the music Napster subscribers enjoy playing the most,” added Gorog.

Columbian Crooner Shakira has joined hands with Nobel Prize Laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez and they launched a star-studded foundation ALAS that stands for Latin America in Solidarity Action.
ALAS promises to tackle poverty that kills 350 000 children in the region.

“Latin America has some devastating statistics,” added Garcia, citing the 350 000 children under 5 who die from causes linked to poverty, and the 40 million minors who work in the street.

Spanish singer Miguel Bose will serve as executive director of the foundation, conceived about a year ago by Shakira, who also heads the Colombia-based non-profit foundation Pies Descalzos, or Barefoot, which helps the child victims of violence in that South American country. The foundation will be based in the City of Knowledge, a former US armed forces base near the Panama Canal that already houses academic institutions, high-tech business and non-governmental international organisations.

Ruben Blades, Juanes, Ricky Martin, the rock group Mana, Aleks Syntek, David Bisbal and Alejandro Sanz are other musicians who support the cause. They plan to hold five musical concerts, starting next year, to collect funds for the foundation.

“We all have to do our part to fight against inequality,” says Shakira.

She admirably represents Hispanics all over the world as she tours the globe and she was given the keys to the city of Miami as an honor.

“It is a great pleasure and honor to bestow this recognition on an artist who broke all records by selling out five concerts at American Airlines Arena and one who so well represents all Latinos all over the world,” said Mayor Manny Diaz during the Wednesday afternoon key-presentation ceremony.

“I remember how, years ago, I had the intuition that Miami would be a great city in my artistic success,” Shakira said while accepting the honor. She said she shared the recognition “especially with the artistic community of Miami, which rises early for work and of which I am proud to form part.”

But I wonder what she is gonna do with key!

Columbian crooner Shakira was the third most searched celeb on Yahoo Search engine.

Britney Spears topped the list as the most searched celeb, owing to her crotch-flashing antics.

Even our Latina babe Shakira can top the list but she doesn’t need to do all that cheap stuff…she lets her work speak for her not publicity-savvy antics.

Am I right folks?