Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll (born Wednesday, February 2, 1977), known simply as Shakira, is a Grammy-award winning Colombian singer-songwriter, musician, composer, record producer, music-video director, dancer, choreographer, instrumentalist and philanthropist who has sold over 80 million albums and a total of 165 million records worldwide. She has been in the music industry since 1990, releasing her first album the following year. A child prodigy, she began writing poems and songs at age four and taught herself the guitar at age ten. The death of a half sibling and her father’s reaction to it inspired her to write her first full song at age eight.