Identity: Billboard’s 2023 first ‘Latin Woman of the Year’
The Billboard’s is a music industry standard chart digital for songs, published weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio plays (airplay) and online streaming in the United States. On April edition Shakira was the star of the awards night in Miami, United States on April 24, 2023 after conquering the point of 80 million monthly listeners on a digital music platform in March..
The musical artistic universe is a rich environment in examples of the strength and power that the mix of different cultural identities exerts in valuing these different cultures around the world. That way, we can highlight the work and life of Shakira (A Latin woman, businesswoman and successful singer), which can teach us a lot about cultural identity and the importance of multiculturalism to the world.
Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll was born on February 2, 1977 in Barranquilla in the department of Atlántico, Colombia. Her paternal grandparents migrated from Lebanon to New York, where her father was born. Her first album was released when she was 13 and featured a compilation of songs written by her between the ages of eight and ten.
Since then, her albums have achieved increasing success and international visibility. Based on her biography made by the site team “Vagalume”, in 2001 alone, her first album song in English reached the respectable mark of more than 25 million records sold.
Taking into account the informations that has been given so far, it is fair to highlight that the mixture of her talent, with Latin blood and the dimension of Spanglish, made Shakira an indisputable success and highlighted her as an Latin American symbol for everyone who identifies itself with the Latin identity.
On the other hand, we can compare Shakira to Jani Rose , a Nuyorican poet, artist, activist, educator, cultural organizer, and curator, born in Spanish Harlem and raised in the Bronx. Jani Rose’s life story can be highlighted in comparison to Shakira’s story, to the difficulties in the process of establishing yourself in a foreign country.
Shakira stood out in different areas and is an undeniable artistic symbol of Colombian representation. Due to its unique leadership position in Spanish music and its presence in the global market, it was classified by The New York Times as “Titan of Latin Pop”.
According to Sony, Shakira is the best-selling Colombian artist of all time, having sold between 50 and 60 million records, singles and DVDs. She has also starred in the Colombian telenovela “El Oasis”, in 1994, playing the character of Luisa Maria and participated as the voice chosen to interpret the character Gazelle from Disney in the movie “Zootopia”; She already had her own perfumery line, “S by Shakira”, in which she launched 19 perfumes and some special luxury editions.
The singer had her fortune estimated at more than 220 million dollars in 2017, by some media vehicles and has appeared numerous times in “Forbes” magazine in its list of the most powerful women in the world.
To summarize, it’s possible to realize that multiculturalism is an inseparable factor in the globalization process and it is up to us to open our minds to know and learn about the importance of each cultural element in the work of artists and in the daily life of foreigners. As we studied this semester, we can see that Spanglish is just an example of a movement that opens doors for people to reconnect with their cultural origins..uch as did Shakira and Jani Rose, when both of these strong women realized the impact and importance of their linguistic identity.
My name is Eloá Marques (she/her), 25 years old, and I’m medicine student from UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
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