Shakira - Shakira was born to a Catalan mother, Nidia del Carmen Ripoll Torrado, and an American-born father of Lebanese Catholic descent, William Mebarak Chadid, in Barranquilla, Colombia, where she says she grew up among the Lebanese, Jewish and Italian communities. Shakira, which means 'grateful' in Arabic, is named after her paternal grandmother. She was one of seven siblings, one of whom is her road manager. Shakira attended a Catholic school and in second grade was rejected for the school choir because her vibrato was too strong. She began writing and composing music at the age of eight and later choreographed dance routines. At school, she says she had been known as 'the belly dancer girl', as she would demonstate a number she learned every Friday at school. 'That's how I discovered my passion for live performance,' she says. One of the first songs she wrote was called 'Tus Gafas Oscuras' (Your Dark Glasses), which was about her father's grief over a son who had died in a car accident.