Stars align for Obama

Colombian superstar Shakira says Democrat Barack Obama is the best candidate for president, citing his leadership skills.

In a statement Saturday, the Grammy-winning pop artist said Obama can restore peace and the world's confidence in the United States. Obama faces Republican presidential nominee John McCain in the Nov. 4 election.

Obama said he was honored to receive the singer's endorsement. The Illinois senator praised Shakira as a role model for young Latinas in the U.S. and beyond.

Shakira encouraged U.S. Latinos to vote in November.

The United States "has a profound importance to me, and I think to the whole world as well," she said.

Source:http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news

Shakira to lobby on child welfare

SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - Latin pop star Shakira, showing she can move more than her hips, will lobby Latin American presidents this week to start a regional project to pump money into children's health and education.
The singer will address a summit in El Salvador of Ibero-American leaders, including the presidents of Brazil and her native Colombia, over the need to feed and educate poor children, especially amid a global economic slowdown.

"There are difficult times coming in Latin America. Thousands and thousands of children will die if governments do not organize ways to distribute food during this crisis," Shakira told Reuters.

"I grew up in the developing world and I have witnessed the lack of opportunities that children have to live with," she added, speaking by telephone from Miami.
"In a country like mine, when a child is born poor, people die poor. But I'm fascinated by the fact that through education you can transform lives, you can end this cycle of poverty."

Some 35 million children live in poverty in Latin America with little or no access to proper food and education, Shakira said. Investing in a year of primary education can increase a person's adult income by up to 20 percent, she added.

Shakira's hip-swivelling dances and catchy ballads have earned her a huge global following and a string of Grammy awards. She began getting into social issues just a few years into her pop career, starting a Colombian children's charity called the Pies Descalzos (Bare Feet) Foundation in 1997, named after her breakthrough hit album released a year before.

While celebrities like Bono and Angelina Jolie have focused on Africa, Shakira uses her fame to make headlines on Latin America, where stubbornly high poverty levels can get overlooked because of healthier overall economic indicators.

Shakira helped launch the Fundacion ALAS (Latin America in Solidarity Action), which is behind the new initiative, and has lobbied British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the U.S. Congress on the need to educate children in poor countries.

"My heart is committed to this cause and it has been there for a long time, since I was 18," said Shakira, now 31, who has sold some 50 million albums around the world.
"I like to think that I can use my public profile to bring attention to more important issues than my own."

Her new project will seek funding from organizations like the World Bank and would monitor governments' efforts closely, although the golden-tressed singer regretted she would not have time to get involved in inspection efforts on the ground.

Source:http://www.reuters.com/article/people

Columbian beauty to play Emirates Palace

SHAKIRA will headline the Rio Carnival themed New Years Eve extravaganza at Abu Dhabi's Emirates Palace.

The Hips Don't Lie singer brought Dubai to a standstill when she played here last year but this will be her first gig in the capital emirate.

The one-off party will include fireworks and DJ sets from international big hitters but as yet there are no more details on the event available.

Ticket details to be announced shortly

Source: http://www.ahlanlive.com/8366-shakira-shakira

Shakira is "Humanitarian of the year"

U.S. Magazine People en Español elected Colombian singer Shakira as Humanitarian of the Year, because of her work for children in Latin America.

The magazine, to be in the shops next Monday, will be dedicated to "the stars of 2008", will have Shakira on the cover, but will feature other Latin pop stars like Rocky Martin, Aracely Arámbula, Chayanne and Luis Fonsi.

Shakira is currently involved in two foundations. Both the Pies Diescalzos foundation and ALASare focused on improving the living standards of children in Colombia and Latin America.

Source: http://colombiareports.com/colombian-news

Shakira: 'I'm quite pregnant' with my album

NEW YORK (AP) — Shakira revealed Wednesday that she is, in fact, expecting. But it's not what you may think. "I'm quite pregnant with my album," the Colombian pop star told a reporter by phone — between laughs — when asked whether her foundation work on behalf of Latin American children has made her want to become a mother.

"Yes, I have plans, but not yet," said Shakira, 31. "I'm pregnant with my songs. But someday, yes."

The singer-activist plans to ask about 20 Latin American presidents at a regional summit in El Salvador on Thursday to direct more resources to poor children and to put early childhood development at the top of their agendas. She will appear on behalf of ALAS (Latin America in Solidarity Action) Foundation, a nonprofit coalition she helped create.

Asked whether she plans to write a song about ALAS, translated as "Wings" in Spanish, the Grammy winner and United Nations goodwill ambassador said it's out of her hands.

"I can't control my muses," she said.

Source: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jfSi0MQ

Shakira's personal poverty made her do charity

Before Shakira became a world famous singer, she was poor. And before she was poor, she was one of the few to enjoy Colombian middle class life. It was the poverty her family plunged into after the bankruptcy of her father's business that made her start Pies Descalzos, the foundation to help child education worldwide.

In an article in Newsweek, the singer writes how at age seven she went from riches to rags, because of the bankruptcy of her father's jewelry business.

"We had gone from being middle class to poor almost overnight, and from my 7-year-old child's perspective it was hard to imagine anything worse. I can still viscerally remember the seeming desperation of that moment," she writes in the magazine.

"My parents found ways to put our situation in perspective and to show me how fortunate we still were, especially given that—previously unbeknownst to me—so many families and children had so much less," she added.

Shakira remembers how she and her dad would take a walk through a Barranquilla park and she saw the children who really had nothing. "They lived in the dirt, in tattered clothes and with bare feet, scrounging through garbage for anything to eat. Many sniffed glue to dull the pain of their existence," she writes.

It was at that moment, she says, she promised herself she would help those children if she ever had the chance.

Now, after having sold more than 50 million albums worldwide, the singer is keeping her her promise.

Her foundation Pies Descalzos (barefoot) already helped education in a number of schools in Colombia and, as she recently announced, will help children in other developing countries too.

Source:http://colombiareports.com/colombian-news/

Shakira urges to include children in upcoming Latin American summit

Colombian singer Shakira urged Latin American presidents to include the development of children during the next Ibero-American summit to be held in El Salvador.

Shakira, together with Spanish singer Alejandro Sanz, attended a discussion at the Columbia University in New York where the artists debated with several Latin American heads of state.

"We want to propose that the topic of early childhood development is included during the Ibero-American summit in November,"Shakira told the Presidents.

Shakira, who through several foundations actively is trying to improve living conditions of children in Latin America, stressed the importance that the basic needs of children between 0 and 6 years old are met. Children lacking basic needs at an early age "will be sentenced to not have a decent life," the singer added.

The Latin American leaders joining the debate expressed their commitment to bring up the topic during the summit.

Source: http://colombiareports.com/colombian-news