She’s an attractive, young blonde, and for the last few years, she’s found a home on pop radio stations across the U.S. But, Shakira isn’t just another pop starlet in the tradition of Britney Spears. Her style of pop is heavily influenced by American and British rock, as well as the music of both her mother’s native Colombia and her father’s Lebanese ancestry. Added to that are Shakira’s own quirky phrasings, vocal range, and belly-dancer movements. The result was almost overnight success when she finally brought her sound to U.S. audiences, but prior to that, Shakira built a large fan following in her homeland and throughout the Latin American region. And, she didn’t even set out to be a musician.

Though she began writing songs at the age of eight and learning guitar at 11, her focus was elsewhere. In 1990, when she was just 13, Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll moved from Barranquilla, Colombia, to Bogota in hopes of being a model. Instead, she found herself signing a record deal with Sony Colombia and putting out her first album, “Magia,” in 1991. The record kick-started Shakira’s musical reputation in Colombia, but she wasn’t pleased with the pop-oriented style of her 1993 follow-up, “Peligro,” so she took a break from music to act in the soap opera El Oasis in 1994.

When she returned to music the following year, Shakira took control of her career and began to pump a wide variety of influences, including the occasional Arabic sound, into her songs. When “Pies Descalzos” came out that year, it was at first a slow seller, but the single “Estoy Aqui” caught on and led to a string of other hits. It went platinum in the U.S.

Her 1998 release, “Donde Estan los Ladrones?” was an even bigger hit around the world, and it brought Shakira to the attention of many more U.S. ears, producing two number-one hits in the U.S. Shakira’s 2000 “MTV Unplugged” performance album won a Grammy for Best Latin Pop Album. At the Latin Grammies, she picked up two more awards.

The single “Whenever, Wherever” rocketed her first English-language album, 2001’s “Laundry Service,” onto the U.S. charts nearly overnight. The album went to number three on the pop charts and ended up triple platinum. In a very short time, Shakira concert tickets went from being a hot property in the Spanish-speaking world to a must-have all over the planet. In 2005, Shakira released “Fijacion Oral Vol. 1,” a Spanish-language album, and its English counterpart, “Oral Fixation Vol. 2.” She has already charted singles from both.