Shakira

She won ten Grammy Awards, fifteen Billboard Music Awards and 4 MTV Music Awards. She is the only artist from South America to have reached the number-one spot on the US and UK charts. Shakira’s Waka Waka (This Time For Africa) was chosen as the official song for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, and has become the biggest selling World Cup song of all time. Her videos recently surpassed a billion views on Youtube, making her the third most-viewed artist of all time. On her latest album, Sale El Sol / The Sun Comes Out, she continues her creative journey by looking both forward and back. "This album represents exactly the way I am—my state of mind today, as an artist and as a woman," says Shakira. "Some of the songs remind me of my beginnings, so it’s kind of like going back to where everything started, but from a new perspective, with the way I see things now. When I flew to South Africa, I never received so many hugs and kisses," she says. "In the airport, all the immigration officers were dancing the 'Waka Waka' dance! I was already missing the contact with fans, and that showed me the path so I could finish the album with all my energy and joy." This sense of artistic exploration is no surprise coming from a woman who began writing songs at the age of eight; learned to speak English by studying the work of Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and Walt Whitman; and took history classes at UCLA during her break between albums. The compassionate side of Shakira is most obvious in the remarkable work of her Pies Descalzos (Barefoot) Foundation, which she started at the age of 18 and has now opened its sixth school. The foundation currently provides education and nutrition to over six thousand impoverished children in Colombia and is expanding its work to other countries, including newly launched projects in Haiti and South Africa. "We shouldn’t think of this as charity” she has said. “Every child has talent to be developed and the potential to become a productive member of society. Education is a powerful tool to unlock those talents—and to break the cycle of poverty that too often traps them.” Shakira has also become a leading advocate for universal education, speaking to world leaders on the topic and advocating policy change to governments around the world.