FEATURES
SHAKIRA
T
he multi-award winning artist is embarking on her biggest feat to date – not a Grammy, not a hit single for the World Cup but Environmental Change for the future of our planet. Shakira: wife, mother and international bestselling singer, is using her platform for good use. Instead of releasing another pop ballad – the 44-year-old is sitting on the panel of Prince William’s Earthshot Prize. Every year for the next 10 years five £1million Earthshot prizes are awarded; providing at least 50 evidence based solutions to the planet’s greatest environmental problems by 2030. Shakira has a huge platform too. She has amassed over 18 million You Tube hits and 250 million social media followers and is considered one of the world’s best known solo singers. She has said she is not going to produce music “for a while” as other issues close to her heart are taking up all her time. Talking about Prince William and Earthshot she said: “Seeing Prince William’s passion and how genuinely determined he is to provoke change is very, very inspiring, It's just incredible to see how committed he is, and all the people at Earthshot are, to make change happen in the world in such a short amount of time. “And it's not impossible. It requires many of us, plenty of commitment and determination, and we need to raise awareness towards that. I feel that I can do that while talking to every journalist I can. Every time I'm in front of a camera, I can talk about that… We are citizens
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of humanity. We need to really provoke fast change in order to preserve our home.” To mark the launch of the Earthshot, Shakira and Prince William released a video of a Zoom call between them, in which they discussed their shared passion for saving the planet, how to bring about change and in particular, Shakira’s passion for cleaning up oceans. “Prince William is one of the people who is really aware of how imminent and how necessary it is that we all work together. He's called me on the phone just to discuss this and try to get me committed to do more.” The singer has also started her own foundation for children’s education and welfare in her native Columbia. Calling it ‘Barefoot Foundation’ she campaigns for the right for every child to have access to education. The project aims to help 54,000 children over 3 years to succeed academically with school and education for those that need it most. Raised in Baranquilla, a district of North Columbia, Shakira wrote her first song at the age of 8 and was signed to her first record label at just 13. Shakira has also managed to scoop 2 Grammy Awards, 7 Latin Grammy Awards, 5 MTV Music Awards and 7 Billboard Music Awards. Not bad for a girl from the deepest darkest depths of South
