Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll (born February 2, 1977), known professionally as Shakira, is a Grammy-award winning Colombian singer-songwriter, musician, composer, record producer, music-video director, dancer, choreographer, instrumentalist and philanthropist who has sold over eighty million albums worldwide. She has won two Grammy awards, ten Latin Grammy awards, seven Billboard Music Awards, twenty-seven Latin Billboard Awards and has been nominated for a Golden Globe. She has been in the music industry since 1990, releasing her first album the following year. A child prodigy, she began writing poems and songs at age four and taught herself the guitar at age ten.