Barca players at Shakira concert

Barcelona's Europe-conquering players danced on stage with Shakira in a night of wild homecoming celebrations after they won the Champions League. Defender Gerard Pique, who is Shakira's boyfriend, dragged his teammates to her concert last night after promising to do so in a message on Twitter just after Barca's 3-1 demolition of Manchester United in Wembley. Along with fellow players including striker David Villa, Pedro Rodriguez, Bojan Krkic and midfielders Sergio Busquets and Xavi Hernandez, they linked arms and danced with Shakira before a huge crowd in the Olympic stadium. The 24-year-old Pique met the Colombian pop star last year while shooting the video to her song Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) -- the official track of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, which was won by Spain. In January Shakira, 34, announced the end of her 11-year relationship with Argentine lawyer Antonio de la Rua and shortly after gossip magazines began speculating that she was dating Pique. The singer confirmed her romantic relationship with the Spanish international footballer in March through a message posted on her Twitter account that was accompanied by a photo of the smiling pair. Shakira, a Barca fan and a four-time Grammy award winner, is on a Sale el sol (The sun is coming out) tour, which takes her to a string of Spanish venues including Madrid on 3 June.
Earlier, Barcelona's Europe-conquering heroes paraded in an open-top, double-decker bus through cheering, packed streets and arrived to a roar of welcome at a bursting Camp Nou stadium. Brandishing the Champions League trophy from their sublime 3-1 victory over Manchester United in London's Wembley stadium, players made a victorious entry one by one to their home pitch yesterday. The bigggest cheer from the 98,000-capacity crowd erupted for Man of the Match Lionel Messi, who scored the second goal. “Actually, I have nothing to say to you,” said Messi, a man of few words. “Simply, let's enjoy all this. Thank you for this season. And I hope we will be able to enjoy a lot more.” French international Eric Abidal, who has recovered from surgery to remove a liver tumour only two months ago, thanked captain Carles Puyol for allowing him the honour of receiving the trophy in Wembley. “Thanks to the captain for his gesture. It was the best day of my career,” he said. Defender Gerard Pique chose the venue to hit out at a slew of allegations against the team in the past season, some made by arch-rivals Real Madrid, whom they defeated to take the league title.
“We don't take drugs. We don't take dives. And we don't buy referees. We just play football,” said Pique. The team landed from London just a few hours earlier at Barcelona-El Prat airport. Accompanied by the deafening blast of Brazilian samba music and cheered by thousands of fans under a baking hot sun, the heroes made their way through the city in their bus, decked out in Barcelona's red and blue colours and the word “Champions” on the sides. Wearing T-shirts identifying the “CHA-MPI-ONS,” coach Joseph Guardiola and his men were driven past the city's statue of Chrisopher Columbus, thronged by fans, some clinging on to the memorial for a better view. afp

Source:http://www.thestatesman.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=371423&catid=41

Shakira in B-town

For Shakira fans, this news promises to be exciting. Although the singer’s date with Bollywood has been going awry for some time now, debutant actor-producer Sachin Joshi insists she might still be crooning for his film, Azaan, soon. “But I think I should comment on it only when the deal
comes through. Although other producers have also talked about roping in Shakira for their films, she has always been my first priority since the inception of Azaan. And I am very hopeful about roping her in. The deal should happen,” says Joshi.

For the uninitiated, Azaan, a film that marks the debut of gutka baron Jagdish Joshi’s son Sachin, also stars Playboy model Candice Boucher. Last year too, there were talks about Shakira singing a cabaret style song with Latin influences under composer duo Salim-Sulaiman’s guidance. But the deal apparently fell through.

Shakira“We are constantly in touch with Shakira’s team and are in the final stages of negotiations with her,” says Sachin, who shares screen space with the South African model Candice in the espionage thriller. But Sachin rubbishes talks that Candice will be seen in a sultry avatar. “Director Prashant (Chadha) felt that she fit the part. Candice doesn’t have any acting experience but she’s done a stupendous job. Just because she is a Playboy girl doesn’t mean that we’d ask her to expose without any reason. She looks beautiful in the film,” he says defensively.

Excited about his maiden outing as an actor, Sachin says, “It was an awesome experience to work with a foreign crew. After all, we shot the film in seven different countries.” Will good friend Shah Rukh Khan pitch in with tips? Sachin smiles: “He has always been very supportive. I have kept him updated about my film and I hope he likes it in its final form.”

Source:http://www.hindustantimes.com/entertainment/music/Shakira-in-B-town/Article1-703634.aspx

Shakira wins two BILLBOARD music Awards

Shakira News

Here's some great news to start the week - Shakira was a double winner at last night's Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas, picking up the prizes for Top Latin Artist and Top Latin Song (for Waka Waka).

Shakira considering doing songs in Arabic

Colombian pop singer Shakira said Saturday she would one day like to sing pop songs, if not an entire album, in Arabic.

The native Spanish speaker, who also has global hits in English, was speaking at a news conference in Morocco, where she was headlining the Mawazine World Rhythms music festival.

"It would be a challenge to do an album in Arabic. I would first have to learn Arabic," she said. "I am completely open to that experience. ... At some point I would love that to happen in my life."

Born in Colombia of Syrian origin, Shakira said she grew up listening to the Arab world's premier divas of the 20th century, Egyptian Umm Kalthum and Lebanese Fairuz.

Shakira often uses eastern dance, also known as belly dancing, in her acts, and her hit Spanish language single "Ojas Asi" relies heavily on a Middle Eastern melody. Her eastern origins and musical influences have made her popular throughout the Middle East.

She admitted, however, that she only speaks a few words of Arabic, including "ateeni boosa" or give me a kiss, provoking laughter among the mostly Moroccan crowd of journalists.

Morocco's 10th-annual Mawazine festival of world music concluded Saturday after eight days of music that saw bands from 60 countries, including Kanye West, Lionel Ritchie, Egypt's Amr Diab and Senegal's Youssou N'Dour.

Source:http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Entertainment/20110528/shakira-considering-arabic-tunes-110528/

Barca squad to celebrate with Shakira

Barcelona's players will go to a Shakira concert in Barcelona on Sunday to celebrate their Champions League victory, the Colombian pop star's boyfriend, Barcelona defender Gerard Pique, said on Twitter.

"Champions!! Champions!! thank you so much!!" Pique wrote on his Twitter account Saturday after a thilling 3-1 win over Manchester United in London's Wembley Stadium.

"Tomorrow at Barcelona and then the players will go to @shakira concert in the Olympic Stadium!!"

The 24-year-old Pique, a former Manchester United player, met the singer last year while shooting the video to her song "Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)" -- the official track of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, which was won by Spain.

In January Shakira, 34, announced the end of her 11-year relationship with Argentine lawyer Antonio de la Rua and shortly after gossip magazines began speculating that she was dating Pique.

The singer confirmed her romantic relationship with the Spanish international footballer in March through a message posted on her Twitter account that was accompanied by a photo of the smiling pair.

Shakira, a four-time Grammy award winner, is playing in Barcelona on Sunday as part of her "Sale el sol (The sun is coming out)" tour, which takes her to a string of Spanish venues including Madrid on June 3.


Source:http://www.fijilive.com/sports/news/2011/05/29/21482.Fijilive

Shakira Bumps Oprah Off Twitter Top 10 List

At last, there is one thing that Oprah is not dominating! It seems as though Shakira bumped Oprah off the Twitter top 10 list this week.

Here’s the list:
Lady Gaga (10,307,549 followers)
Justin Bieber (9,849,628)
Barack Obama (8,169,294)
Britney Spears (7,940,896)
Kim Kardashian (7,578,928)
Katy Perry (7,451,618)
Ashton Kutcher (6,803,738)
Ellen DeGeneres (6,712,058)
Taylor Swift (6,475,026)
Shakira (6,156,469)

Oprah Winfrey came in at 11th with 5,856,790 followers.

You’d think with all the attention surrounding her final shows that Oprah would climb in followers. Maybe her demographic isn’t vested in the twitter world, though. Most of her fans are older woman, so I’ll give her some slack. Well, congrads to Shakira for beating out Oprah – doesn’t happen very often.

Source:http://www.andpop.com/2011/05/25/shakira-bumps-oprah-off-twitter-top-10-list/