Latin stars sing for poor children at concerts

A lineup of Latin mega-stars including Shakira, Ricky Martin and Alejandro Sanz performed simultaneously on stages in Buenos Aires and Mexico City at the weekend, raising awareness for the needs of poor children in Latin America.

Outspoken Colombian rocker Juanes, one of the most anticipated performers at Saturday's event, was absent due to problems with his plane.

Organized by the Fundacion ALAS (Latin America in Solidarity Action), the concerts, which have been widely referred to as the Latin American version of 2005's Live 8 anti-poverty concerts, brought together more than 380,000 people in the Mexican capital's Zocalo plaza and the riverside Costanera Sur in Buenos Aires. Mexican magnate Carlos Slim and Howard Buffett, son of billionaire Warren Buffett, donated $200 million to combat poverty in Latin America.

In Buenos Aires, the eight-hour show took off with a performance by Mexican bombshell Paulina Rubio. At dusk, as the moon rose over the River Plate, Uruguayan singer/songwriter Jorge Drexler performed his Oscar-winning song "Al Otro Lado del Rio," from "The Motorcycle Diaries."

Rockers Fito Paez and former Soda Stereo frontman Gustavo Cerati came out for the most magical moment of the night, together singing Cerati's hit "Crimen" and Paez's anthem "Ciudad de Pobres Corazones."

At the end of the show, ALAS founder Shakira took the stage with Sanz for their chart-topping duet "La Tortura." Shakira also perfumed with Mercedes Sosa, the popular Argentine who is an emblematic figure of Latin American social commitment. Shakira closed the concert with Cerati, singing Soda Stereo's spine-tingling homage to Buenos Aires, "En la Ciudad de la Furia."

In Mexico City, David Bisbal started a marathon show for the thousands in the city's historical center who were undeterred by day-long rain. Hosted by Miguel Bose, co-founder of ALAS, the concert featured, among others, Mexican popular heroes Tigres del Norte, Timbariche, Ricardo Montaner, Babasonicos, Chayanne, Emmanuel and Aleks Syntek.

Martin surprised the audience by singing his crossover hit "Livin' la Vida Loca" in English, ostensibly to take awareness of the concert beyond Spanish-speaking borders.

? After Shakira,achieving superstardom throughout Latin America, Colombian-born Shakira became Latin pop's biggest female crossover artist since Jennifer Lopez broke down the doors to English-language success. Noted for her aggressive, rock-influenced approach, Shakira maintained an extraordinary degree of creative control over her music, especially for a female artist; she wrote or co-wrote nearly all of her own material, and in the process gained a reputation as one of Latin music's most ambitiously poetic lyricists. When she released her first English material in late 2001, she became an instant pop sensation, thanks to her quirky poetic sense and a sexy video image built on her hip-shaking belly-dance moves. Shakira’s hips and all that jazz

?IF YOU, were not already in love with Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll before, then you would certainly have fallen in love on Saturday night at the Plymouth Jazz Festival.

The tiny blonde dynamo shook the crowd with her almost flawless performance as she bellydanced and pranced her way barefooted across the stage belting out a delightful blend of both her Latin and English hits. From the moment she entered the stage the crowd went wild, climbing on their chairs to get a better look at the hip-swaying 31-year old beauty from Colombia who has charmed the world with her hits and hips. The high-energy performance was briefly interrupted into her second song when there was a power outage on the stage and there was some panic in the audience that the show would be brought to an abrupt halt but Shakira handled the situation beautifully and reassured the crowd that “these things happen” and even if the lights had gone she was not leaving.

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LOWDOWN ON THE UPFRONT: Shakira Shakes Univision's Stage

Event Emphasizes Reasrch, Marketing; Trumpets New ‘Sabado Gigante,’ While Hinting At VOD Fare

By Laura Martinez -- Multichannel News, 5/14/2008 3:35:00 PM

NEW YORK--Univision Communications Wednesday kicked off its upfront presentation to advertisers with an opening number from Broadway’s In the Heights and closed with an energized mini-concert by Colombian superstar Shakira. The 75-minute event, held here this afternoon at the Frederick P. Rose Hall/Jazz at Lincoln Center, registered the highest attendance among the other Hispanic TV upfront presentations this week and featured some of Univision’s top talent, including news anchors Mar���Elena Salinas and Jorge Ramos, talk show host Cristina Saralegui and Mario Kreutzberger (aka Don Francisco), the host and creator of the long-running Sᢡdo Gigante.

Speaking to an audience of over 1,000, Univision CEO Joe Uva, who hailed one of the company’s new owners, Haim Saban, from the stage, started things off by declaring that “this year’s upfront is not about marketing to Hispanics, but about marketing itself.”

As expected, Univision came to this year’s upfront presentation armed with a host of data and research showing the level of engagement among Hispanic viewers and the network’s consistently high ratings in primetime among adults 18 to 49.

David Lawenda, Univision president of advertising sales and marketing, presented the audience with some findings from the recently formed Fusion research in partnership with Nielsen Media Research, which measures the viewing habits of product purchasers against the purchasing habits of TV viewers.?The Spanish-language media giant’s ?presentation also included videotaped client testimonials from such advertisers as AT&T;, Ford, General Motors and Miller Lite, among others.

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Relative to programming, Univision announced the return of some of its most popular shows, notably El Show de Cristina, Despierta Am鲩ca, El Gordo y la Flaca, and Primer Impacto. ?New properties included sports reality TV show El Juego Supremo (The Ultimate Match), a branded soccer entertainment property with partners Nissan North America and Sprint; and the July 20 premiere of Tecate Premios Deportes, an awards show honoring Latino sports celebrities. Shakira pledges to continue fight for hostages' freedom Colombian singer Shakira has vowed to carry on the fight to free hostages that are being held in her native Colombia. The pop superstar, who has been named as the Queen of Spanish music, praised the recent rescue of 15 captives from the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC). After the release of the captives, who had been held for six years, Shakira spoke out that the fight against terrorism in the country is far from over. The singer along with other Latin music stars including Alejandro Sanz, Miguel Bose, Juanes, and Carlos Vives, pledged in an open letter to the former hostages that the fight will go on until all the captives who are currently being held are given their freedom. "We will continue until we see all of them free. Our eyes and lips will not rest until we see and kiss those who remain captives of those without conscience," Contactmusic quoted the singers as having written.

Shakira sings for hostages' freedom

Colombian pop star Shakira performs during the 'concert for peace'

Shakira led the way for her compatriots as Colombians came out to demonstrate for the freedom of the remaining hostages held by leftist rebels.

Well over a million Colombians, clad in white and shouting 'No more kidnapping', marked their independence day with marches and concerts demanding freedom for the remaining detainees.

Demonstrators chanted Libertad! - the Spanish word for freedom - in rallies across the Andean nation and in some 40 cities abroad, including Paris, London, Miami, Beijing, Sydney and New York.

It was the second nationwide mobilisation this year against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

In the jungle border city of Leticia, native daughter Shakira performed after singing the national anthem at a military parade presided over by Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, with the presidents of Brazil and Peru attending.

Shakira Video Music Widget download here

Shakira turned down the chance to star in new movie Love In The Time Of Cholera, because the role involved stripping naked.The singer has been nominated for a Golden Globe for her soundtrack for the Mike Newell film - and she reveals Gabriel Garci...

Oral Fixation Live Tour DVD

The official release date for Oral Fixation Live Tour DVD is November 12 in Europe and November 13 in USA. In reality the release date varies from region to region and depends on local/regional SonyBMG. So in some countries the DVD may be on sale already on November 9 and to some it arrives later during November.

There will be also a blu-ray version of the disc which will be released on December 18.

The DVD contains live performances, bonus video clips, a documentary, a behind the scenes footage from Shakira's 2006/2007 world tour and a bonus CD with live songs.Shakira sheds her shreds

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February 6, 2008

Losing her clothes for charity ... Columbian pop star Shakira.

Singer Shakira is shedding her wardrobe, for a good cause.

The hip-swinging Colombian pop sensation is auctioning off more than 40 articles of clothing she wore on her 2007 Oral Fixation tour to benefit her Bare Feet Foundation, which is building a school for impoverished children in her homeland.

A shiny lavender skirt with turquoise and coral beading; a bright red dress with a plunging neckline and huge, winglike sleeves; a blue tank top emblazoned with the slogan "For Those Who Love to Rock"; and other items are up for bid on the eBay's Giving Works website.

The auction began on Friday and continues for 10 days.

"We have bids from all over the world. It's very exciting," said Eric Gazin, president of Auction Cause, the Los Angeles company running the auction.

While most auctions start out slow, bids for Shakira's clothing have already been flooding in, Mr Gazin said.

Last November, Shakira auctioned off clothing from the 2007 film Love in the Time of Cholera, which won her nomination for a Golden Globe for the original song Despedida.