IF YOU, man or woman, 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.

Her performance for the night included several costume changes, ending with a belly-dancer’s outfit in shades of blue and purple in which she performed her international hit “Hips Don’t Lie”. As usual her hip swinging movements could have brought grown men to tears. Her other major hits performed included “Don’t Bother”, “Whenever, Wherever” and “Underneath Your Clothes”.Though the night belonged to Shakira there were other sterling performances from the eternally youthful Steelpulse and the four fashion-plates of En Vogue.

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Colombian pop singer Shakira brought her glamor to Capitol Hill Tuesday, to urge U.S. Congress to approve more spending to help send the world's poor children to school. VOA's Kent Klein reports from Washington.

Shakira is best known for her rhythmic beats, her sexy dance moves and her unique voice, but she had much more serious matters on her mind when she spoke in a crowded hearing room on Capitol Hill.

The Grammy-winning pop diva is the honorary chairman of a week of events sponsored by an advocacy group called the Global Campaign for Education. The organization wants to provide an education for the estimated 300 million young people around the world who do not have access to school, about 72 million of them between the ages of six and 12.

"I grew up in the developing world, and I grew up seeing with my own eyes that children beg for an education, and I met thousands of parents who were desparate to provide an education to their kids without being able to," said Shakira.

Shakira met with leading U.S. lawmakers Tuesday, and asked them to support a bill in Congress that would have the U.S. provide $10 billion over five years for global education.

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THE power of the Colombian bombshell, Shakira, could not be contained during her performance at the Plymouth Jazz Festival on Saturday night.

In fact, she sucked the power right out of the electricity supply,running to the stage while singing and shaking her hips to "Don't Bother".

But the barefooted Shakira was no diva about the situation.

"These things happen," she said.

"Let's pretend that we finished that last song and I am going to make it up to you. The power could go, but I am not going anywhere."

Shakira continued to chat freely with the sold out audience, endearing herself to many, while waiting for the electricity supply to be fully restored.

"Please wait for me okay? Don't go anywhere. We're fixing it."

She continued into "La Pared" and thanked the audience for their patience.

Several costume changes later, Shakira left patrons mesmerised with her belly dancing skills.

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There was a defining moment in the life of Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, one which both her army of devoted fans and her impressive publicity machine agree indicated the world had a huge star on its hands.

Aged just 7, Shakira was accompanying her family to a Middle Eastern restaurant in her home town in the steamy Colombian port city of Barranquilla.

As the Arabic drums started to pulse and the restaurant's in-house belly dancers took to the stage, up leapt the little girl, overtaken by a "natural instinct", she later recalled, "to move my hips and twirl my belly to the sound of the doumbek. I fell in love with the sensation of being on stage".

The sultry Latin singer-dancer is now beating another drum, calling on the world's governments to provide basic schooling for the 300 million young people missing out on any kind of formal lessons.

She has enlisted Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown, World Bank president Robert Zoellick and United States congressional politicians to raise awareness for the bipartisan Education For All Act.

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Most Americans know Shakira as the hips-swinging Columbian artist who tore up both Latin and American charts this past year with Hips Don’t Lie, featuring Fugees guest artist Wyclef Jean. Beyond that hit, and maybe Whenever, Wherever, Shakira’s music has been aimed squarely at the South American audiences she hails from. This hasn’t stopped her unique style of primarily Spanish sung music from stretching out to fans across the globe.

The same assertion can be made of her 140 city Oral Fixation Tour, captured in Miami during a three-night set in 2006 by Sony BMG, and now available on Blu-ray Disc roughly a month after release on standard DVD. The suspect recent mainstream songs are included, but the majority of material is sung in Spanish, thus alienating non-Spanish speaking audiences myself included from understanding the lyrics thanks to the exclusion of subtitles. Where Shakira succeeds when other artists might fail is in her ability to reach beyond the language barrier and engage the audience; not only with her mesmerizing dance moves, but with her smile, demeanor while addressing her fans, and costumes ranging from casual to exotic.

In addition to Wyclef Jean bringing the house down in the Hips Don’t Lie finale, Latin artist Alejandro Sanz performs a rocking duet with Shakira, La Tortura. Although sung in Spanish, I’ve heard this song before and just can’t place it. It’s a fantastic catchy tune and her rhythmic interaction around Sanz creates one of the more electrifying performances in the entire set. The most electric goes to Whenever, Wherever, which begins with a sensual Shakira dance with a rope, then explodes into a cranked up extended version of the popular song.

Sony BMG has thoroughly impressed me thus far with their treatment of concerts on Blu-ray Disc, and Oral Fixation Tour is no exception. The 1080p AVC MPEG-4 encode of always tricky wide and close-up shots in a dimly lit arena peaks above 30 mbps and dances in the mid-20s on average. Noise and a small hit to detail levels become apparent in select wide camera angles and lighting situations. Nitpickers might even pick up on some slight atypical jumps in background gradients where intense lighting and haze intersect. If someone’s paying that much attention to the background instead of Shakira, they deserve a smack upside the head.

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Shakira is trying to shake things up to provide a basic education to every child in the world.

The pop singer met with U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey Tuesday to discuss The Education for All Act.

The Democrat is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee that oversees U.S. foreign assistance programs and also is co-sponsor of the proposed bill.

"I was delighted to meet an advocate who has repeatedly said that she prefers to use the light that is shone on her to shine it on the causes that are truly important, like basic education for children around the world," Menendez said.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown joined a telephone conference Monday with the Grammy-winning singer famed for her hit "Hips Don't Lie." Shakira is working to highlight the cause of education advocacy group the Global Campaign for Education.  

Colombian-born pop sensation Shakira went before the US Congress Tuesday seeking support for legislation that would provide US aid for basic education programs for children in poor nations. "Education can really save lives," Shakira, 31, told a press conference organized by the US chapter of the Global Campaign for Education.

According to Shakira, 226 million teenagers "can't attend secondary school" due to violence or being forced to work.

Speaking in Spanish, she also described education as "a tool to break the cycle of poverty."

Scores of young people from around the United States were also at the event.

Shakira is supporting the "Education for All Act of 2007," legislation co-sponsored by Democrat Representative Nita Lowey from New York.

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Angelina Jolie. George Clooney. Shakira.

Not a red-carpet lineup, but a roll call of celebrities the sometimes dour British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has recruited to add glamour to his appeals to help the developing world.

Brown joined a telephone conference Monday with Shakira, praising the Colombian pop star for her role in work to see that every child in the world has a basic education.

The Grammy-winning singer is supporting a week of events in support of the Global Campaign for Education.

She said the advocacy group is pressing world leaders to provide funding for primary education for 72 million young children who now miss out on schooling as a result of poverty.

The group also aims to inspire support for 226 million older children who miss out on classes because of truancy or a lack of access to schools.

Brown is the world's "No. 1 champion of education," said the group's chairman, Gene Sperling, an ex-White House economic adviser to former President Clinton.

Shakira also praised Brown, who as British treasury chief in 2006 pledged $15 billion over 10 years for education in the developing world — the largest offer of aid from a Group of Eight industrialized nation.

"He is a man with wonderful intentions," the singer said.

Brown in the past has held talks with Clooney on violence in Darfur, chatted with Jolie on education, and worked closely with Bono and Bob Geldof on aid for Africa.

Pop star Shakira and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown will both take part in a conference call today to discuss global education for developing countries as part of Global Campaign for Education Action Week this week.

Shakira is the honorary chairperson GCE Action Week.

The Latino pop star will be on the call along with Brown and World Bank President Robert Zoellick.

The coalition will call on their 120 countries to action government leaders to support basic education for all children. It is estimated that there are 72 young children and 226 million older youths who are out of school around the world.

GCE Action Week is designed to draw attention to the problem.

On Tuesday, Shakira will head to Washington to visit Members of Congress to raise the awareness of the Education for All Act of 2007.

The committee expects the USA to take a leadership role in developing education for under developed nations,

The act calls for $1 billion in funding to go towards the project in 2008 and scale up to $3 billion in year 2012.

The rejoicing for music lovers across the country continues, for the continuing spate of foreign artistes coming down here is as unabated as ever.

And this time, it’s Wyclef Jean who’s best known for his collaborations with Shakira for Hips Don’t Lie , Santana for Maria Maria and U2 for New Day . Bet you didn’t know that! He will be performing at the Hard Rock Cafe in the city tonight!

So what has Wyclef heard about India? “I’ve heard about the beautiful temples, particular interest in Gandhi, and rich history. I want to visit Jaipur also!” And about his collaborations with Indian musicians, he adds, “Aadesh Shrivastava is one of the greatest composers I’ve come across. He is featured on my album. A track called Hollywood Meets Bollywood.” About Vh1’s initiative, he adds, “I have many Indian composers and artists who are dear friends. I have performed with them as a solo artist and with the Fugees! I am always entertaining audiences all over the world! I have fallen in love with bhangra and other Indian folk influences, and no matter where you are in the world, the audience loves it too! I’m extremely excited as this is my first trip to India and I am hoping my fans will love to see me perform live. I am glad Vh1 handpicked me! Watch out India... The Carnival has arrived!”

Wyclef was nominated for Best Hip-Hop Act at the 2000 MTV Europe Music Awards. In 2005, he earned a Golden Globe nomination for his Million Voices featured on the soundtrack to the film Hotel Rwanda. He has also established himself as a producer and has collaborated with an impressive array of artistes including Bono, Santana, Shakira, Destiny’s Child and Black Eyed Peas.

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