Shakira was born on February 2, 1977 in Barranquilla, Colombia. She is the only child of Nidya del Carmen Ripoll Torrado and William Mebarak Chadid, who are of Lebanese, Spanish (Catalan) and Italian descent. She has eight older half-siblings from her father's previous marriage. Shakira wrote her first poem, entitled "La Rosa De Cristal" ("The Crystal Rose") when she was only four years old. As she was growing up, she was fascinated watching her father writing stories on a typewriter, and asked for one as a Christmas gift. She got her wish at age seven and continued writing poetry. These poems eventually evolved into songs. At the age of eight, after an older half-brother was killed in a motorcycle accident, Shakira wrote her first song entitled "Tus gafas oscuras" ("Your dark glasses"). Shakira's debut album, Magia, was recorded with Sony Music in 1990 when she was only thirteen years old. The songs are a collection penned by her since she was 8, mixed pop-rock ballads and disco with electronic accompaniment, however it was hampered by a lack of recording and production cohesion. The album was released in 1991 and featured Magia and three other singles. Though it fared well on Colombian radio and gave the young Shakira much exposure, the album did not fare well commercially: only 1,200 copies were sold and the music video for Magia became first national pop video in Colombia. After the poor acclaim of Magia, Shakira's label urged her back into the studio to release a follow up with more hit songs, to give the album potential. The second studio album Peligro of the same genre was released in 1993, but Shakira was not pleased with the final result, mainly taking issue with the production. The album was better received than Magia, though it was also considered a commercial failure, due to Shakira's refusal to advertise it. In early 2007, Shakira worked with American R&B singer Beyoncé in the track "Beautiful Liar", which was released as the second single from the deluxe edition of Knowles' B'Day. In the week of April 7, 2007, the song jumped 91 positions, from 94 to 3, on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, setting the record for the largest upward movement in the history of the chart. It was also No. 1 on the official UK Singles Chart. The song earned them a Grammy Award nomination for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals. The song was one of Knowles' most successful worldwide.The song was particularly popular in Spanish-speaking countries such as Argentina and Spain, where it landed at #1. Shakira was raised Roman Catholic but appears to no longer be practicing. Shakira currently lives in The Bahamas. In 2000, she started dating Antonio de la Rúa, the son of the then President of Argentina Fernando de la Rúa, a romance that made headline news throughout Latin America. Shakira is interested in world history and frequently studies the history and languages of the countries she visits. After her Oral Fixation tour ended in summer 2007, Shakira attended a class in Los Angeles at UCLA, on the History of Western Civilization. She used her middle and last names, Isabel Mebarak, and told the professor she was visiting from Colombia so as to avoid being recognized as a celebrity. Shakira is a cousin of model and 2005–2006 Miss Colombia, Valerie Domínguez. She is well known for her dancing in various music videos and in concert. Her moves are based on the art of Arabic belly dancing, a part of her Lebanese heritage: her father has a Lebanese background but was raised in Colombia. She often performs barefoot. Shakira says she learned this form of dance as a young teen to overcome her shyness. She also mentioned in a MTV interview that she learned how to belly dance by trying to flip a coin with her belly.[99] The intense training has afforded her a fluidity in her body movement most seen in the videos to her hits "Ojos Así", "La Tortura", "Hips Don't Lie", Whenever, Wherever / Suerte, "Beautiful Liar" and She Wolf / Loba. She has had several belly dance choreographers, including award-winning Bellydance Superstar Boženka.[100] As the MTV Making the Video for "La Tortura" reveals, she worked with Jamie King on the choreography, but ended up creating most of it herself.