Do we like Shakira?
Our score: 8 out of 10. Decades of building schools and public backing for immigrants, set against a messy tax saga and a thin record on LGBTQ+ issues.
Shakira grew up in Barranquilla, Colombia, the only child of a Lebanese-Colombian family. Her Catholic school loved her dancing but knocked her back from the choir because her voice was apparently too strong. By 13 she had a record deal, by 1998 she topped the Latin charts, and she took on the English-language market with Laundry Service in 2001.
Her biggest scrape was with the taxman. Spanish prosecutors accused her of evading about 14.5 million euros in tax for 2012 to 2014. She denied it, then settled on the day her trial was due to start and paid a 7 million euro fine, saying she wanted to move past the stress. In May 2026 Spain's National High Court overturned a separate assessment for 2011, finding she spent 163 days in Spain, short of the 183 needed. She said there was “never any fraud”, though Spain's Justice Ministry says it will appeal, so that one isn't final.
On the harm test, the record is good where it counts. Accepting her 2025 Grammy, she dedicated the win to her “immigrant brothers and sisters”, and told the BBC that immigrants in the US were “living in constant fear”. We found nothing nasty from her about LGBTQ+ people, women or the planet. But we also found no clear statement from her on trans rights, so that part is a gap, not a gold star.
The recent drama is mostly noise. After her World Cup opening show in Mexico City in June, clips spread online claiming she'd been swapped for a body double. The claims rested on grainy footage and nothing was confirmed. Separately, she said fake images linking her to a Colombian presidential candidate were exactly that, and that she backs no candidate.
She then closed a 13-date Madrid residency in October at a purpose-built stadium, with guests including Maluma, Laura Pausini and Bizarrap. Her collaborators are a broad pop and Latin crowd, and nothing in our searches pointed to a pattern of working with people who push harm. We didn't dig into every guest's record, so that's a light check, not a deep one.
The good stuff is real and long-running. She founded the Pies Descalzos Foundation in 1997, which runs schools in Colombia and which she has helped fund by auctioning her own tour clothes and guitars. She became a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 2003, picked up the World Economic Forum's Crystal Award in 2017, and joined the Earthshot Prize Council for environmental solutions. That's more than most pop stars manage.