COLOMBIA: Shakira delights thousands in Bogota performance and calls on world to help Colombian flood victims

Record ID: 585842

  • Title: COLOMBIA: Shakira delights thousands in Bogota performance and calls on world to help Colombian flood victims
  • Date: 14th March 2011
  • Summary: BOGOTA, COLOMBIA (MARCH 12, 2011) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF SHAKIRA PERFORMING GUITARIST VARIOUS OF SHAKIRA PERFORMING AUDIENCE WATCHING VARIOUS OF SHAKIRA PERFORMING SHAKIRA'S PARENTS WATCHING HER PERFORM
  • Embargoed: 29th March 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Colombia, Colombia
  • Country: Colombia
  • Topics: Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVA1YLZCNVD1LRB0JGO425126WW
  • Story Text: Tens of thousands of Shakira's Colombian fans descended on Bogota's Simon Bolivar Park on Saturday (March 12) to hear their star perform several of her classics as well as new hits from her latest recording, "Sale el Sol" ("The Sun Rises").
    The concert brought out some 45,000 people and kicked off Shakira's South American tour.
    The Barranquilla native whipped up the crowd who sang along with to every number. A lucky handful of concert-goers even found themselves on stage with her.
    Shakira's return to her homeland began on Friday (March 11) when she met with President Juan Manuel Santos to discuss a brutal winter of unusually heavy flooding that affected some 2.5 million Colombians.
    She also discussed a TV special she is working on with American producer Quincy Jones and Santos about the Colombian flood victims in an effort to raise money to help them.
    "We have wanted to mobilize international aid to our country because there are 2.5 million people affected by the floods and the rains, and we want the world to know. And also we want the Colombians that have been affected by this tragedy to know that they are not alone and that they have a President who is thinking of them and that the world also begins to understand their struggle - the struggle of the Colombian people," she said.
    The program is expected to eventually air in the United States although a date hasn't been set. Santos said it was important for the world to know what the Colombian flood victims are going through.
    "Quincy Jones and Shakira have shown their generosity, their big hearts that call on the entire world and all the artists as they did with the tsunami in Japan and what happened in Haiti, so that the world also realizes that climate change is affecting a country that is very vulnerable, and that is Colombia," he said.
    Shakira was recently named Artist of the Year by Harvard University and has been awarded platinum and diamond sales for her new album by Sony.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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