Shakira was one of the many celebrities declared dead on Monday in a mass, online, faux-eradication of famous people.
According to Spanish-language social networking sites, gossip websites, Twitter and Facebook, February 18 was a tough day to be a public figure as numerous personalities met their so-called “untimely demises.” Along with Shakira, Justin Bieber, Ronaldinho, Hugo Chavez, Steve Martin, Axl Rose, Michael Jordan, Bruno Mars, and others were proclaimed dead.
It is not clear where the malicious announcements originated, but it convincingly looked like it was published by the Peruvian newspaper El Comercio. A Facebook page that has since been removed read: “on Monday (February 18) at approximately 11am, our beloved singer [Shakira] died.” The page reportedly received one million hits.
This is not the first time the Colombian has been declared dead. In 2006, Mariah Carey accidentally caused an uproar when talking about a male artist called “Shakir’s” death on national television. Shakira and her truthful hips went on to record a few more best-selling songs after that, so hopefully this death notice will have a similar effect.