Shakira became the first Colombian to receive a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame Tuesday.
The pint-sized superstar was the 2,354th celebrity to be honored on the legendary walkway, taking her place alongside the greatest names in entertainment history. The Hollywood Walk of Fame website said it wanted to pay tribute to Shakira as “the highest-selling Colombian artist of all time” and “an important international philanthropist”.
According to CNN, Shakira’s star represents the advances being made by minority performers in a predominantly white industry. Just 3.4% of the Walk of Fame stars belong to Latinos such as Shakira, its analysis shows, with 5.1% belonging to African-Americans and 0.4% belonging to Asians. These figures are well below minority representations in the actual United States population – 16% for Latinos, 13% for African-Americans, and about 5% for Asians.
It’s a big week for Shakira – the honor comes just a day before she receives the Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year award for her philanthropic activities with her Barefoot Foundation. The academy president Gabriel Abaroa Jr said, “I am elated on behalf of The Latin Recording Academy and its Board of Trustees that the much admired Shakira – whose incredible talent and artistic integrity are equaled only by her commitment and dedication to philanthropy and selflessly helping those in need – has been elected the 2011 Latin Recording Academy’s Person of the Year.”
And the excitement does not end there – on Thursday it’s the Latin Grammys, in which Shakira’s up for three awards – best album, best pop vocal album and best short music video.
The singer tweeted Tuesday morning: “On my way to LA with an important week ahead – very excited to be there and see the family! Shak.”