Shakira has joined the trend of selling her music in the wake of great artists like Bob Dylan. Hipgnosis Songs Fund Limited has acquired 100% of Shakira’s music publishing rights, including participation in the publishing revenue and lyrics from her entire catalog, which comprises 145 songs, the company has announced. Since releasing her first album in 1991, recorded when she was just 13 years old, Shakira has sold more than 80 million records, making her the best-selling Latin artist of all time. The singer has been awarded three Grammy Awards and 12 Latin Grammy Awards, and is one of only three female artists to have two videos that exceed 2 billion views on YouTube. He has not transcended the amount of the operation, which is estimated at a millionaire, but it has been confirmed that his music will continue to be managed by his record company Sony for seven more years.
After signing the agreement, Shakira declared in a statement: “Being a songwriter is an achievement that I consider equal and perhaps even greater than being a singer and an artist. At 8 years old, long before singing, I wrote to make sense of the world. Each song is a reflection of the person I was at the time I wrote it, but once a song goes out into the world, it not only belongs to me, but also to those who appreciate it. I am honored that songwriting has given me the privilege of communicating with others, of being part of something bigger than myself. I know that Hipgnosis will be a great home for my catalog, and I am very happy to partner with this Merck-led company, which truly values artists and their creations and is an ally for songwriters around the world who care deeply. for the continuous life of his songs ”.
A spokesperson for the company said: “This incredible woman from Colombia has become one of the most famous and influential people in the world. What no one should take for granted is that she is one of the most serious and successful songwriters of the past 25 years, having written or co-written virtually every song she has recorded. It is wonderful for us to welcome Shakira, the queen of Latin music and much more, to the Hipgnosis family ”. The Colombian’s music appreciated after her performance in the Super Bowl on February 2, where she performed with JLo, obtaining almost 21 million views. Last year the singer surpassed 30 million subscribers on her YouTube channel, making her one of 15 artists to reach that number.
The Lebanese-Colombian singer, born Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, rose to fame behind her multi-platinum international debut album, Barefoot, in 1995. He followed a series of multiplatinum albums in Spanish, with his first album in English, Laundry service. His successes include Whenever, Wherever, Underneath Your Clothes, That you stay, Hips Don’t Lie, which was his first number one single in the United States, and the 2010 World Cup song Waka Waka (This Time For Africa), which topped the charts in 15 countries, and many others.
Shakira was represented at the signing of the assignment by her manager, Jaime Levine, and attorneys David Lande and Mitch Tenzer at Ziffren Brittenham Law LLP. The move follows Hipgnosis’ acquisition last week of catalogs from Neil Young, Fleetwood Mac veteran Lindsey Buckingham and executive producer Jimmy Iovine.
Observers had expected the song catalog market to perk up even more in the final weeks of the Trump Administration (the administration of President-elect Joe Biden is expected to raise taxes on capital gains). Last December, Bob Dylan sold his entire publishing catalog for a reported sum of nearly $ 400 million to Universal Music Publishing.
Since the great triumph of Shakira with Barefoot 25 years have passed and the singer remains one of the most important Latin stars despite the fact that her double motherhood kept her apart during a long season of the marathon tours that sustain the success of the musicians. After a long courtship with Antonio de la Rúa, son of the former Argentine president Antonio de la Rúa, another professional event was in charge of giving a twist to his life. In 2010, when she had been in relationship with De la Rúa for 10 years, Shakira met soccer player Gerard Piqué at the World Cup, who was part of the Spanish National Team that finally won the World Cup, and love crossed her path again to change it .
A few months later the new couple made their relationship official and Shakira became a resident in Barcelona, Piqué’s hometown and to which the Fútbol Club Barcelona belongs, where he plays and which the singer has supported since then on different occasions. In 2013 their first child, Milan, was born and in 2015 the second, Sasha. In between, the singer has experienced the happiness of starting a family and the doubts about her artistic future that joined her problems with the Spanish Treasury. In an interview with the magazine Vanity fair She acknowledged that after her second child was born she thought about retiring and that it was precisely Piqué who supported her so that she did not do so. “He was right, I was just scared, terrified,” explained the Colombian artist.
Regarding her problem with the treasury, the tax agency concluded that Shakira defrauded the personal income tax and assets for four years. His highest income year, 2011, after the World Cup smash hit and the tour underway, could not be brought to justice because he had prescribed. It was closed with an act of disagreement: the singer paid 24 million euros (the defrauded fee) to regularize before claiming. The inspectors did take the fraud of 2012, 2013 and 2014 to the Prosecutor’s Office. In those three years it pocketed 34.9 million and stopped paying the treasury 14.5. The Prosecutor’s Office sued and the singer is now charged with six tax crimes.
