Shakira

When Shakira shimmied her way onto MTV in 2001 with a steamy video for a slick, cookie-cutter dance-pop song, some people associated the Colombian singer with her American pop-music contemporaries Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. But the stylistic breadth of Shakira's music — elements of folk, Middle Eastern and traditional Latin styles over a foundation of rock and pop — gave her a degree of credibility the American teen queens lacked. What's more, when Shakira broke through in the United States, she'd already been a huge star across Latin America since 1996.

Photo by Jaume De La Iguana