Shakira News

Colombian pop sensation Shakira collected six Latin Grammy nominations on Tuesday, including record and album of the year, vying with newcomers and established stars of the Spanish language music world.

The sultry songstress, whose music mixes pop with Latin and Middle Eastern rhythms, was also nominated for best female pop vocal album for "Fijacion Oral Vol. 1," best engineered album, best short video, and song of the year, a songwriters' award, for "La Tortura."

"Fijacion Oral Vol. 1" has already taken best Latin rock/alternative album at the 2005 Grammys, and female Latin pop album at the Latin Billboard Awards. In the first week of its U.S. release, 157,000 copies were sold, the highest for any Spanish language album.

The Latin Recording Academy announced the nominations in New York, where the seventh annual awards will be presented on November 2 and broadcast live for the first time.

"Practically all the nominations today reflect a brush-stroke of every aspect (of Latin music) and Shakira is one of those," Gabriel Abero, president of the Latin Recording Academy, told Reuters.

"But there are a lot of artists who have (multiple) nominations. We've got Calle 13, Ricardo Arjona and Julieta Venegas ... it really is very multifaceted," he said.

Shakira, a bilingual singer-songwriter, has sold more than 30 million albums since her 1996 debut album, "Pies descalzos."

In spite of her soaring popularity among Spanish-speaking music fans, Shakira has not picked up a Latin Grammy award since 2002.

Meanwhile, Ricardo Arjona of Guatemala bagged nominations for record of the year and song of the year for the ballad "Acompaname a estar solo," while his album "Adentro" was nominated for best male pop vocal album.

Arjona, who has sold more than 12 million albums in his 13-year career, touches on political and social themes, including the lives of illegal immigrants in the United States.

Puerto Rican reggaeton duo Calle 13, made up of half-brothers Eduardo Jose Cabra and Rene Perez, won nominations for best new artist and best urban music album for their album "Calle 13." They also picked up a nomination for best short form music video for their song "Atrevete te te."

Lena of Cuba won nominations for best new artist and song of the year, while Mexican-born Venegas received nominations for album of the year for "Sal y Limon" and record of the year for "Me voy," from the same album.

Univision, one of the major U.S. Spanish-language television channels, will broadcast the show from New York's Madison Square Garden