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A biography of Shakira, put together by her first promoter, will recount the difficult start to the Colombian pop star's now-wildly successful music career. Shakira: la nina de los pies descalzos - la verdadera historia (Shakira: The Barefoot Girl - the True Story), a documentary based on the book will also be shown on Spanish television before the year's end, the singer's erstwhile promoter, Carlos Vanegas, told Spanish news agency EFE. He added that the book would go on the market in 2008. Vanegas said that because he studied in Spain he decided to show the documentary there first, adding that the film—which he said Shakira knows about but does not approve of — will subsequently be shown in other countries. "I let her know in May that I was doing this project. I wrote to her agent, her boyfriend Antonio de la Rua, but as of today I haven't had an official response," said Vanegas, who pointed out that from 1991 to 1993 he managed the career of the then-aspiring artist, a native of the city of Barranquilla in Colombia. "I know that she was opposed (to the documentary) because she let me know through third parties that she didn't want me to do absolutely anything about her life. Maybe it reminds her of the difficult part, the stage of her life at the beginning, but there's nothing I can do," he said. According to Vanegas, his documentary and book will reveal the tough times the 30-year-old two-time Grammy Award-winning and eight-time Latin Grammy Award-winning artist had to endure in charting her path to success in the music business. "I think I did a good job. I paved the way for her to go to Bogota. I know circumstances change, but what I want to do is present the truth, very respectfully," he said, adding that the documentary is mainly a journalistic piece and is also based on interviews with those who were close to Shakira at that time. The film includes footage of when the singer entered and won Colombian TV Novelas' Super Cola (Best Butt) competition, something he said she later regretted doing, and also documents her relationship with Puerto Rican actor Osvaldo Rios, as well as different aspects of her career. "People know her career from the moment she arrived in Miami, but they don't know about her life when she wasn't successful," said Vanegas, who noted that the documentary covers the period up to when Shakira arrived in that southern Florida city as a star and began working with Cuban-American producer Emilio Estefan on a new album. Under Estefan's guidance, the Colombian began breaking into the English-speaking market and subsequently became Latin pop’s biggest female crossover artist since Jennifer Lopez. Vanegas, for his part, stressed that he had no intention of presenting anything negative about Shakira in the documentary. —IANS
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