Colombian pop star Shakira yesterday visited the village in Lebanon where her paternal grandmother was born, an AFP journalist said.
“Hello Tannourine, thank you, I am happy to be here!”, the 41-year-old singer said in Arabic during a visit under high security to the village of Tannourine in Lebanon’s mountainous north.
Accompanied by local officials, Shakira visited a nature reserve that grows cedar trees — Lebanon’s national emblem — and planted two saplings.
To mark the occasion, a small patch of the reserve was named “Shakira Mubarak” — after one of the singer’s family names, Tannourine’s mayor Bahaa Harb said.
Later, she will kick off the Cedars International Festival in Lebanon, a concert set to attract 13,000 people.
This is Shakira’s third visit to the country. Her first visit came in 2003 and she returned in 2011 for a concert. The artist is in Lebanon with her two sons.
A handout picture provided by the Honorary Consulate of Lebanon in Barranquilla, Colombia, yesterday shows Colombian singer Shakira holding a commemorative plaque bearing her name during her visit to the northern Lebanese mountain village of Tannourine where her paternal grandmother was born.