Tuned in to the world

Hundreds of students are queuing in the rain outside the Oxford Union's venerable old debating chamber when the guest speaker arrives. As she clicks across the courtyard in high heels and a knitted pink dress, an excited squeal is clearly audible: "She's so cute!" I bet they don't say that about most of their guests.

Standing at a podium in a cold, high-ceilinged room, in front of faded oil paintings and stern busts of venerable academics, the pop star tells the packed assembly: "There won't be any singing or any hip-shaking whatsoever."

Indeed, when she is introduced with a roll-call of illustrious former speakers, Shakira poses the most obvious of rhetorical questions: "So how do I go from Barranquilla, Colombia, to occupy the same stage as Newton and Churchill? Lord knows I'm no Mother Teresa." This gets a big laugh. It is, thankfully, impossible to imagine Mother Teresa pulling the kind of salaciously gymnastic poses that feature in the video for Shakira's recent hit, She Wolf. At 32, Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll is a global superstar, famed for her sensuous dancing and lyrically clever, sonically bold, self-written and self-produced pop music.

Educating the world

Her 2006 hit Hips Don't Lie has been the biggest-selling single in the world this decade. With a popularity that encompasses the huge Spanish-speaking market and the English-speaking world, Shakira has sold more than 50 million albums since she first emerged as a teenage prodigy in 1991. She is also among the most philanthropically and politically active of pop stars, with a focus on access to education for all.

Since the age of 18, she has headed the Pies Descalzos (Bare Feet) Foundation, which has built five schools across Colombia, educating and feeding more than 4,000 children a year.

She is a Unicef goodwill ambassador and has chaired the Global Campaign for Education.

She has addressed the US Congress, had conversations with Gordon Brown and was one of only two non-US acts (the other being U2) to perform at President Obama's inauguration. It was her interest in education matters that brought her to address Oxford's students, with a passionate speech in which she envisaged a future in which 30,000 teachers might be sent to Afghanistan instead of 30,000 soldiers.

"It's not about charity," she says. "It's about human investment. The best strategy to fight poverty, to prevent illness, to improve agriculture and decrease malnutrition, decrease child labour and other social evils, is access to education."

Strong foundation

Shakira is focused and articulate, well-prepared with facts and figures.

"There are 75 million kids who don't receive an education, 226 million who don't have access to secondary school. Children are the foundation in a house and if you don't build strong foundations, you will spend your lives trying to fix problems that will arise."

Recently, when Sting appeared on Newsnight on behalf of his Rainforest Foundation, he was given a rough time by Jeremy Paxman, the implication being: why should we listen to celebrities on political issues?

"Are pop stars not citizens, too?" Shakira says. "I believe we all should be political. I think it's a responsibility and duty and also a right that we should all exercise.

"Artistes have the opportunity to be in touch with so many journalists every day, in front of so many cameras and it would be a waste if we failed to address issues that are more important than our careers."

Yet while Sting and U2 arguably make music that reflects their political position, Shakira sings sensual, slightly surreal pop. It would certainly be hard to guess her politics from her latest hit, in which she howls and claims to be a lycanthrope in a closet.

Message in music

"When I started, I used to write political and social songs because I was trying to find a vehicle to express all these thoughts and ideas. But, now that I have the chance to sit down with journalists, I can relax when it comes to music and not use it as another instrument of communication. When I write, my subconscious somehow finds its way to the surface. It's not such an intellectual process, it's more organic."

"The soul of a woman is like a diamond with many facets. We are not uni-dimensional, we have so much to say and so much to express," she adds.

In her song She Wolf, Shakira bafflingly asserts: "I'm starting to feel just a little abused, like a coffee machine in an office." What did she mean, exactly? She laughs.

"It's hard to explain my lyrics, because sometimes I just write things because they rhyme. I found this metaphor and I thought it made sense," she says.

The diminutive star works her way through the gathered throng, shaking hands, smiling, posing for pictures with students. Asked to sign the guest book, the global educational advocate holds her pen thoughtfully.

"How many Ps in opportunity?" she inquires.