Colombian pop star Shakira on Friday 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. On Friday evening, 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 returnec in 2011 for a concert. The artist is in Lebanon with her two sons.

A handout picture from the Honorary Consulate of Lebanon in Barranquilla, Colombia, on July 13, 2018 shows Colombian singer Shakira (C) holding a commemorative plaque bearing her name during her visit to the northern Lebanese village of Tannourine