Shakira lavished praise on British Prime Minister Gordon Brown after holding a conference call with the politician in London on Monday.

The Colombian performer spoke with the leader by telephone to bounce around ideas as part of a week of action for the Global Campaign for Education. The group is pressuring world leaders to provide funding for education to 72 million young children who miss out on schooling due to poverty.

“He is a man with wonderful intentions, he is very pro-active, he is working very hard for the issue of education,” Shakira said. “I could feel how passionate and enthusiastic he was about it.”

Brown praised Shakira for her tireless efforts to help improve access to education around the world.

“She is inspiring people all over the world,” Brown was quoted as saying.

Shakira is among the nominees for an award at this year’s Ivor Novello songwriting awards.

The curvy Colombian has been nominated in the category of “Best Selling Song” for her “Beautiful Liar” collaboration with R&B star Beyonce.

Amy Winehouse leads the way with three nominations - one of which is in the same category as Shaki & Beyonce for her song “Rehab”. The troubled singer also has two tracks nominated in the “Best Song” category - “Love Is A Losing Game” and “You Know I’m No Good”.

Radiohead are in contention for the “Best Album” award with their release “In Rainbows”.

The full list of nominees are as follows:

Best Song Musically & Lyrically

Ben’s Brother / Let Me Out
Amy Winehouse / Love Is A Losing Game
Amy Winehouse / You Know I’m No Good

Best Contemporary Song

Shakira is to hold a “virtual meeting” with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Monday to discuss way to improve access to education in the third world.

The Colombian will speak with the leader by telephone to bounce around ideas as part of a week of action for the Global Campaign for Education.

Brown has caused controversy in his own country recently by doubling the 10% tax rate for families on lower incomes in the UK, hitting the poorest people in the country - all the while giving a 2% tax cut to the richest. So some might find it a little difficult to take the Prime Minister seriously on matters of poverty. But good luck Shaki!

Shakira is set to return to Argentina to play the Buenos Aires Live 8 Latino concert next month.

The Live 8 Latino concerts are being staged by the ALAS foundation, of which Shakira is a member, to bring attention to poverty throughout Latin America.

The concerts are expected to be staged around May 17th next month in big Latin American cities. However, nothing is official yet as ALAS are still negotiating with mayors to bring the concerts into reality.

It is not yet known whether all the concerts will be staged on May 17th, or if they will take place over several days separately.

Shakira will perform live before the start of the inaugural Volvo Ocean Race in Alicante it has been reported.

The Colombian will get proceedings off to an electrifying start by performing one of her hits live next September.

With the timing of the event more than a year away, that should mean those in attendance get to hear one of Shaki’s new songs off her upcoming album.

The Premio Nuestra Tierra awards ceremony took place in Bogota on Sunday.

As I previously blogged, Shakira was up for two awards at the show that celebrates the best of Colombian artistic talent. Unfortunately, she walked away with neither of the “Best Web Site” and “Best Video of a Colombian” awards for which she was nominated.

Shakira did not attend the show but recorded a video message for Colombian musician Joe Arroyo.

So a bit more information has apparently leaked about Shakira’s return to the studio to record material for her new album.

We hear that Shakira and her band mates Brendan Buckley, Albert Menendez and Tim Mitchell have all been together some weeks ago in Uruguay working on the composition of the new tracks. This is the team that worked together on the hit albums Laundry Service and Oral Fixation 2 (the English language albums) - and very successfully!

I’m sure whatever they are working on is destined for greatness again. But we may have to wait a long time to finally hear the new music, as the new album is not expected to be released until at least early next year.

We’ll keep you posted when more news drops.

Shakira has been nominated for two awards at this year’s “Premio Nuestra Terra” awards ceremony in Bogota.

The event gives prizes to the best-achieving Colombian artists every year.

Shaki has been nominated in the category for best website and best video for her performance in “Las de la Intuición”.

The prizes will be handed out on April 13th. To cast your votes for Shakira, click here!

Shakira participated in the “I Love America” campaign on Friday aimed at encouraging increased awareness in Latin America and the Caribbean of the contribution the USA makes to the region.

The event was staged within the framework of the annual gathering of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Shakira, who recently returned to Miami after starting work on a new album, was joined by Juanes, Alejandro Sanz and Ricky Martin at the event.

“Us, the artists of the foundation ALAS, hope that the alliance with the IDB offers new opportunities to thousands of children who live in the poverty in Latin America,” Shakira said at the event.

The IDB also announced plans to join the foundation ALAS that is organizing the Live Earth Latin America concerts in May this year.

Shakira has just started work on recording a new album to follow her hugely successful release Oral Fixation.

She touched down in Miami yesterday to hang out in the city with friends for a few days, and spoke briefly of plans to get back to the studio and continue laying down new material.

Shaki also told reporters she soon planned on taking a trip to China, but declined to elaborate further on the reasons.

It is expected Shakira’s latest album will drop sometime in 2009.