The unexpected but enduring friendship between Shakira and Gordon Brown One of them is Latin America’s hottest singer with fans around the world and hips that don’t lie. One of […]

One of them is Latin America’s hottest singer with fans around the world and hips that don’t lie. One of them helped new Labour win three elections and made the Bank of England independent.

Shakira: Born Febraury 2, 1977 in Baranquilla, Colombia Gordon Brown: Born February 20, 1951 in Kirkcaldy, Scotland The i newsletter latest news and analysis Email address is invalid Email address is invalid Thank you for subscribing! Sorry, there was a problem with your subscription.

You know which one is which. The big reveal here isn’t that Gordon Brown (who everyone knows is Scottish anyway) has started salsa dancing.

Despite their differences, the pair have been friends for over a decade, after bonding over a commitment to provide children living in the world’s poorest countries with an education.

Look how young they are here:

Finding out Gordon Brown & Shakira have been besties for years has been the highlight of my day pic.twitter.com/mYiqaBZSwJ — Stephi LaReine (@StephiLaReine) January 18, 2017

On Saturday, they co-wrote an article on CNN about the G20 leaders’ agreement to spend more money on education. “If ours was a world where every child was in school and learning, then the two of us probably would have never met,” they acknowledge in the article.

“But more than a decade ago, frustrated by education targets made by the international community set and missed, we came together to push back in a world where far too many children go without a quality education.”

They explain why they think education is so important: We will be forever changed by our meetings with child brides in India, young Syrian refugees in Lebanon and Turkey, and impoverished children in Colombia and across Latin America. All of these children told us that an education is the only force strong enough — the only wire cutter sharp enough — to escape cycles of suffering and division.

Two days earlier, the ex-prime minister and the Colombian singer shared a stage in Hamburg during a protest concert that was timed to coincide with the G20 summit.

On the stage, Shakira said that states need to “greatly increase investment in education”.

“Education cannot wait,” Mr Brown wrote on Twitter afterwards, beneath a photo of them together.

The next day, Shakira told Der Speigel why she thinks popstars have a moral obligation to get involved in politics.

“When we talk about the issues that are important to us, the politicians will follow,” she said. “People listen to us. We have access to the press, we follow millions of people in the social media. With our opinion, we have power – it can be a tool to put topics on the agenda of politicians.”

11 years of friendship

Shakira -who now lives in Spain – is a UNICEF goodwill ambassador who has opened seven schools in Colombia. Gordon Brown is a United Nations special envoy for global education. So it makes sense that they would get along.

But when Shakira shared a photo of the them together in Sweden in January, it caused some confusion.

With Gordon Brown discussing the next steps to secure new major financing for Education. Shak #LearningGeneration @educommission pic.twitter.com/Zr4vFJoBCD — Shakira (@shakira) January 17, 2017

They had been speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos about global education. Shakira was calling on business leaders to help support new parents who want to spend more time at home with their children.

Their friendship goes back well beyond this year. In 2006, when Mr Brown was Chancellor, Shakira visited him in Downing Street and they discussed her her campaign to help more children get an education.

Afterwards she said of Mr Brown: “I know for a fact that he is one of those leaders who is committed to promoting universal education. That conversation was quite serious.”

And two years ago she presented him with a petition signed by more than 10 million people calling for all children around the world to have access to education.

Shakira is now an ambassador for the charity Education Commission, which is chaired by Mr Brown.