Beyoncé

Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter (/biˈɒnseɪ/ bee-ON-say; née Knowles; born September 4, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, actress and businesswoman. She has had a significant impact on the music industry and is known for her vocal ability, musical versatility, live performances, and culturally important works.

Beyoncé rose to fame in 1997 as a member of Destiny's Child, one of the best-selling girl groups of all time. Her debut solo album, Dangerously in Love (2003), became one of the best-selling albums of the 21st century and spawned the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles "Crazy in Love" and "Baby Boy". Beyoncé's commercial success continued with the albums B'Day (2006), I Am... Sasha Fierce (2008) and 4 (2011), all of which featured hit singles including "Check on It", "Irreplaceable", "If I Were a Boy", "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on it)", "Halo", "Run the World (Girls)", and "Love On Top". She has also ventured into acting, starring in the films Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002), Dreamgirls (2006), Cadillac Records (2008), Obsessed (2009) and Black Is King (2020), as well as voicing Nala in The Lion King (2019) and Mufasa: The Lion King (2024).

Beyoncé's career shifted after forming her own management company Parkwood Entertainment, creating monocultural events through acclaimed concept albums. She explored personal and political themes on Beyoncé (2013) and Lemonade (2016), which are credited with popularizing the surprise album and visual album. The former inspired setting Friday as the Global Release Day, while the latter was the best-selling album worldwide in 2016. Her ongoing trilogy project – currently consisting of the queer-inspired dance album Renaissance (2022) and Americana epic Cowboy Carter (2024) – has highlighted the contributions of Black pioneers to American musical and cultural history, spawning the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles "Break My Soul" and "Texas Hold 'Em".

Beyoncé is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with estimated sales of over 200 million records. She is the only female artist to debut all of their eight studio albums at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200. She is the most awarded and nominated artist of all time in the history of the Grammy Awards, as well as the most awarded artist at the BET, NAACP Image, and Soul Train Music Awards. Her inductions include the Guinness World Records Hall of Fame and the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame. The first woman to headline an all-stadium tour, Beyoncé is one of the highest-grossing live acts in history. Billboard named her the Top Female Artist of the 2000s and the Greatest Pop Star of the 21st Century. Rolling Stone listed her as one of the greatest singers ever and included several of her albums, singles, and music videos among the greatest of all time.

Beyoncé Giselle Knowles was born on September 4, 1981, at the Park Plaza Hospital in Houston, Texas, to Tina Knowles (née Beyoncé), a hairdresser and salon owner, and Mathew Knowles, a Xerox sales manager. Tina is Louisiana Creole and Mathew is African American. Beyoncé's younger sister, Solange Knowles, is also a singer and a former backup dancer for Destiny's Child. Solange and Beyoncé are the first sisters both to have had number one solo albums. Beyoncé researched her ancestry and discovered that she is descended from a slave owner who married his slave. Her mother is also of distant Irish and Jewish ancestry. Beyoncé also has Belgian ancestry from Hainaut Province, Wallonia and is related to a former mayor of Froidchapelle, Belgium.

Beyoncé was raised with multiple religious traditions, attending St. John's United Methodist Church in Houston as well as St. Mary of the Purification Catholic Church. She went to St. Mary's Catholic Montessori School in Houston and enrolled in dance classes there. Her singing ability was discovered when dance instructor Darlette Johnson began humming a song and Beyoncé finished it, able to hit the high-pitched notes. Beyoncé's interest in music and performing continued after winning a school talent show at age seven, singing John Lennon's "Imagine" to beat 15/16-year-olds. In the fall of 1990, Beyoncé enrolled in Parker Elementary School, a music magnet school in Houston, where she performed with the school's choir. She also attended the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and later Alief Elsik High School. Beyoncé was also a member of the choir at St. John's United Methodist Church where she sang her first solo and was a soloist for two years.

When Beyoncé was eight, she met LaTavia Roberson at an audition for an all-girl entertainment group. They were placed into a group called Girl's Tyme with three other girls, and rapped and danced on the talent show circuit in Houston. After seeing the group, R&B producer Arne Frager brought them to his Northern California studio and placed them in Star Search, the largest talent show on national TV at the time. Girl's Tyme failed to win, and Beyoncé later said the song they performed was not good. In 1995, Beyoncé's father, Mathew, resigned from his job to manage the group. The move reduced the family's income by half, and Beyoncé's parents were forced to sell their house and cars and move into separated apartments.

Mathew cut the original line-up to four and the group continued performing as an opening act for other established R&B girl groups. The girls auditioned before record labels and were finally signed to Elektra Records, moving to Atlanta Records briefly to work on their first recording, only to be cut by the company. This put further strain on the family, and Beyoncé's parents separated. On October 5, 1995, Dwayne Wiggins's Grass Roots Entertainment signed the group. In 1996, the girls began recording their debut album under an agreement with Sony Music, the Knowles family reunited, and shortly after, the group got a contract with Columbia Records with the assistance of Columbia talent scout Teresa LaBarbera Whites.

The group changed their name to Destiny's Child in 1996, based upon a passage in the Book of Isaiah. In 1997, Destiny's Child released their major label debut song "Killing Time" on the soundtrack to the 1997 film Men in Black. In November, the group released their debut single and first major hit, "No, No, No". They released their self-titled debut album in February 1998, which established the group as a viable act in the music industry. The group released their Multi-Platinum second album The Writing's on the Wall in 1999. The record features songs such as "Bills, Bills, Bills", the group's first number-one single, "Jumpin' Jumpin'" and "Say My Name", which became their most successful song at the time, and would remain one of their signature songs. "Say My Name" won the Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals and the Best R&B Song at the 43rd Annual Grammy Awards. The Writing's on the Wall sold more than eight million copies worldwide. During this time, Beyoncé recorded a duet with Marc Nelson, an original member of Boyz II Men, on the song "After All Is Said and Done" for the soundtrack to the 1999 film, The Best Man, as well as "Ways To Get Cut Off", a collaboration with fellow Columbia Records signee JoJo Robinson that was later shelved.

The remaining band members recorded "Independent Women Part I", which appeared on the soundtrack to the 2000 film Charlie's Angels. It became their best-charting single, topping the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart for eleven consecutive weeks. In early 2001, while Destiny's Child was completing their third album, Beyoncé landed a major role in the MTV made-for-television film, Carmen: A Hip Hopera, starring alongside American actor Mekhi Phifer. Set in Philadelphia, the film is a modern interpretation of the 19th-century opera Carmen by French composer Georges Bizet. When the third album Survivor was released in May 2001, Luckett and Roberson filed a lawsuit claiming that the songs were aimed at them. The album debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200, with first-week sales of 663,000 copies sold. The album spawned other number-one hits, "Bootylicious" and the title track, "Survivor", the latter of which earned the group a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. After releasing their holiday album 8 Days of Christmas in October 2001, the group announced a hiatus to further pursue solo careers.

In July 2002, Beyoncé made her theatrical film debut, playing Foxxy Cleopatra alongside Mike Myers in the comedy film Austin Powers in Goldmember, which spent its first weekend atop the U.S. box office and grossed $73 million. Beyoncé released "Work It Out" as the lead single from its soundtrack album which entered the top ten in the UK, Norway, and Belgium. In 2003, Beyoncé starred opposite Cuba Gooding Jr. in the musical comedy The Fighting Temptations as Lilly, a single mother with whom Gooding's character falls in love. The film received mixed reviews from critics but grossed $30 million in the U.S. Beyoncé released "Fighting Temptation" as the lead single from the film's soundtrack album, with Missy Elliott, MC Lyte, and Free which was also used to promote the film. Another of Beyoncé's contributions to the soundtrack, "Summertime", fared better on the U.S. charts.

Beyoncé's first solo recording was a feature on Jay-Z's song "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" that was released in October 2002, peaking at number four on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. On June 14, 2003, Beyoncé premiered songs from her first solo album Dangerously in Love during her first solo concert and the pay-per-view television special, "Ford Presents Beyoncé Knowles, Friends & Family, Live From Ford's 100th Anniversary Celebration in Dearborn, Michigan". The album was released on June 24, 2003, after Michelle Williams and Kelly Rowland had released their solo efforts. The album sold 317,000 copies in its first week, debuted atop the Billboard 200, and has since sold 11 million copies worldwide.