Beyoncé
Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter (/biˈɒnseɪ/ ⓘ bee-ON-say;[11] born September 4, 1981)[12] is an American singer, songwriter and businesswoman. Dubbed as "Queen Bey" and a prominent cultural figure of the 21st century, she has been recognized for her artistry and performances, with Rolling Stone naming her one of the greatest vocalists of all time.
For other uses, see Beyoncé (disambiguation).
Beyoncé
- Harmonies by The Hive[1]
- Queen Bey[2]
- Third Ward Trill[3]
- Singer
- songwriter
- businesswoman
- actress
- philanthropist[4]
- producer
- record executive
- director
1990–present
- Founder, chairwoman, and CEO of Parkwood Entertainment
- Co-founder, CEO, and owner of Ivy Park
- Founder, chairwoman, and owner of Cécred
3, including Blue Ivy
- Solange Knowles (sister)
- Angela Beyincé (cousin)
- Vocals
As a child, Beyoncé started performing in various singing and dancing competitions. She rose to fame in the late 1990s as a member of the R&B girl group Destiny's Child, one of the best-selling girl groups of all time. Their hiatus saw the release of Beyoncé's debut album, Dangerously in Love (2003). She then followed with the US number-one solo albums B'Day (2006), I Am... Sasha Fierce (2008), and 4 (2011). After creating her own management company Parkwood Entertainment, Beyoncé achieved critical acclaim for the experimental visual albums Beyoncé (2013) and Lemonade (2016), which explored themes such as feminism and womanism. With her Black queer-inspired dance album Renaissance (2022) and country album Cowboy Carter (2024) from her trilogy project, she became the first female artist to have their first eight studio albums debut at number one on the Billboard 200.
Beyoncé's most successful songs on the Billboard Hot 100 include "Crazy in Love", "Baby Boy", "Check On It", "Irreplaceable", "If I Were a Boy", "Halo", "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)", "Drunk in Love", "Break My Soul", "Cuff It" and "Texas Hold 'Em". She is the only woman in history to achieve at least 20 top 10 songs as a solo artist and 10 as a member of a group.[13] Her collaborative music ventures include Everything Is Love (2018), an album with her husband and rapper Jay-Z, released as the Carters, and the musical film Black Is King (2020), inspired by the music of the film soundtrack The Lion King: The Gift (2019). Self-directed concert films, including Homecoming: A Film by Beyoncé (2019) and Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé (2023), document some of her most acclaimed onstage performances. Outside of music, she has starred as an actress in films such as Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002), The Pink Panther (2006), Dreamgirls (2006), Cadillac Records (2008), Obsessed (2009), and The Lion King (2019).
Having sold 200 million records worldwide,[14] Beyoncé is one of the best-selling music artists of all time. Her accolades include a record 32 Grammy Awards, as well as 26 MTV Video Music Awards (including the 2014 Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award), 24 NAACP Image Awards, 35 BET Awards, and 17 Soul Train Music Awards – all of which are more than any other artist in the music industry. Her success during the 2000s earned her recognition as the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)'s Top Certified Artist of the Decade and Billboard's Top Female Artist and Top Radio Songs Artist of the Decade.[15] She is the most successful black touring act in history and received the Pollstar Touring Artist of the Decade award in 2021.[16][17] Time included her as one of the 100 women who has so far defined the 21st century.[18]
Early life
Beyonce Giselle Knowles[a] was born on September 4, 1981, in Houston to Celestine "Tina" Knowles (née Beyonce), a hairdresser and salon owner, and Mathew Knowles, a Xerox sales manager.[19] Tina is Louisiana Creole and Mathew is African American.[20][21][22][23] 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 to have both had number one solo albums.[24]
Beyoncé's maternal grandparents, Lumis Albert Beyincé and Agnéz Deréon (daughter of Odilia Broussard and Eugène DeRouen),[25] were French-speaking Louisiana Creoles, with roots in New Iberia;[26][25][27] She is a descendant of Acadian militia officer Joseph Broussard, who was exiled to French Louisiana after the expulsion of the Acadians, and of the French military officer and Abenaki chief Jean-Vincent d'Abbadie, Baron de Saint-Castin.[21][28] Beyoncé's fourth great-grandmother, Marie-Françoise Trahan, was born in 1774 in Bangor, located on Belle Île, France. Trahan was a daughter of Acadians who had taken refuge on Belle Île after the Acadian expulsion. The Estates of Brittany had divided the lands of Belle Île to distribute them among 78 other Acadian families and the already settled inhabitants. The Trahan family lived on Belle Île for over ten years before migrating to Louisiana, where she married a Broussard descendant.[29] Beyoncé researched her ancestry and discovered that she is descended from a slave owner who married his slave.[30] Her mother is also of distant Irish, Jewish, Spanish, Chinese and Indonesian ancestry.[31][32][33][26]
Beyoncé was raised Methodist and attended St. John's United Methodist Church in Houston.[34][35] As her mother's family was Catholic, on Christmas Eve her family attended Midnight mass at St. Mary of the Purification Catholic Church.[36] She went to St. Mary's Catholic Montessori School in Houston and enrolled in dance classes there.[37] Her singing ability was discovered when dance instructor Darlette Johnson began humming a song and Beyonce finished it, able to hit the high-pitched notes.[38] 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.[39][40] 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.[41] She also attended the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts[42] and later Alief Elsik High School.[20][43] 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.[34][44]
Career
Career beginnings
When Beyoncé was eight, she met LaTavia Roberson at an audition for an all-girl entertainment group.[45] 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.[46] 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.[47][48] In 1995, Beyoncé's father, Matthew, resigned from his job to manage the group.[49] 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.[20][50]
Mathew cut the original line-up to four and the group continued performing as an opening act for other established R&B girl groups.[45] 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.[20] 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.[39]