Beyoncé Knowles: The Queen of Pop

Today’s article is on someone you probably all know: The Queen Beyoncé Knowles-Carter.

She is best known for her work as one of the most successful female singers of the world. In 2014 she became the highest-earning black musician in history! Her music makes a great impact on the whole industry and next to being so successful in the music industry, Beyoncé is also present in other parts of the entertainment industry. With her work she draws attention to issues that are important for her such as female empowerment, black culture and her own experiences in the world. Her movie “Black Is King” addresses topics such as the African Diaspora and celebrates Black Pride.

Read more about this multifaceted artist in the following article!

Beyoncé Gisselle Knowles-Carter | *04-09-1981 | USA | Singer, Songwriter, Humanitarian, Producer, Director

‘Queen Bey’ was born and raised in Houston, Texas. She was born to Celestine ‘’Tina’’ Knowles, a hairdresser and salon owner, and Mathew Knowles, a sales manager. Mathew is African American and Tina is Louisiana Creole (French, Native American and African). Her younger sister Solange is also a singer and used to be a backup dancer for Destiny’s Child. They are the first sisters to have both had No. 1 albums. 

As a child Beyoncé performed in several singing and dancing competitions. In the early nineties she became a member of a group called Girl’s Tyme with Kelly Rowland, LaTavia Roberson and three other girls. They competed in Star Search, the largest talent show on national TV at the time. They failed to win and Mathew dedicated his time to manage the group. He decided to cut the line-up back to four. In 1995 he resigned from his job in order to manage them. Over the years they changed the name of the group several times, before deciding on the name Destiny’s Child in 1996.

Beyoncé became famous in the late 1990s as the lead singer of Destiny’s Child, one of the best-selling girl groups of all time. During Destiny’s Child’s break, Beyoncé made her theatrical film debut and began her solo music career. She would become the first music act to debut at number one with their first six solo studio albums on the Billboard 200. 

In 2002 Beyoncé started a relationship with Jay-Z after they collaborated on a song for his album. She appeared as his girlfriend in the music video, which fueled speculation.
After Destiny’s Child disbanded in 2006, Beyoncé released her second solo album. She continued her acting career and starred in several films. Her third album, released in 2008, was influenced by her marriage to Jay-Z and her role in the film Cadillac Records (both in 2008). This third album earned a record-setting six Grammy Awards in 2010.
In 2010 she split from her manager and father Mathew Knowles and had a nine-month musical break. 

Around that time Beyoncé miscarried and described it as ‘’the saddest thing’’ she had ever endured. She got back into the studio and wrote music to cope with her loss. In August of 2011 Beyoncé and Jay-Z attended the MTV Video Music Awards, at which she performed ‘’Love on Top’’. She ended this performance by revealing her pregnant belly. On January 7^th in 2012, their daughter Blue Ivy was born and in 2017 the couple became parents again to a set of twins. 

In 2014, Beyoncé became the highest-earning black musician in history and was listed among Time’s 100 most influential people in the world for a second year in the world. Forbes ranked her as the most powerful female in entertainment on their 2015 and 2017 lists. She was named one of the 100 women who defined the last century by the same publication.

Her sixth album Lemonade was the world’s best-selling album of 2016 and the most acclaimed album of her career, exploring themes of infidelity and black womanhood. Beyoncé is one of the world’s best-selling recording artists, having sold 118 million records worldwide. She is the most nominated woman at the Grammy Awards and has the second-most wins for a woman with a total of 24 awards. She is the most awarded artist at the MTV Video Music Awards. 

In January 2017 it was announced that Beyoncé would headline Coachella. This would’ve made her the second female headline of the festival since it was founded in 1999. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to perform because of concerns regarding her pregnancy. Instead, she performed the following year as the headlining act of the festival. The show paid tribute to black culture, specifically historically black colleges and universities and featured a live band with over 100 black dancers. Destiny’s Child also reunited during the show.  

Beyoncé performed ‘’America the Beautiful’’ at Obama’s presidential inauguration in 2009. In 2016 she attended a major celebrity fundraiser for the 2016 presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. She also headlined for Clinton in a concert before Election Day. In a brief speech at this performance Beyoncé said, ‘’I want my daughter to grow up seeing a woman lead our country and knowing that her possibilities are limitless.’’

Credits:

Author: Hilke Cranenbroek
Image: Creative Common License,

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/lt/9/93/Beyonce_Formation.jpg

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