Beyoncé Knowles is one of the most influential musicians of her generation and will go down in musical history as a glass ceiling breaker.
Although Beyoncé may be best known for her solo career, she has been a member of two different musical groups and has been seen on television since she was a young child.
Through her dedication to her craft, Beyoncé has become one of the best-selling musicians and one of the most important entertainers alive.
Why Is Beyoncé So Famous?
Beyoncé has become so famous thanks to her long-running and high-quality musical career, having earned countless awards for her albums and performances.
Even if you are not a dedicated fan of the artist, there is no denying that she is one of the most talented modern musicians alive.
Beyoncé made her introduction to the world of music when she appeared on Star Search when she was only 12 years old.
She and her young music group, Girls Tyme, didn’t win the competition, but it gave Beyoncé the boost in popularity she needed to expand her musical career.
Her parents had been prompted to have their daughter perform on the show after Beyoncé won 35 local talent shows in a row.
Beyoncé’s father knew that his daughter was meant for the stage, between her musical talent and her ability to perform and dance as well.
Although Girls Tyme may not have worked out, Beyoncé’s parents were determined to help their daughter form a musical group that would show off her talents.
It was Beyoncé’s time with Destiny’s Child that had the world saying her name.
Between the collective talent of Destiny’s Child, they were able to become one of the best-selling girl groups of all time.
However, the popular girl group didn’t last forever and the group decided to disband to pursue their own careers.
Since her introduction to the music world, Beyoncé has become the most-decorated female artist with 28 Grammy Awards and has been nominated for a Grammy Award 79 different times across a multitude of categories.
Beyoncé was also the first African-American female artist to win Songwriter of the Year by ASCAP. After years of earning countless Billboard awards, Beyoncé was named “Artist of the Millennium” in 2011 by Billboard.
Her Time With Destiny’s Child
As soon as Girls Tyme was over, Beyoncé, Kelly Rowland, and Beyoncé’s father formed a new group in the 1990s called Destiny’s Child.
While Girls Tyme may have been known for being the young, harmonizing quartet, Destiny’s Child consisted of Beyoncé, Kelly Rowland, and Michelle Williams.
Destiny’s Child signed with Columbia Records on January 3rd of 1996 and was featured on the Men in Black soundtrack the following year.
They released their first single No, No, No on November 11th that same year.
By 1998, No, No, No had been certified gold by the RIAA and the girl group released their self-titled debut album on February 17th.
Destiny’s Child’s second album, The Writing’s on the Wall, was released on July 27th of 1999.
The band was managed by Beyoncé’s father, and together, the group went on to write a variety of hit songs including Bills, Bills, Bills, Cater 2 U, and Independent Woman, Pt. 1.
Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Destiny’s Child ruled the charts and had become known for releasing hit song after hit song.
The girl group’s most famous music video was for their song Say My Name, which premiered on February 15th of 2000.
At that year’s Billboard Music Awards, Destiny’s Child was nominated for four different awards and won them all.
Only a month later, they went on to win another award at the 28th Annual American Music Awards.
On May 1st of 2001, the group announced their final album, Survivor.
When the group announced that they were breaking up, Beyoncé promised that they would do another album together once they had broadened their audiences.
In 2004, the group got back together to fulfill their promise and released Destiny Fulfilled.
Eventually, the group decided to leave things on a high note and disband for good.
Creating A Profitable Solo Career
Destiny’s Child may have been over, but the early 2000s were just the starting point for Beyoncé to become one of the most decorated musicians in the world.
While the other members of Destiny’s Child may have found a mixed amount of success on their own, Beyoncé was able to focus on making her own music.
Beyoncé’s first solo album was Dangerous in Love, which was released in 2003 and features 15 different tracks.
Some of her most popular songs from this album include Crazy In Love, Baby Boy, and Me, Myself, and I.
Only three years later, Beyoncé would release her second album B’Day, which had songs like Beautiful Liar and World Wide Woman.
This was also the first album to feature her future husband, Jay-Z, on the track Deja Vu.
Like many musicians of the early 2000s, Beyoncé decided to create an alter ego to write music from her perspective on the album I Am… Sasha Fierce in 2008.
This hit album had classics such as Halo, If I Were A Boy, Single Ladies, Satellites, and Radio.
Beyoncé’s fourth album was simply called 4, which has been an important number throughout her relationship with Jay-Z and her children.
Songs such as Run the World (Girls) and Countdown are featured on this album from 2011.
Beyoncé’s fifth album was self-titled and had 20 different tracks featuring a variety of artists such as Jay-Z, Frank Ocean, Nicki Minaj, and Pharrell Williams.
The 2013 album was quickly followed up by her following album Lemonade in 2016.
In 2018, Beyoncé released Everything is Love.
The following year, she released her live album, Homecoming, and the soundtrack for the 2019 Lion King movie, which is also known as The Lion King: The Gift.
Landing Major Roles In Hollywood
Beyoncé has a talent for attracting dedicated fans who are always willing to support her through new projects that are unlike anything she had done before.
When she began starring in movies, it was clear that her fans loved her acting just as much as they loved her music.
The first role that Beyoncé got on the silver screen was as Foxxy Cleopatra in Austin Powers in Goldmember, where she starred alongside an all-star comedy cast including Mike Myers, Seth Green, Michael Caine, Verne Troyer, and more.
Despite being a part of an intimidating cast for a young musician, Beyoncé proved that she could hold her own as a comedic actress.
Beyoncé took on the role of Xania from The Pink Panther in 2006 with Steve Martin, Kevin Kline, Kristin Chenoweth, and Emily Mortimer.
The musician-turned-actress’s later roles would take on more serious tones and topics than those found in her debut film.
In the same year as her role in The Pink Panther, Beyoncé became Deena Jones in the musical drama Dreamgirls.
When Beyoncé auditioned for the role, she was in full costume and able to perform the choreography.
This is the first film in which she began to consider herself to be an actress and was so dedicated to the role that she lost weight for filming Deena’s teen and early-year scenes during a break in filming.
After her experience on Dreamgirls, Beyoncé was ready to take on a biographical drama with the role of Etta James in the 2008 film Cadillac Records.
This was the first R-rated film that Beyoncé had ever been a part of.
A year later, she took on the role of a jealous wife, Sharon, in Obsessed.
Her castmates for this film included Idris Elba, Jerry O’Connell, Ali Larter, and Christine Lahti.
Becoming The Musical Power Couple With Jay-Z
Beyoncé first met the love of her life when she was only 18 years old while she was on a plane to Cancún.
Both she and Jay-Z were taking part in the 2000 MTV Spring Break Festival, so they spent the entire plane ride sitting next to each other and talking.
In 2018, Jay-Z wrote a song about this important moment in their lives called Everything is Love.
Despite each of them feeling a strong connection with the other, they wanted to take things slow to ensure that their friendship could withstand the pressure of a romantic relationship.
After a year of constantly talking on the phone, Jay-Z asked Beyoncé out for a romantic dinner at the popular restaurant, Nobu.
To support him, he had brought a male friend with him and would later consider that his “first foolish choice.”
Despite his mistake, Beyoncé and Jay-Z quickly began collaborating as musicians.
It was easy to find musical inspiration in their kind of love, and their first track, ’03 Bonnie & Clyde, was released in 2002.
The couple waited until August 29th of 2004 before they were willing to publicly announce their relationship, but they had decided it was time to tell the world they were a couple at the MTV’s Video Music Awards.
By 2006, Beyoncé had gotten wedding fever after watching her sister walk down the aisle.
Before they told fans that they were engaged, Jay-Z and Beyoncé had a secret wedding on April 4th of 2008, and had already signed their marriage license before the wedding ceremony.
On January 7th of 2012, the fans around the world went wild to find out that the power couple’s first child had been born.
On June 13th of 2017, their twins, daughter Rumi and son Sir Carter were born.
Turning Coachella To Beychella
One of the performances that Beyoncé is best known for is her 2018 headlining performance at Coachella 2018.
This performance allowed her to be the first Black woman to headline Coachella, which she had made the focus of her performance.
At the time, she had 23 Grammy Awards under her belt and had graced the stage of the Super Bowl’s Half-Time Show.
Although it was not her first time performing at the “anti-Woodstock” festival, it was her first time headlining.
Beyoncé joined her husband Jay-Z on stage for a duet of Forever Young when he headlined the festival in 2010.
She also shocked the crowd when she joined her sister, Solange Knowles, on stage for a dance routine for Losing You in 2014.
In 2017, Beyoncé was announced as the Coachella headliner.
Sadly, her doctor pulled her from the performance due to her pregnancy with her twins, Rumi and Sir Carter, but Beyoncé promised her disappointed fans that she would be back for Coachella 2018.
Despite being a new mother recovering from a c-section, Beyoncé was determined to rebuild her body from the cut muscles and balance out training with spending time with her children.
She lost more than 40 pounds between giving birth and the first rehearsal day for her Coachella performance.
The performance consisted of a two-hour set of vocal and choreography performances from Queen Bey.
Her background dancers all came from Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and the theme of her performance was the story of their culture.
Rather than using a backing track, Beyoncé’s discography was performed by the marching band students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities in matching uniforms.
Along with the entire marching band, 100 performers appeared on the stage with the influential musician.
Founding Parkwood Entertainment
Beyoncé could tell her career was only becoming more fruitful as she released more albums, but she felt that the way that major management companies handled their musicians was only getting in her way.
Inspired by Madonna, Beyoncé wanted to be her own powerhouse and create music as she saw fit.
To take her future into her own hands, Beyoncé founded Parkwood Entertainment in 2010 because she was tired of having to put in all of the work and then have to share the fame and fortune.
When Beyoncé first created the entertainment company, it was just meant to handle recording her music videos and managing her music.
The name of the company comes from the name of a Houston street where Beyoncé once lived as a child.
After she moved the company’s headquarters from Houston to New York City, Beyoncé found that she was too stretched between being a performer, mother, and a chairwoman for her business.
Despite the strain that all the work put on her, Beyoncé felt that it was necessary if she wanted to find the same level of success that many male musicians have managed to find in the business world.
Beyoncé wanted to be more than successful. She wanted to be a mogul.
To help her business keep meeting Beyoncé’s high expectations, she brought on some of her most trusted experts.
This included people such as Yvette Noel-Schure, Teresa LaBarbera Whites, and Ed Burke.
When Beyoncé released the multimedia, audiovisual artwork to go alongside her fifth album, Lemonade, it was the partnership between Parkwood Entertainment and HBO that allowed Parkwood Entertainment to go above and beyond its normal production capabilities to create the hour-long musical film.
Parkwood Entertainment has helped Beyoncé create some of her biggest projects.
Life As A Fashion Icon
Beyoncé is always the most important guest at any celebrity social event, with her outfits always making the front covers.
Although she may have made some questionable fashion choices during the late 1990s and early 2000s, she has been making influential fashion choices that have helped heighten her performances.
At the 2005 Academy Awards, Beyoncé wore a fitted, black velvet Versace gown. Seven years later, Angelina Jolie was seen at the Oscars wearing a nearly identical gown.
Beyoncé is usually one of the best-dressed guests at the prestigious MET Gala.
When she was named honorary chair for the 2013 MET Gala, she wore a custom-made Givenchy Haute Couture by Riccardo Tisci.
While Beyoncé was expecting her daughter, Blue Ivy, she took pregnancy as an opportunity to experiment and expand maternity fashion.
When she became pregnant with her twins, she was able to expand on her maternity costume designs and created a variety of iconic stage looks.
Beyoncé released Black Is King on Disney+ after performing in the 2019 remake of The Lion King.
Throughout the 85-minute audiovisual production, Queen Bey can be spotted wearing 69 different outfits.
Some of the fan-favorite outfits that Beyoncé wears during Black is King include a $462 moon-print bodysuit and the leopard-print Valentino catsuit that matches her leopard-print car.
Beyoncé also had designers such as Wendy Nichol, Laurel DeWitt, and Alon Livné.
Throughout the production, Beyoncé highlights one of the longest lists of black designers to ever hit the silver screen.
When Beyoncé’s children and mother appeared in the film, they were adorned by the same high-end designers.
Although there have been many musicians who have made fashion as much of their identity as their music, there are very few that changed how people view high fashion.
Using Her Wealth And Popularity For Social Change
Having grown up in Houston, Texas, Beyoncé frequently saw how people struggled to afford to live.
When she found herself as one of the most wealthy musicians in the world, she knew that she needed to use her wealth to create the kind of change she wanted to see in the world around her.
Rather than taking a Haitian vacation, Beyoncé went to Haiti to survey the damage caused by the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that had occurred five years prior.
She worked alongside the United Nations humanitarian affairs chairwoman, Valeria Amos.
Beyoncé does most of her charity work through her philanthropic foundation, BeyGood.
BeyGood has raised money for relief efforts covering every topic from unemployment to education to disease research.
Beyoncé isn’t the only one in the mood to give.
When Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, her parents and sisters joined her in giving toward those who had been displaced by the natural disaster.
To help direct the money where it needed to go most, the Knowles collectively founded The Survivor Foundation.
In the year following the Foundation’s creation, Beyoncé held food drives for the victims of the hurricane.
To help ease unemployment levels, Beyoncé teamed up with Goodwill because she appreciated the way that Goodwill was looking to get more of its workforce educated and properly trained so they could move on to higher-paying jobs.
Beyoncé encouraged her fans to donate unneeded or unwanted clothing and appliances to their local Goodwill, so families in need could get the things that they need to live.
While preparing for her role as Etta James in Cadillac Records, Beyoncé visited the Phoenix House and was so moved by their work with those who suffer from addiction that she donated $4 million to the organization.
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