Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter (born September 4, 1981) is an American singer and actress. She was the lead singer of the all-girl R&B group Destiny's Child. She released her first album Dangerously in Love in 2003 when Destiny's Child were on a break. Since then, she has released five more albums, which have all produced hit singles. She is married to rapper JAY-Z and has a daughter named Blue Ivy Carter and twins Sir and Rumi Carter.

Early life
She was born at Park Plaza Hospital in Houston, Texas. Her mother is Tina Knowles (née Beyincé; currently Lawson). Her mother is of  Creole descent, which means she has some African and French roots. Her father is Mathew Knowles, who is African American. Knowles went to several performing arts schools, and took part in singing and dancing competitions as a child. Her younger sister, Solange Knowles, is also a singer.

Music career
In her youth, she started the girl group Girls Tyme. Her father Mathew became her manager.

Knowles became very famous in the late 1990s. She became the lead singer of the R&B girl group Destiny's Child. The group became the world's best-selling girl group of all time, selling over 85 million records worldwide.

Destiny's Child took a break from recording music. Knowles released her solo debut album, Dangerously in Love, in 2003. Two singles from the album—"Crazy in Love" and "Baby Boy"—reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The album became one of the most successful albums of that year. Dangerously in Love was given five Grammy Awards. After Destiny's Child split, Knowles released her second album. B'Day was released in 2006, and its singles "Déjà Vu", "Irreplaceable" and "Beautiful Liar" reached the top ten in the United States. Her third album I Am... Sasha Fierce was released in 2008. "If I Were a Boy", "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)", "Halo" and "Sweet Dreams" became hit singles for Knowles. "Singles Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" became another number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100. The album earned six Grammys in 2010, the most Grammys won by a woman in one night. Only Adele would do this again at the 2012 Grammys.

Her next album, 4 (2011), became her fourth number one album on the Billboard 200 chart. She became the third artist in history to have her first four albums debut at number one. Beyoncé released her fifth album Beyoncé on iTunes on December 13, 2013. The public did not know about the album before it was released. The album has fourteen songs and 17 videos. It has been given good reviews. It entered the Billboard 200 at number one. This made her the first female artist in the history of the chart to have her first five albums enter the chart at the top. Knowles performed "Drunk in Love" with JAY-Z at the 2014 Grammy Awards. She was nominated for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for "Part II (On the Run)" with JAY-Z.

In February 2016, Beyoncé was a guest performer at Super Bowl 50. She performed "Formation", the lead single from her sixth studio album, Lemonade. The performance was controversial, as it had elements of the #BlackLivesMatter movement along with influences from the Black Panthers. She announced The Formation World Tour in a commercial after the Super Bowl performance.

In April 2016, an hour-long film, Lemonade, was shown on HBO. After the film aired, the Lemonade album was released. The album became her best-reviewed of her career. It entered the charts at number one in the US and Canada. Lemonade features the singles "Formation", "Sorry", and "Hold Up". It won the Grammy Award for Best Urban Contemporary Album in 2017, while the music video for "Formation" won the award for Best Music Video.

In 2017, Beyoncé released the promotional single "Die with You". She later contributed to the remix of "Mi Gente" by J Balvin and Willy William. This caused the song to jump to number three on the Billboard Hot 100. On December 1, 2017, an acoustic duet between Beyoncé and Ed Sheeran of Sheeran's song "Perfect" was released and has topped the iTunes charts in 32 countries. The song became Beyoncé's sixth US number-one as a solo artist and her tenth number-one song in the US including songs with Destiny's Child.

Knowles was featured on a remix of rapper Megan Thee Stallion's song "Savage"; it became Knowles’ seventh number-one song in the US.

Other projects

Acting career
Her first role in a movie was for the musical Carmen: A Hip Hopera (2001). Her first major movie was Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002). The movie Dreamgirls (2006) was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards. Her other movies Cadillac Records (2008) and Obsessed (2009) did not do so well.

In 2019, she will star as Nala in the 2019 drama-live action remake The Lion King.

Fashion
In 2005, Knowles and her mother created a fashion line called House of Deréon.

In 2016, she also introduced a fitness-wear collection called Ivy Park.

Perfume
In 2010, she released her first perfume which she called Heat.

Model
In 2013, Beyoncé became H&M's new swimwear model.

Endorsements
She became a spokesperson for L'Oréal, Pepsi, Tommy Hilfiger, Nintendo, and Vizio.

Ranking
In 2010, Knowles was ranked first on Forbes list of the "100 Most Powerful and Influential Musicians in the World", and second on its list of the "100 Most Powerful and Influential Celebrities in the World". In 2012, she was named "World's Most Beautiful Woman" by People magazine.

Awards
Many of Knowles' recordings and movies were given many nominations, with many winning them. These include 24 Grammy Awards, 24 [MTV Video Music Awards], three [American Music Awards], a Billboard Millennium Award, and a star on the [Hollywood Walk of Fame] with Destiny's Child. In 2009, [Billboard (magazine)|Billboard] named her the Top Radio Songs Artist of the 2000s decade. They also ranked her 4th for Artist of the Decade. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), named Knowles as the Top Certified Artist of the 2000s. In the US, she has sold over 17 million copies as of May 2014. She has sold more than 30.4 million digital singles as of January 2012. Worldwide, she has sold 245 million records. This makes her one of the best-selling music artists of all time. Knowles appeared on [VH1]'s 2010 list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". They ranked her third on their "100 Greatest Women in Music" list in 2012.

Personal life
In April 2008, Knowles married American rapper JAY-Z. They had their first child, Blue Ivy Carter, on January 7, 2012.

Knowles is a feminist. In the February 2013 issue of GQ magazine she said, "You know, equality is a myth, and for some reason, everyone accepts the fact that women don’t make as much money as men do. I don’t understand that. Why do we have to take a backseat? I truly believe that women should be financially independent from their men. And let’s face it, money gives men the power to run the show. It gives men the power to define value. They define what’s sexy. And men define what’s feminine. It’s ridiculous."

Knowles joined the Ban Bossy campaign in 2014.

In December 2013, she and her husband JAY-Z became vegan. She wrote the foreword to the book The 22-Day Revolution by trainer Marco Borges, which was released in April 2015.

On February 1, 2017, Beyoncé announced via Instagram that she was expecting twins with husband JAY-Z. The twins were born on June 13, 2017. Their names are Rumi and Sir Carter.

Discography

 Dangerously in Love (2003): 20 million copies sold.
 B'Day (2006): 15 million copies sold.
 I Am... Sasha Fierce (2008): 19 million copies sold.
 4 (2011): 5 million copies sold.
 Beyoncé (2013) 11 million copies sold.
 Lemonade (2016) The audio CD/DVD set earned 653,000 total copies sold in the week ending April 28, 2016, according to Nielsen Music. Pure album sales comprised 485,000 of that sum.

Filmography

Notes

References

Other websites

 Beyoncé  – official U.S. website
 
 
 
 Beyoncé Knowles at AllRovi
 Beyoncé – official Sound Cloud

 
1981 births
Living people
Actors from Houston, Texas
American feminists
Singer-songwriters from Texas
African American musicians
Brit Award winners
Grammy Award winners
Singers from Houston, Texas
Destiny's Child
American voice actors
American R&B singers
American pop singers
American hip hop singers
American soul singers