Beyoncé

Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter (/biˈɒnseɪ/ ⓘ bee-ON-say; born September 4, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, 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”.

With 200 million records sold worldwide, she is one of the world’s best-selling artists of all time and has the most RIAA-certified titles by a female artist in history. She is the only female artist to debut all of her eight solo albums at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200. Her accolades include the most Grammy Awards (35), NAACP Image Awards (25), BET Awards (32) and Soul Train Music Awards (25) of any artist.

She was inducted into the Guinness World Records Hall of Fame and the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame. Billboard named her the Top Female Artist of the Decade (2000s) and the Greatest Pop Star of the 21st Century. The first woman to headline an all-stadium tour, Beyoncé is one of the highest-grossing live acts in history and was Pollstar’s Touring Artist of the Decade (2010s). Rolling Stone listed her as the eighth greatest singer ever and included several of her albums, singles and music videos among the greatest of all time.

Early life

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’s maternal grandparents, Lumis Albert Beyincé and Agnéz Deréon (daughter of Odilia Broussard and Eugène DeRouen), were French-speaking Louisiana Creoles, with roots in New Iberia; 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.

She has additional Breton heritage. 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. 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.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia