Beyoncé

Template:Infobox musical artist 2 Beyoncé Giselle Knowles (born September 4, 1981) is a popular American R&B singer, songwriter, record producer, actress, and fashion designer, and is most widely known by the name Beyoncé. Knowles rose to stardom as a founding member and the lead singer of Destiny's Child, "music's most successful female trio". After a series of commercially successful records with the group, she released her debut solo album, Dangerously in Love (2003), which spawned the highly successful song "Crazy in Love" and topped both the R&B and Billboard 200 charts in the U.S. and the main album charts in Canada and the United Kingdom.

Knowles has won nine Grammy Awards — six for her solo work, and three as a member of Destiny's Child. She has a successful film career and co-starred in Austin Powers in Goldmember, one of the highest grossing films of 2002.

Knowles will be releasing her second solo album B'Day on September 4, 2006 around the world and September 5, 2006 in the United States. Her album release will coincide with the celebration of her twenty-fifth birthday.

Early life

Knowles is the elder of two daughters born to Mathew Knowles and Tina Beyince in Houston, Texas.Her father is African-American and her mother is of Creole (French, African and Native American) descent.Her maternal grandparents, Lumis Beyince and Agnes Dereon (a seamstress), were French-speaking Louisiana Creoles.[1] Her parents decided on her first name as a tribute to her mother's surname. By age seven, she was attending dance school and was a soloist in her church choir. Her dance instructor took an interest in Knowles and took her star student to various competitions. Knowles went on to win over 30 local singing and dancing competitions.

Knowles and her former best friend LaTavia Roberson met Kelly Rowland and LeToya Luckett. They formed a quartet that would perform in their backyards and in Tina Knowles' hair salon. After singing at local events, they got their break when they entered Star Search [2]. The group, then named "Girl's Tyme" [3], were heartbroken after losing the competition. Matthew Knowles, Beyoncé's father and Rowland's legal guardian, decided to help the girls reach their dreams of becoming singers. He quit his six figure salary job as a multi-million dollar equipment salesman at Xerox to manage the group [4]. This decision by Mathew eventually affected the whole family. Their income had been cut in half, causing the family to move into two different apartments. When the group was signed to Columbia in 1996, it gave the entire family a second chance at making things work.

As a teenager, Knowles attended the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston, where she showed her musical talents. She later went to Alief Elsik High School, also in Houston.

Destiny's Child

Main article: Destiny's Child

Destiny's Child were originally signed by Elektra in 1995 but were dropped before they could release their debut album. The quartet was signed to Columbia Records the following year, and their career took off. Destiny's Child rose to fame in 1998 with the Billboard top ten hit, "No, No, No Part 2". Even after much-publicized turmoil involving new and exiting group members, Destiny's Child (eventually a trio of Michelle Williams and original members Knowles and Rowland) became one of the most successful pop/R&B acts of the late 1990s/early 2000s, charting four number-one Billboard Hot 100 singles, several top-ten hits, and two number-one albums. The group also earned number ones on various other Billboard and non-Billboard charts.

Destiny's Child toured as an opening act for TLC before their self-titled debut album Destiny's Child was released. The band was managed by Knowles's father, Mathew Knowles, who is acknowledged as a strong force in Beyoncé's life.

File:Destiny's child (album).jpg

Destiny's Child's self-titled debut album (1998) (Knowles on the far right)

Their 1998 platinum-selling debut album was produced by Wyclef Jean and Jermaine Dupri and featured the platinum-selling, number-one Hot 100 single "No, No, No". The group's second album, The Writing's on the Wall, released in 1999, featured two number-one hits in "Bills, Bills, Bills" and "Say My Name". "Bug A Boo" and "Jumpin', Jumpin'" were also popular singles from the album. "Say My Name" won two awards at the 2001 Grammy Awards for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals and Best R&B Song, the latter of which was awarded to the songwriters, which included Knowles.

Their next album, Survivor, proved to be another big success, going to number one on both the American Billboard 200 and R&B Albums charts, as well as the Canadian and the UK album chart. Two singles from the album went to the top of the Hot 100: "Independent Women Part 1" and "Bootylicious", with the album's title track reaching number two. In the United Kingdom, the first two tracks released reached number one consecutively. "Independent Women Part 1" had been the theme song for the film Charlie's Angels in late 2000, before the album's 2001 release. The title track, "Survivor", would win the group their third Grammy for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. The album's fourth single, "Emotion", was a cover of the Bee Gees hit of the same name; it continued the group's impressive string of top ten hits.

In 2001, Knowles won the Songwriter of the Year award from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers Pop Music Awards. She is the first African American woman, and the second woman of any race to win the award.

File:Dc1s.jpg

Destiny's Child's final album, #1's (2005). Beyoncé Knowles (middle of the three)

After the three year hiatus that involved concentration on individual solo projects, Knowles rejoined Rowland and Williams for Destiny's Child's fourth (and so far final) studio album, Destiny Fulfilled, released November 2004. The album hit number two on the Billboard 200 and spawned the hits "Lose My Breath", "Soldier", "Girl" and "Cater 2 U". The album title itself was a hint that Destiny Fulfilled may in fact be the last Destiny's Child album and so far that has been the case.

In 2005, Destiny's Child embarked on a world tour sponsored by McDonald's titled, Destiny Fulfilled and Lovin' It, visiting over 70 cities throughout Australia, Asia, Europe and North America from April to September. On June 13, 2005 it was announced that the group would disband after their world tour ended in September 2005.[5]

In October 2005, the group released their final album, entitled #1's, including all of Destiny's Child's number-one hits and most of their well-known songs. The Greatest Hits collection also includes three new tracks, including "Stand Up for Love". The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 album chart and number six on the UK Top 75 chart.

In 2005 at the World Music Awards, Destiny's Child were given the award for the biggest-selling girl group of all time with record sales of over 50 million.

Solo career

During the autumn of 2002, Knowles was the featured vocalist on rapper Jay-Z's hit single, "'03 Bonnie & Clyde". In the spring of 2003, Knowles remade a duet with the late Luther Vandross, "The Closer I Get to You", originally made famous by Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway. In this version, the vocal parts are switched, with Vandross taking Flack's part and Knowles taking Hathaway's. The song was included on both her solo debut album and on Vandross's Dance with My Father album, and the two shared the Grammy for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals that same year.

Dangerously in Love

File:Beyonce - Dangerously in Love - Album.jpg

Dangerously in Love (2003)

In 2003, Knowles released her debut solo album, Dangerously in Love. Its first single, "Crazy in Love", featured a propulsive riff and a guest rap from Jay-Z, rapidly becoming one of the biggest hits of that summer, staying at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart for eight weeks. "Dangerously in Love" went to the top of the album charts in the UK and Canada, and peaked on both the American Billboard pop (Billboard 200) and R&B charts. The album has sold over six million copies in U.S. and twelve million copies worldwide. [6] When her single and album simultaneously topped the pop charts in both the U.S. and the UK, she became the first act to achieve this feat since Men at Work in 1983 and The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, and Rod Stewart in the 1960s and 1970s. Knowles was consequently one of the biggest-selling artists of 2003.[7]

File:CrazyinLoveCap2.JPG

Knowles in her 2003 music video "Crazy in Love"

On the televised celebration of July 4 in 2003, Knowles provoked controversy with the Grant Memorial Association for her performance of "Crazy in Love", in which she danced in a "patently inappropriate" way on the steps of the tomb of President Ulysses S. Grant. Grant's great-grandsons Ulysses Grant Dietz and Chapman Foster Grant spoke up on Knowles' behalf. "The way the world is now, who cares?" said Chapman Grant, "who knows? If the old guy were alive, he might have enjoyed it".

Towards the end of the summer, "Baby Boy", Dangerously in Love's second single, which featured Sean Paul, began to climb the charts. It went on to become one of the biggest hits of 2003, dominating radio airplay in the autumn of 2003, and spending nine weeks at number one — one week longer than "Crazy in Love".

Fresh from the success of "Baby Boy", Knowles released her third solo single, "Me, Myself and I" towards the end of 2003; Dangerously in Love's fourth single, "Naughty Girl", came out in mid-2004. The songs peaked at number four and three respectively on the Billboard Hot 100.

At the 2004 Grammy Awards ceremony, Knowles won a record-tying five Grammy awards for her solo effort. These awards included Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for "Dangerously in Love 2", and Best Contemporary R&B Album. Three other female artists hold this record: Lauryn Hill, Alicia Keys and Norah Jones. She also won a Brit Award in 2004 for Best International Female Solo Artist in United Kingdom which made her the first female solo artist to have won prominent awards both domestically and internationally in the same year.

In December 2005, Knowles released a new song, "Check on It", featuring Slim Thug and (in the official remix) Bun B. The song is from the Destiny's Child compilation, #1's and the The Pink Panther soundtrack and is Knowles's sixth top five hit and third number one.

At the 2006 Grammy Awards, Knowles won a Grammy in the category of Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals for the song "So Amazing", a duet with Stevie Wonder from the Luther Vandross tribute album So Amazing: An All-Star Tribute to Luther Vandross.

B'Day

B'Day will be released worldwide on September 4, 2006 and on September 5, 2006 in the U.S. to celebrate Beyoncé's twenty-fifth birthday. Knowles' sophomore studio album will premiere all new music co-produced, written and arranged by Beyoncé.[8] "Déjà Vu", the album's first single, features Jay-Z with co-production by Rodney Jerkins. Other co-producers on B'Day include Rich Harrison, The Neptunes, and Swizz Beatz. Knowles finished work on her second studio album in two weeks and has said the album's tracks came to her in a dream. Columbia Records has yet to finalize if "Check on It" will appear on the album.

Film career

In 2001, Knowles, without any previous experience, turned to acting, starring alongside actor Mekhi Phifer in the MTV made for television movie Carmen: A Hip Hopera.

In the summer of 2002, Knowles co-starred in the film Austin Powers in Goldmember, playing Foxxy Cleopatra opposite Mike Myers and Michael Caine. The film is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the Highest-Grossing Box Office Film Comedy. Knowles also recorded a song called "Work It Out" for the film's soundtrack. "Work It Out" was a top-ten hit in the UK and a top-forty hit in the Netherlands, Australia, and Ireland, despite being Knowles's biggest commercial disappointment to date in the U.S, where radio stations barely played the song and the video received very minor exposure, playing only on digital video channels, MTV Jams and VH1 Soul.

In 2003, Knowles starred opposite Cuba Gooding, Jr. in the film The Fighting Temptations, and recorded a song for it called "Fighting Temptation", featuring Missy Elliott, MC Lyte, and Free. Unlike Knowles's own singles, the song did not become a hit, although the film was a moderate success at the box office.

Knowles co-starred in the film The Pink Panther, playing the role of Xania!, an international pop singer, opposite Steve Martin, who plays Inspector Clouseau. The film was released on February 10, 2006 and was #1 at the box office on opening weekend [9]. With Austin Powers in Goldmember and The Pink Panther, Knowles now has starred in two films that opened at #1 at the box office; her films have grossed over $481,364,728 worldwide.

Knowles has completed filming the movie Dreamgirls, the film adaption of the hit 1981 Broadway musical about a 1960s singing group loosely based on The Supremes, as the Diana Ross-based character Deena Jones. The film is scheduled for release on December 22, 2006.[10] Beyoncé has been dubed a horrible actress by many movie critics and some say the only reason she gets roles is because of her status.

Philanthropy

Knowles, music producer David Foster, and his daughter, Amy Foster Gillies, wrote Destiny's Child's single "Stand Up for Love" for World Children's Day, an event which takes place annually around the world on November 20 to raise awareness and funds for children's causes worldwide. Destiny's Child lent their voices and support as global ambassadors for the 2005 World Children's Day program.

Beyoncé and Kelly Rowland, along with Matthew Knowles, Tina Knowles, and sister Solange Knowles recently announced the formation of the Survivor Foundation, a charitable entity set up for the purpose of providing transitional housing for Hurricane Katrina victims and storm evacuees in the Houston, Texas area. The Survivor Foundation extends the philanthropic mission of the "Knowles-Rowland Center For Youth", a multi-purpose community outreach facility in downtown Houston.[11]

Controversy

Animal rights organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have voiced concern over Knowles wearing and using fur in her clothing line, House of Dereon.[12] After winning an online eBay auction, offered by VH1 for the Save the Music Foundation, to dine with Knowles in June 2006, two PETA members confronted the singer at the restaurant in New York City about her use of fur. [13] Knowles was unresponsive and the members were escorted out. PETA videotaped the incident. [14]

Discography

For complete discography, see Beyoncé Knowles discography.

Filmography

File:Goldmember poster.jpg

Beyoncé, center, in Austin Powers in Goldmember, as Foxxy Cleopatra

Year	Title	Role	Other notes
2006	Dreamgirls	Deena Jones	December 22, 2006 Release. Finished filming and is now in Post-Production.
2006	The Pink Panther	Xania	Debuted at #1; $152,286,513 worldwide gross as of 4/09/06.
2004	Fade To Black	Herself	Music Documentary
2003	The Fighting Temptations	Lilly	Debuted at #3 est. grossed $32,000,000 worldwide source
2002	Austin Powers in Goldmember	Foxxy Cleopatra	Debuted at #1; grossed $296,633,000 worldwide source
2001	Carmen: A Hip Hopera	Carmen Brown	straight to TV & DVD

Awards

Further information: Beyoncé Knowles awards and nominations

Endorsements and products

• House of Dereon - Her clothing line, named after her maternal grandmother, is sold in most major US Department Stores.
• Pepsi
• L'Oréal

Tommy Hilfiger fragrances

• True Star — 2004
• True Star Gold — 2005

See also

• List of Beyoncé songs
• List of best-selling music artists
• List of number-one hits (United States)
• List of artists who reached number one on the Hot 100 (U.S.)
• List of number-one dance hits (United States)
• List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Dance chart
• List of Number 1 albums from the 2000s (UK)
• List of number-one singles from the 2000s (UK)
• Artists who have topped simultaenous number-ones in the US and UK

External links

Official web sites

• Official Beyoncé Website
• Official Beyoncé Fanclub or Official Beyoncé Fanclub
• Beyoncé Knowles at IMDb
• Beyonce's Official Myspace Profile

Interviews

• Red Carpet Video Interview at Cannes Film Festival (May 19,2006)
• Monsters and Critics.com Q&A (February 8, 2006)
• IGN Films interview (February 8, 2006)
• ComingSoon.net interview (February 6, 2006)
• About.com interview (February, 2006)
• Teen Music interview (September 19, 2003)
• Cinema Confidential interview (September 16, 2003)
• Film Monthly interview (September 17, 2002)