Beyoncé: Biography

Beyoncé Giselle Knowles is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. She was born on 4th September 1981 in Houston, Texas, and is now one of the most influential and successful musicians of our time. The Early Years As a child, Beyoncé attended several performing arts schools and began to sing and dance in local competitions. By the late 1990s, she had become famous as the lead singer of R&B girl group Destiny's Child, which grew to be one of the world's best-selling girl groups of all time! The group split in 2005, after Beyoncé and Kelly Rowland had started successful solo projects. Achievements Beyoncé’s 2008 album I Am... Sasha Fierce earned her several hit singles such as "If I Were a Boy", "Single Ladies", "Halo" and "Sweet Dreams". This album won six Grammy Awards in 2010, which broke the record for the most awards won by a female artist in one night! At the Inaugural Ball on 20th January 2009, Barack Obama and his wife Michelle danced their first dance as President and First Lady of the United States accompanied by Beyoncé singing “At Last”. In total, the star has won 16 Grammy Awards, 11 MTV Video Music Awards, 4 American Music Awards, a Billboard Millennium Award, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame! Beyoncé has sold over 75 million records worldwide, which makes her one of the best-selling music artists ever. What’s more, this year People magazine voted her ‘The World’s Most Beautiful Woman’! If that wasn’t enough, Beyoncé’s talents don’t stop at music. She has also starred in several films, such as The Pink Panther, Austin Powers, and Dreamgirls. Family Life Beyoncé is the daughter of Mathew and Tina Knowles, a record manager, and a costume designer and hair stylist, respectively. Her younger sister Solange is a singer, songwriter and actress. Beyoncé’s father managed her career until March 2011, when she announced that she would be managing her projects alone. Beyoncé first started dating American rapper Jay-Z in 2002, and collaborated with him on several music tracks. They kept their relationship extremely private until they married on 4th April 2008 in New York. On 28th August 2011, at the MTV Video Music Awards, Beyoncé announced that they were expecting their first child. Then, on 7th January 2012, she gave birth to a baby girl named Blue Ivy Carter at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York. Two days later, Jay-Z released "Glory", a song which he dedicated to their daughter. Because her cries were included at the end of the song, she was officially credited as "B.I.C", so at two days old she became the youngest person ever to appear on the charts! Perhaps she will follow in her mother’s footsteps…those are definitely some big shoes to fill!