Beyonce Giselle Knowles or more popularly known as Beyonce Knowles was born on September 4, 1981 in Houston, Texas where she was raised by proud parents Matthew Knowles and Tina Biyence. His father worked as a salesman before he became a record producer while her mother used to work as a costume designer and hair stylist. Tina Knowles decided that if ever she would have a child and it would be a girl, she would like to use her maiden name as a tribute since only a few of their boys bearing that unique name would eventually become extinct. Beyonce has an older sister named Solange Knowles (who later became an actress and a singer-songwriter) and she has a cousin, Angela Biyence who later became her personal assistant and a song co-writer. At a very young age, Knowles was exposed to music and became a soloist in their church choir at St. John’s United Methodist Church. She attended primary schooling at the St. Mary’s Elementary School in Texas where she enrolled in dance classes that offered jazz and ballet. This is where Beyonce’s talent in singing began to unfold when her dance instructor was humming to a tune and she was able to finish it hitting the high notes with ease. At age seven she started joining talent contests in school wherein she was able to bag the first prize when she sang John Lennon’s Imagine that wowed the crowd and gave her a standing ovation. In 1990, she transferred to a music magnate school in Houston at the Parker Elementary School where her singing talent was honed by joining the school’s choir. As a teenager, she enrolled at the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and later moved to the Alief Elsik High School also in Houston.
At age eight, Beyonce got to meet LaTavia Roberson during an audition for a female musical group. The trio was finally formed when Knowles’ cousin Kelly Rowland joined in 1992 and was then known as Gyrl’s Time. The trio made it’s very first public appearance when they joined Star Search but lost the contest since Knowles admitted that the song they used was not good. It didn’t take long before the all-female singing group was completed when in 1993 that LeToya Luckett joined and turned them into a quartet. With the training and support they got from Beyonce’s parents, they finally cut a record deal with Elektra Records but unfortunately they dropped the deal months before they could have released their debut album. The four struggled to pursue their dream as they performed in local events and while on the road, the group was signed to Columbia Records in 1997 where they changed the group’s name to Destiny’s Child and on that same year they recorded their very first song “Killing Time” which was used for the soundtrack of the movie Men In Black.
1998 saw the release of Destiny’s Child self-titled debut album which produced such hit singles like “No, No, No Part 2” where they won three awards from the Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards. But what made them into an international pop sensation when they released their second album in 1999 entitled The Writing’s On The Wall where it reached multi-platinum status for such hits like Bills, Bills, Bills, Jumpin’ Jumpin’ and Say My Name. In the 2001 Grammy Awards, Destiny’s Child won an award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group and Best R&B Song. The album sold more than 7 million copies worldwide and was considered to be the group’s breakthrough album. After a string of controversies that had befallen the group resulting from lawsuits from former band mates, the group continued to prosper with more hit singles and albums that made Destiny’s Child one of the hottest singing sensation in the world. And it was in 2001 after doing Bootylicious and Survivor that they won another Grammy for Best R&B Performance, but as soon as they were done finishing their Christmas album 8 Days of Christmas, the group announced their temporary break-up to pursue their solo endeavours.
Knowles was now trotting the world of music and acting when she appeared in such movies like Austin Powers In Goldmember together with Mike Myers and Michael Caine, she also appeared in the movie The Fighting Temptations with Jerry Maguire co-star Cuba Gooding, Jr. Aside from acting and starring in those movies, she also did songs for each movie as part of the soundtrack album like “Work it Out” for Austin Powers and “Fighting Temptation” for The Fighting Temptations where she did a collaboration with such famous female rappers like Missy Elliott, Free and MC Lyte. In 2003 she was back in the music scene and did a hit song with then rapper boyfriend Jay-Z for “03 Bonnie and Clyde” while she made her own versio of 50 Cent’s “In Da Club”. But in 2004 with the release of her top-charting hits like “Baby Boy” and “Naughty Girl”, Beyonce Knowles made her mark as an international superstar where both made the top five of the Billboard Hot 100 which gained commercial and immediate success which propelled her album Dangerously In Love to multi-platinum status. Knowles won 5 Grammys in 2004 making her one of the few female artists to win many trophies in one award ceremony that included Lauryn Hill in 1999, Alicia Keys in 2002, Norah Jones in 2003 and Amy Winehouse in 2008.
Beyonce starred in the big screen adaptation of a 1981 Broadway hit musical “Dreamgirls” which is based loosely on Motown’s legendary all-female singing group The Supremes where she played the role of Deena Jones. Her performance for the movie earned her two Golden Globe Award nominations and two Academy awards including the Best Original Song award for “Listen”.
It was only recently that news began to spread that Knowles and long-time boyfriend Jay-Z had finally tied the knot and it was on April 4 that sources had finally confirmed that they had exchanged marital vows in a church in New York which was later followed by a wedding reception at the rapper’s downtown apartment.