We all know that Beyonce Knowles started her career as a professional singer singing for the infamous female pop trio Destiny’s Child along with Michelle Williams and Kelly Rowland. She was riding high with Destiny’s Child popularity for being one of the hottest acts to ever come out in the music scene until she decided to leave the group and pursue a solo career. Aside from doing numerous hit albums, Beyonce decided to enter Hollywood and try acting. In 2001 she first appeared in the MTV film made for television entitled Carmen: A Hip-Hopera starring opposite American actor Mekhi Phifer. The TV movie was the modern version of a 19th century opera entitled “Carmen” based from French composer Georges Bizet. And in 2002 Beyonce co-starred in the comedy film Austin Powers in Goldmember playing the role of the sexy undercover agent Foxxy Cleopatra along with lead star Mike Myers and Michael Caine. The movie topped the box office charts as it earned $ 73.1 million on its first weekend. Knowles even released her very first solo single “Work It Out” as part of the Austin Power’s movie soundtrack.
The following year, Beyonce was to re-appear in the big screen as she starred opposite Cuba Gooding, Jr. in the comedy flick The Fighting Temptations and recorded the song “Fighting Temptation” along with Missy Elliott, Free and MC Lyte for the soundtrack. In 2006, she played the role of an international pop star named Xania in the movie The Pink Panther along with co-star and the new Inspector Clouseau for the Pink Panther series, Steve Martin. The movie was released on February and made the number one slot in the movie charts as it earned $21.7 million on its first week. Again, Knowles recorded the song “Check on It” with rapper Slim Thug for the film’s soundtrack and it made it to the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 making it her first number one hit single for a soundtrack.
Beyonce was recording for her second solo album in 2005 but was put on hold when she landed a role in the movie Dreamgirls, the movie was based on the 1981 hit Broadway musical about a female singing group in the 60’s, more or less it was loosely based on Motown’s super singing group The Supremes where Knowles played the role of Deena Jones which was characteristically patterned after Diana Ross. She told Billboard magazine that she will never continue writing for the album unless she finished the entire movie. Dreamgirls also stars Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Hudson and Eddie Murphy. The movie was released on December 2006 and the former Destiny’s Child singer recorded the song “Listen” which was included in the movie soundtrack. It was exactly December 14, 2006 when Knowles was nominated twice for the category Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and Best Original Song at the Golden Globe Awards. In 2007, the film bagged two Academy Awards that included Best original Song for “Listen”.
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