Beyoncé – biography, photos, facts, personal life, husband, kids, height and weight 2020

Beyoncé's biography

Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter, aka Beyoncé or simply Queen B is an American R&B singer, a former lead singer of the once-popular band Destiny’s Child. She got into the big stage at the age of nine, rose to fame as a part of the girl-pop-trio and then multiplied its success in her solo career.

She is the only singer whose solo albums have all received a Grammy Award for Best R&B Album, and debuted at the top of the Billboard 200 national music chart.

Childhood

The woman who is today known worldwide for her powerful mezzo-soprano and luxurious curves was born in Houston, the largest city in Texas, to Matthew Knowles, a producer and sound engineer, and Tina Knowles (née Beyoncé), a fashion designer and stylist. It was in honor of her mother's parents' last name that the newborn got her name.

Five years later, a baby Solange Piaget, Beyoncé's sister, was born. By that time, the young Beyoncé had already revealed remarkable vocal talent. It all started with a simple case: the dance teacher in her elementary school began singing a song, and the girl finished it on the high-pitched notes. The next stage was a school talent contest on which she sang the song "Imagine" by John Lennon and won the first prize leaving behind all her 15-16-year-old competitors. Soon, not a single urban music competition was held without B's participation.

Little Beyonce with her parents and younger sister Solange

At the same time, the girl who enjoyed performing on the stage like nothing else was really shy and reserved in everyday life. Their family was rather wealthy, the mother owned a beauty salon. Beyoncé tried not to provoke her peers' mocking and whispering behind her back and took pains to be as ordinary as possible. She walked silently and staring at the floor, and as a result, she got problems with posture by the age of 7.

Everything changed in 1990. The girl proceeded to secondary school specialized on music. Here, she no longer had to be ordinary and stay unnoticed. She was immediately taken to the school choir, and some time later she began to perform there.

Beginning: Destiny's Child

In 1990, Beyoncé and her classmate Kelly Rowland took part in the casting for a teen pop group. During the audition, they met Latavia Robertson. Beyoncé, Kelly, Latavia and three other girls were eventually selected and merged into a project called Girl's Tyme.

Beyonce and the first cast of "Destiny's Child" ("Girl's Tyme")

The producer of the group was Arne Frager from California. Placing a bet on the young age of the girls, he decided to send them to the largest talent show of the country of that time, Star Search. The man was sure that the audience would be touched by the black girls reading rap, but he was wrong. Girl's Tyme failed, because of a poorly rehearsed song: "We read rap, but we had to sing," - Beyoncé admitted later.

Girl's Tyme on Star Search. First failure

That hit little Beyoncé hard. Seeing his daughter so sad, B's father who was involved in the music industry, helped her with a piece of advice.

At his insistence, the band was cut to four. Beyoncé and her friends rehearsed in the back room of her mother's salon, taking pieces of advice and criticism from the clients. During the school period, they often performed at city events. They spent summer vacations in a camp specialized in vocal arts and improved their skills.

Rehearsal in Beyoncé's mother beauty salon (1995)

During the first years of career, the group changed its name several times. From Girl's Tyme, they turned into Something Fresh, then into Cliche and the Dolls. In 1995, they the record label Electra records got interested in them. To sign the contract, the girls had to turn into Destiny.

It seemed that everything went well, but shortly before the recording of the first album, the label canceled the contract. Beyoncé's father then decided to produce the band himself. He said goodbye to other projects, and the family's income decreased by half. Knowles even had to move from their house to an apartment.

Matthew Knowles changed the name of the group again. Henceforth, the girlsband was called Destiny's Child (an allusion to the "Book of the Prophet Isaiah"). He helped the girls sign the contract with Columbia Records. As soon as 1997, their song Killing Time has become the soundtrack of the action comedy film "Men in Black" with Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. This was the beginning of great times.

In 1997, Destiny's Child was recognized by the whole world

In February 1998, the girls released their debut album Destiny's Child that became 67th on the Billboard 200 national chart and sold 33 million copies. Their single "No No No" topped the Billboard Hot hip-hop and R&B songs list.

Destiny's Child – No, no, no (1998)

1999 brought new turbulence. Two band's members accused Matthew Knowles of unfair income management. According to them, he gave Beyoncé and her best friend Kelly most of the fees, and they were discriminated in every possible way. Those two were fired, and the second album "Writings On The Wall" was released with the participation of two other girls. The fired singers started a long trial with the producer of the group but did not achieve anything. The only result was that one of the new singers left the project because of bullying.

The truth about Beyoncé's father's financial frauds became known much later, in 2011. B fired him from the position of manager and reported that for a long time, he was pocketing significant parts of her fees. She also told that at the dawn of Destiny's Child's success, he forced her to run five kilometers a day and simultaneously sing songs from their repertoire. Such training, he believed, would make Beyonce able to sing and dance in any circumstances.

Beyoncé before and after plastic surgery of the nose (2000 vs 2010)

In 2000, Destiny's Child, now as a trio, warmed up the audience before Britney Spears's and Christina Aguilera's concerts. Meanwhile, their song "Independent Women Part I", the soundtrack for " Charlie's Angels," topped the Billboard 100 for 11 weeks – that was a record for the group.

The beginning of the solo career

At the end of 2000, the band members announced their intention to record solo albums each. At the same time, Beyoncé made her film debut, appearing in a parody on spy movies "Austin Powers" starring Mike Myers in the role of Foxy Cleopatra. In the film, B sang the song Work It Out, her first solo single.

All three girls successfully made a solo career. In 2003, Beyoncé's debut solo album "Dangerously in Love" aimed at R&B and soul fans, was released. It has become "platinum" for four times, and received five Grammies. The single "Crazy In Love" sung in a duet with rapper Jay-Z reverberated even more. It was topping Billboard Hot 100 for 2 months. "Signs" featuring Missy Elliott was a great success as well.

2003: Beyonce and Jay-Z singing in a duet for the first time

For three years, the girls did not perform together. Rumors were spread about the disbanding of Destiny's Child to follow, but the singers denied the fact. At the end of 2004, they reunited to record the album "Destiny Fulfilled" sales of which reached 500 thousand copies in the first week. For the band's measures, the sum was very modest – the previous album sold 700 thousand during the same period – but still, the record was the best-selling album of 2005.

In 2005, the girls went on tour in support of the new album, and during the concert in Barcelona, in front of the 16,000 audience, they announced that Destiny's Child would disband after the tour. In March 2006, Destiny's Child "posthumously" accepted a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as the best-selling women's band of all time.

The heyday of Beyoncé's career

After becoming a full-time solo star, Beyoncé turned to the cinema. Undoubtedly, her participation contributed to the book office success of the criminal comedy "The Pink Panther" (2006). In addition, the soundtrack to the film has become B's then-new song "Check On It."

A screenshot from the film "The Pink Panther" (2006)

After that, she starred in the music video "Dream Girls" featuring Eddie Murphy, Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Hudson. The prototype of Beyoncé's heroine was Diana Ross. For this role, Beyoncé was nominated for two Golden Globes: for the best female role and for the best song («Listen»).

The real Diana Ross and Beyoncé in her image

After completing the shooting, Beyoncé began to work thoroughly on the second album. The record «B'Day» was released on September 4, 2006, and coincided with the date of the singer's 25th birthday. Her style became more diverse, and "live" instruments were integrated in the process. The album burst into Billboard 200 quickly and immediately hit the first line.

Two years later the singer presented the third studio album "I am ... Sasha Fierce". Asked who Sasha Fierce is, Beyoncé responded that from now on it was her alter ego, a more sensual and energetic, that came into being while she was working on the single "Crazy in Love" in 2003. A distinctive feature of Sasha Fierce was the robot's glove on her hand. Beyoncé first appeared in this image on MTV EMA-2008.

In 2009, film critics praised the actor's tandem of Beyoncé and Idris Elba starring in the thriller "Obsession." Her heroine had to fight for family happiness with a strong and powerful rival.

In 2010, Beyoncé almost beat Michael Jackson's record in the number of Grammys got at one ceremony: she won 6 of 10 nominations. Shortly thereafter, she took a small break and pleased fans with the 4th album («4») as early as mid-2011.

Grammy-2010: Beyoncé – If I Were A Boy LIVE

In 2012, GQ magazine named Beyoncé the sexiest woman of the 21st century.

At that point, the singer turned 31 years old

In 2013, the singer released a new album "Beyoncé" in the experimental format. Each of the 14 songs got a video clip. The album appeared on iTunes without any preliminary advertising, hitting Beyoncé's fans with surprise, and took the record for sales in 108 countries (only the singer Adele had more – the first place in iTunes in 115 countries). The song "Blue" is sung with Beyoncé's daughter Blue Ivy.

On April 23 2016, the world got the sixth album by Beyoncé called "Lemonade." The R&B queen continued the line of a «visual album»: all the twelve songs got a video clip on it. However, whereas in the previous album, clips were featured separately, this time they merged into a single complete story, dedicated to the ups and downs in the singer's family life. Remarkably, the HBO channel showed the full version of "Lemonade" live on the day of the start of album sales.

Beyoncé's personal life

When the singer was 19, she experienced a very difficult parting paralleled with the problems in the group. Since then, she has never put her private life on the spot.

In 2002, she sang composition "Crazy Love" in a duet with rapper Jay-Z. After that, the press started to ascribe them a love affair. The rumors took place for six long years and in April 2008, Beyoncé finally appeared in public with an elegant ring on the her finger. It turned out that the lovers secretly married.

Likewise secretly, their first baby was born. In January 2012, the singer went to an elite clinic under the fake name Ingrid Jackson. The baby was named Blue Ivy Carter, and she became an integral part of their family happiness.

But, apparently, not everything in their lives was as smooth as it seemed from a glossy surface. In 2014, Beyoncé's younger sister attacked Jay-Z with fists. The rapper's bodyguard barely pulled the furious girl away, while Beyonce looked at it and did not interfere. It was after the ball of Met Gala, so the fight between B's husband and sister was recorded.

Fight between Beyoncé's sister and Jay-Zee

The record was published, and rumors spread in the media: has Jay-Z cheated on his beloved? However, the accident was hushed. When the album Lemonade was released in 2016, accompanied by the eponymous video clip, the light was shed on the situation. In the songs of Pray You Catch Me and Daddy Lessons, there are lyrics about a husband's lies. However, in the song All Night there are the following lines: "Every diamond has imperfections," "My torturer became a remedy." The film ends with Beyonce, Jay-Z and Ivy being peacefully together. Apparently, the storm in the family relations settled down after all.

The stars managed to save their marriage

Meanwhile, the fans conducted an entire investigation and found out that the rapper most likely cheated on his wife with Rachel Roy, the creative director of the Rocawear brand. After that, the fans of the star couple arranged a cyber attack on Rachel. Eventually, the latter posted on Twitter that she respects family values, and that cyberbullying is intolerable.

Beyoncé's fans decided that Jay-Z was cheating on her with Rachel Roy (pictured)

In February 2017, Beyoncé appeared at the Grammy Awards pregnant. Her big round belly was emphasized by a spectacular golden dress. Beyoncé used her pregnancy during her speech, appearing in the image of the goddess of fertility.

Beyoncé now

In June 2017, Beyoncé became a mother for the second time. In the private clinic of Los Angeles, a «royal» twins were born, a boy and a girl. A couple of days later, the American tabloid TMZ published the information about the health problems of newborns.