Beyoncé Knowles
Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter (born September 4, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, and businesswoman. Known as "Queen Bey", she has been widely recognized for her boundary-pushing artistry and vocal performances. Beyoncé is regarded as one of the greatest entertainers of her generation. Her contributions to music and visual media have made her an influential pop culture figure of the 21st century.
Beyoncé started performing in various singing and dancing competitions as a child. She rose to fame in the late 1990s as a member of the R&B girl group Destiny's Child, one of the best-selling girl groups of all time. Their hiatus saw the release of her debut album Dangerously in Love (2003). She then released the commercially successful solo albums B'Day (2006), I Am... Sasha Fierce (2008), and 4 (2011). In the late 2010's, Beyoncé's artistry achieved widespread acclaim for releasing the sonically experimental visual albums Beyoncé (2013) and Lemonade (2016), which explored multiple societal themes such as infidelity, feminism, and womanism. Following the acclaimed LGBT-inspired dance album Renaissance (2022), she became the first solo artist to have their first seven studio albums debut at number one in the U.S.
Throughout her career, she has amassed multiple chart-topping singles worldwide, including "Crazy in Love", "Baby Boy", "Check on It", "Irreplaceable", "If I Were a Boy", "Halo", "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)", "Savage Remix", and "Break My Soul." Beyoncé's collaborative music ventures include Everything Is Love (2018), an album with her husband, Jay-Z, as the Carters, and the musical film Black Is King (2020), inspired by the music of the film soundtrack The Lion King: The Gift (2019). Outside of music, she has starred as an actress in multiple films such as Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002), The Pink Panther (2006), Dreamgirls (2006), Cadillac Records (2008), Obsessed (2009), and The Lion King (2019).
Having sold over 200 million records worldwide, Beyoncé is one of the world's best-selling artists of all time. Her accolades include 32 Grammy Awards (becoming the highest Grammy-winning artist of all time), 26 MTV Video Music Awards, 24 NAACP Image Awards, 35 BET Awards, and 17 Soul Train Music Awards, all of which are more than any other artist in the music industry. With 31 career top-ten singles on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 – including twelve chart-toppers – she became the first female artist and third overall to achieve at least twenty as a solo artist and ten as a group member. Her success during the 2000s earned her recognition as the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)'s Top Certified Artist of the Decade and Billboard's Top Female Artist of the Decade. In 2014, Billboard named her the highest-earning black musician of all time. She is the most successful black touring act in history according to Pollstar. In 2020, Time magazine featured her among a list of 100 women who defined the last century. In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked her at number eight on their list of the 200 greatest singers of all time.
