Maggie Hansen

Music 1010
Semester Final Project

Beyonc
Born on September 4, 1981, Beyonc Giselle Knowles grew up in Houston,
Texas surrounded by family. With her parents as her biggest supporters, her father
being her manager, she rose to fame quite quickly as the lead singer of Destinys
Child. Though she started out in local competitions, she would quickly be thrown
into the lime light as she gathered her cousin Kelly Rowland and two of her
classmates, Letoya Luckett and Letavia Roberson to form the band. Though their
success was limited for some time in 1996 at the age of only 15 Beyonc and co.
were signed to Columbia Records. In 1999 Destinys Child released their first record
entitled The Writings on the Wall which contained their first hits, Bills, Bills, Bills
and Say My Name.
Throughout the next year, because of disagreements with the bands
manager, Mathew Knowles, Roberson and Luckett both left the group. They were
replaced by Farrah Franklin and Michelle Williams, however, soon after joining
Franklin left the group leaving Knowles, Rowland and Williams. As a trio the group
released the album, Survivor which contained many song about the ups and downs
of their young band. This album yielded international hits such as, Independent
Women, Survivor, and Bootylicious which is now a word in the dictionary.
While sticking with her group, Beyonc began to explore other options. She
landed a starring role in MTVs Carmen : A Hip Hopera. After her television debut

she had the opportunity to co-star with actor Mike Meyers in the spy parody
Goldmember the following year. Television and the big screen were not Beyoncs
only solo endeavors. In 2003 she began exploring her solo artist career by releasing
her first album Dangerously In Love which had great success both in the sales
world and in praise by even her biggest critics. Missy Elliot, Sean Paul and Jay-Z
were all featured on this album.
In 2004, Destinys Child released their last studio album, Destiny Fulfilled, a
closing chapter to a great book the trio had written which launched them all into the
music industry. The band officially broke up the following year. In a statement the
group released upon announcing their split they said, We realized our current tour
has given us the opportunity to leave Destinys Child on a high note, united in our
friendship and filled with an overwhelming gratitude for our music, our fans, and
each other. After all these wonderful years working together, we realized that now is
the time to pursue our personal goals and solo efforts in earnestNo matter what
happens, we will always love each other as friends and sisters and will always
support each other as artists. We want to thank all of our fans for their incredible
love and support and hope to see you all again as we continue fulfilling out
destinies.
For the first time in her musical career Beyonc Knowles was exclusively a
solo artist. She continued to have great success, releasing her second solo album
BDay which featured hits such as Irreplaceable and Beautiful Liar. But her
success at this time was not limited to her solo vocal career. In 2006 she starred
opposite Jennifer Hudson, Jaime Foxx and Eddie Murphy in the film adaptation of the
Broadway hit Dreamgirls. And then again costarred in another box office hit The
Pink Panther opposite Steve Martin.

Beyoncs personal life also began to take a new turn. In 2008 she married
rapper Jay-Z in an intimate ceremony in New York City. This couple has since been
overtaking pop culture as Americas favorite power couple. Having recorded and
performed several hits together such as Bonnie and Clyde, Drunk in Love and
Crazy in Love. In the same year Beyonc released her biggest and best album to
date, I amSasha Fierce which debuted at number one, selling 482,000 copies in
its first week.
Beyonc isnt just a pretty face or a soothing voice. She has taken her career
to the next level all on her own, becoming her own manager, promoting her fashion
line House of Dereon and a fragrance line consisting of 7 individual scents. On top of
being an award winning and fan favorite singer and song writer she also edits all of
her own music videos, concert/biography movies and runs her own website.
Beyonc supports many foundations. She is a self-described modern-day
feminist as illustrated in her music. Many of her songs have an underlying theme of
female empowerment and sexuality, independence and monogamy. One of the
most apparent examples of this is in her hit single Who Run the World (Girls) with
lyrics such as, How we're smart enough to make these millions, strong enough to
bear the children, then get back to business. On April 22, 2015, Beyonc published
an announcement on her website introducing her effort to support mother earth.
With the hashtag #BeyGood she is encouraging her followers to show as much
love to mother earth as she does to us and gives us six ways to do so.