Fashion Trendsetter: Beyonce

Beyonce Biography

Birth Name: Beyoncé Giselle Knowles

Birth Date: September 4, 1981

Birth Place: Housten, Texas, USA

Occupation: Singer, Model, Actress

Claim to Fame: Lead singer of Destiny's Child

Height: 5' 6" (1.68 m)

Eyes: Brown

Hair: Brown

Nickname: JuJu , Mothe , Bee

Born to a loving family in Houston, Texas, Beyonce (rhymes with fiance) Giselle Knowles showed an aptitude for music before she could even talk. As a young girl, she would drown out everyone, including the church choir, on Sundays at church. Every weekend, she tuned her voice by doing soulful hymns with the congregation and then moved on to opera classes, in which she was classically trained.

Father set up Destiny

A normal childhood was not in the books for Beyonce. At 8 years old, she met LaTavia Robertson while auditioning for a girls musical group and Matthew Knowles, Beyonce's manager and father, later paired the two with LeToya Luckett. In 1992, cousin Kelly Rowland joined the group, and they performed together on Star Search.

Small gigs and much label-shopping later, the four beauties cemented their relationship by calling themselves Destiny's Child. In 1997, "No, No, No" became their first official single, and they got off to a big start as the track went multi-platinum. The girls were instantly popular in the media and impressed all with their self-titled debut.

Bringing in the bills, bills, bills

If critics were impressed with this new R&B group's success, they were absolutely floored when The Writing's on the Wall hit stores in 1999. DC, led by the incomparable Beyonce, had three top ten hits within the year: "Jumpin, Jumpin," "Say My Name" and "Bills, Bills, Bills." They became one of the best-selling female groups of recent memory after this second album sold more than 9 million units worldwide. At the same time, it was announced that their single "Independent Women Part 1," off the Charlie's Angels soundtrack, had reached the largest audience ever in the recorded radio airplay -- 140.4 million pairs of ears.

Grammys came during group split

Shortly after the announcement of five Grammy nominations at the 2001 awards show and the excitement of the unbelievable record sales, LeToya and LaTavia left the group amid management struggles. Legal problems ensued, but Destiny's Child became whole again with the arrival of Michelle Williams, and, for a short stint only, backup singer Farrah Franklin. At the Grammys, DC took home two awards, Best R&B Song and Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group, both for "Say My Name."

Now a trio, Destiny's Child's third album, Survivor, which debuted in the spring of '01, garnered a whole new set of hits, like "Bootylicious" and the title track. The success of Survivor resulted in another Grammy for the group in February 2002. In fact, the American Music, MTV, Soul Train and Image Awards all showered the group with more hardware and praise.

Breaking records and breakup

After all this success, the group's three talented sistas decided to try their hands at solo careers before investing their time in another Destiny's Child album. To no one's surprise, Beyonce has captured the bulk of the spotlight with her sex appeal and strong vocals. Even before her first album was organized, she had a hit with Jay-Z called "Bonnie and Clyde '03" and was cracking up audiences with her big-screen debut alongside Mike Myers in Austin Powers in Goldmember. This simply prepared fans for what was to come with Dangerously In Love, released in June 2003.

Knowles a dangerous artist & actor

Beyonce displayed a versatile style with this solo effort, creating the club hit "Baby Boy," the pop success "Crazy In Love" and the soulful "The Closer I Get To You" with Luther Vandross. Like her work in Destiny's Child, Beyonce wrote or co-wrote many of the tracks and performed her heart out on award shows to get the word out to a huge audience. She has emerged as a diva, making the best videos, catchiest songs and creating the most headlines. Rumors have swirled that she is involved with rapper Jay-Z, and talk of another Destiny's Child album has surfaced.

Her work outside the recording studio does not go ignored either. As she prepares for a solo tour, Beyonce can be seen in ads for L'Oreal and Pepsi, and in the musical/comedy The Fighting Temptations. A star of her caliber comes along very rarely, so we expect even bigger things from our favorite R&B star in the near future: more music, movies and sexy outfits, please.

"It's not like I can go shopping and go to the mall and go get my nails done without people asking for autographs and taking pictures. Then when it's Michelle, Kelly and me, it makes it even harder. It's like, 'Destiny's Child is here.' So that is a sacrifice. Normalcy is sacrificed. But that's just a part of it. You can't complain about it."

~ Beyonce, on fame

Beyonce

Beyonce