Profile / Bio of Beyoncé

Beyoncé Giselle Knowles

Notable Achievement:

Holds the record for most Grammys (6) won in a single night by a female artist (a record shared with Adele who has also won 6)

Born:

September 4, 1981 in Houston, Texas

Education:

Attended The High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston

Born to Matthew and Tina Knowles, Beyoncé was the first of two children. She and her younger sister Solange were raised in an upscale neighborhood of Houston, Texas. Matthew Knowles had a successful career as a six-figure salesman of medical requirement. Tina worked at a bank and eventually opened up a beauty salon.

To help her make friends, Beyoncé's mother signed her up for dance classes. It soon became apparent that singing was what Beyoncé enjoyed the most. She started performing at a young age; she was already entering talent competitions at 7. Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5 were the most influential to Beyoncé. In 1992 she joined the six-piece girl's group, Gyrls Tyme. The group competed on Ed McMahon's Star Search. Beyoncé's parents encouraged her from the start; although they didn't win Star Search, Matthew Knowles left his job and started to manage the girl band that was re-named Destiny's Child. Tina Knowles went on to make costumes for Destiny's Child, which at this point consisted of four girls including Beyoncé's cousin Kelly Rowland.

Although Beyoncé attended high school, Destiny's Child eventually prompted home-schooling. After signing with Columbia Records, the group released their first record in 1998. Destiny's Child experienced continued success into the early 2000's. In 2001, Destiny's Child won a Grammy for their song "Say My Name." In 2002, Beyoncé won ASCAP's Pop Songwriter of the Year Award, becoming the first African-American female to do so.

Beyoncé released her first solo album, Dangerously in Love in the spring of 2003. Both the single "Crazy in Love" and the album itself dominated the music charts at the same time. The album won her 5 Grammys in 2004. "Irreplaceable", a single from her second album B-Day, won Beyoncé the International Artist Award at the American Music Awards.

Having past acting experience in the movie Goldmember, Beyoncé was praised for her role in the 2006 movie Dreamgirls in which she portrayed a singer in stature similar to Diana Ross. While shooting this film, Beyoncé realized her love of acting: "I fell in love with doing films when I did Dreamgirls. That was the first time that I really felt like I acted."

She later portrayed yet another famous singer, Etta James, in the movie Cadillac Records in 2008.

With her track "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It) from her 2008 album I Am...Sasha Fierce, Beyoncé won 6 of the 10 Grammys she was nominated for.

Beyoncé describes herself as having a Type-A personality. She also admitted to always liking to have the last word.

On April 4, 2008, Beyoncé married her long-time boyfriend Shawn Carter (Jay-Z). The ceremony was private, mirroring her attitude towards her marriage. She has been known in interviews to not mention her husband's name when asked about him.

In August of 2011, Beyoncé announced at the MTV Video Music Awards that she was expecting a baby. In his 2012 song "Glory," Jay-Z insinuated that Beyoncé had been pregnant once before, but suffered a miscarriage. On January 7, 2012, Beyoncé gave birth to her first child, Blue Ivy Carter at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

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Malikar, Sheila. "Beyoncé and Jay-Z Had a Miscarriage Before Blue Ivy – ABC News." ABC News, 09 Jan 2012. Web. 17 Mar 2012.
Mock, Janet, and Julia Wang, eds. "Beyoncé Knowles Biography: People.com." People.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Mar 2012.