Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter (/biˈɒnseɪ/ (listen) bee-ON-say;[4] born September 4, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and dancer. Beyoncé has been noted for her boundary-pushing artistry and her vocal ability. Her success has made her a cultural icon and earned her the nickname "Queen Bey".
Beyoncé performed 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), which featured the US Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles "Crazy in Love" and "Baby Boy". Following the 2006 disbanding of Destiny's Child, Beyoncé released her second solo album, B'Day, which contained singles "Irreplaceable" and "Beautiful Liar". Beyoncé also starred in multiple films such as Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002), The Pink Panther (2006), Dreamgirls (2006), Obsessed (2009), and The Lion King (2019). Her marriage to Jay-Z and her portrayal of Etta James in Cadillac Records (2008) influenced her third album, I Am... Sasha Fierce (2008), which earned a record-setting six Grammy Awards in 2010. It spawned the successful singles "If I Were a Boy", "Single Ladies", and "Halo". After professionally splitting from her manager and father Mathew Knowles in 2010, she released her musically diverse fourth album 4 in 2011.
Beyoncé later achieved critical acclaim for her sonically experimental visual albums, Beyoncé (2013) and Lemonade (2016), the latter of which was the world's best-selling album of 2016 and the most acclaimed album of her career, exploring themes of infidelity, feminism, and womanism. In 2018, she released Everything Is Love, a collaborative album with her husband, Jay-Z, as the Carters. As a featured artist, Beyoncé topped the Billboard Hot 100 with the remixes of "Perfect" by Ed Sheeran in 2017 and "Savage" by Megan Thee Stallion in 2020. The same year, she released the musical film Black Is King with an accompanying visual album, with praise from critics. In 2022, Beyoncé received further critical acclaim for her seventh studio album Renaissance, which experimented with disco and house music and paid homage to LGBTQ ball culture. She obtained her first solo number-one since 2008 with the album's lead single, "Break My Soul", with Renaissance being her first solo studio album since 2016.
She is one of the world's best-selling recording artists, having sold over 200 million records worldwide. Her success during the 2000s was recognized with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)'s Top Certified Artist of the Decade as well as Billboard's Top Female Artist of the Decade. She is the first solo artist to have their first seven studio albums debut at number one on the Billboard 200. Beyoncé's accolades include 32 Grammy Awards (the most of any person), 26 MTV Video Music Awards (including the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award in 2014), 24 NAACP Image Awards, 31 BET Awards, and 17 Soul Train Music Awards, all of which are more than any other singer. In 2014, Billboard named her the highest-earning black musician of all time, while in 2020, she was included on Time's list of 100 women who defined the last century.
