Beyonce

Birth Date and Place

                Beyoncé Giselle Knowles was born September 4^th, 1981 in Houston, Texas to her parents Mathew Knowles and Celestine Ann Tina Beyincé. Her name clearly came from her mother’s maiden name “Beyincé.” She grew up in the suburbs of Houston, a big center for U.S. oil. She said that even though it was a big city, it felt like a bunch of small towns.

Family Members

                Beyoncé grew up in middle class in her house with her younger sister Solange and their two parents. Mathew Knowles graduated with a business degree from Fisk University in Nashville in 1974. Using his business degree, he also worked as an executive at Xerox. He grew up in Alabama during the Civil Rights era and went to Litchfield Jr. High where the state troopers were called in to control rioting for segregation and to escort the children to class. Beyoncé’s mom, Tina, grew up poor working as a seamstress. She later worked at a bank, and then in Houston she opened her own hair salon. “Headlines” became one of Houston’s most popular hair salons. Tina has always been very religious, carrying her bible with her everywhere. She also was always singing as Beyoncé grew up; two things that have influenced Beyoncé greatly.

Childhood and School Life

                Beyoncé’s first concert was at the age of 5 years old when she saw Michael Jackson. He later became one of her biggest musical influences. She started out very shy and only sang around people she trusted like her teacher, Darlette Johnson. This teacher got her to do her very first talent show around age 6 or 7. Since then, she’s won over 30 competitions, getting her first press in the Houston Chronicle in 1988 and a Sammy Award which was a local talent award. She finished elementary school at Cynthia Ann Parker Elementary where they taught her things to help her in path to pursuing music. Her biggest musical influences growing up were gospel, contemporary jazz, church, soul, Anita Baker, Luther Vandross, and Jazz singer Rachelle Kawell. Local influences were her mother’s salon, the Houston hip-hop scene, and her friend LaTavia Roberson. The salon was influential because whether her mother’s clients wanted to listen or not, Beyoncé got out there and performed for them. The Houston hip-hop scene was very accessible to her because she lived in the Third Ward or “the Trey” as it was called in rap battles. The Trey was the home to “chopped and screwed“ music which was a style created by DJ Screw in the 1990’s where you slow down beat and chop up the original in the remix. Her school friend LaTavia was a big part of her life and musical career because LaTavia performed with Beyoncé; LaTavia rapped while Beyoncé sang.

Hobbies, Interests and Activities

                Growing up, Beyoncé’s hobbies included singing…lots of singing. Her group “Girls Tyme” went and competed on Star Search while they were in middle school. Obviously, she continued doing music, but later was intrigued by film. Her first movie was Carmen: A Hip Hopera by MTV. She played an overtly sexy singer named Carmen Brown. The movie broadcasted May 8^th, 2001. Her next project was her role in the third Austin Powers movie, Goldmember. She loved it and especially loved making her first solo track for the credits of the movie called “Work It Out.” Eventually, this got her into representing products starting from Houston based Pro-Line hair products, to Candie’s shoes of New York, to replacing Brittney Spears in 2002 as the new face of Pepsi. She did more movies after Goldmember. She got to do a lot of soulful music during her role in The Fighting Temptations in 2003. After doing so many characters that involved singing, she wanted to play something other than a singer. Her next opportunity was The Pink Panther where she played Xania, an international superstar and singer. The only reason she played this part was because Steve Martin and Kevin Kline were in it also. She did a couple more singing movies before she got to play something different. However, my favorite of all her movies, and one of my all time favorite movies, was Dreamgirls where she co-starred with Jenifer Hudson in 2006. Being set in the 60’s made this movie a little different when it came to music, style and terminology. The movie was a huge success winning Oscars and Grammys. Her next movie, set around the same time, she got to play Etta James in Cadillac Records in 2008. Beyoncé FINALLY got her chance to play something other than a singer in the thriller Obsessed (2009) where she played a wife and a new mother who has to stand her ground against a home wrecker and stalker played by Ali Larter. Her next film projects include A Star Is Born and possibly a role in a comedy film. Other interests Beyoncé has is designing clothes with her mother, the seamstress, for her line House of Deréon and also, giving back to the world. She uses her fame and success to help the less fortunate, the ones she’s never forgotten about. Furthermore, Beyoncé’s current interests include being with her daughter, Blue Ivy Carter who was born January 7^th, 2012.

Anecdotes

                Around 1997, Destiny’s Child was in the midst of working with major producer Wyclef Jean on the remake of their first hit “No No No,” “No No No” (Part 2). On the day of their video shoot for “No No No” (Part 2) the girls realized that their costumes were nowhere to be found. They had gotten lost with the luggage somewhere between the United States and Cancun, Mexico where they were shooting the video. Luckily, they brought Beyoncé’s mom, Tina, along and she once again, made the girls their costumes for the video. She bedizened some military outfits from a local army surplus store, got them approved by Jean, and the girls were back on track to shoot the video.

                Although Destiny’s Child was quickly becoming successful, Beyoncé did not enjoy the media attention on the shifts of members in the groups. One radio DJ said being in Destiny’s Child was like being a contestant on the show Survivor. So Beyoncé did what she does best and made this negative comment into a positive thing by writing a hit song about it. As you may have guessed, this song was called “Survivor.” As big of a hit as this was, Beyoncé took a big hit herself. Ex-members of Destiny’s Child, LaTavia Roberson and LeToya Luckett took this as a personal attack saying the lyrics “You thought I wouldn’t sell without you? Sold 9 million!” were in reference to them. This was such a big deal because in a previous court settlement, they agreed that neither party would make “any public comment of a disparaging nature concerning one another.” However, Beyoncé went on to tell MTV that “Survivor” was “written for anybody that thought we weren’t gonna make it.” The “Survivor” album showed the world Beyoncé’s writing talents and proved that Destiny’s Child wasn’t going anywhere soon.

                Throughout his campaign to be elected president in 2004, it was noted that Barack Obama had a pretty popular fan. Beyoncé had been supporting him since day one saying “It’s an exciting time for my generation, regardless of whether you’re African American or not.” Obama admitted to being a fan of Jay-Z and Beyoncé, having a few of their tracks on his iPod. When it was time for Election Day, she took a break from her promo trip for her new album I Am… Sasha Fierce to join in the festivities. At the Neighborhood Ball celebration after the president’s inauguration ceremony, Beyoncé got to sing Etta James’ “At Last” as the president and first lady danced. She told Good Morning America, “I can’t even describe to you how it felt. I’m actually right now fighting back tears because it’s just so emotional. I’m just so proud of my country. This man was born for this. And he was born to lead us, and I just feel so inspired and so proud. I’m sorry, I’m so embarrassed. I’m just so lucky to be a part of this history. It’s probably the most important day of my life, and I’m so grateful.”

Career

                At only 32, Beyoncé has already seen over 15 years of success. Starting at such a young age, she was able to grow and mature quickly into the woman she is today. She is now a mother of 16 month old Blue Ivy, has been married to Jay-Z for almost 5 years, and is one of the most successful, well-known women in the world. Starting from local talent shows, rapping and singing with LaTavia Roberson at her mom’s salon, Star Search and Girls Tyme to Destiny’s Child, a Christmas CD, going solo, meeting Jay-Z, emerging as an actress, winning Grammy after Grammy, getting married, being able to give back, creating her own fragrance, taking a break, creating her clothing line with her mother, performing at the Glastonbury Festival in Somerset, England, and having baby Blue. There is no doubt that Beyoncé is a remarkable human being, she is also a workaholic and says that she doesn’t ever say “no.”