A flexible powerhouse singer, songwriter, producer, and dancer, Beyoncé is a multifaceted global superstar by any measure. The Houstonian rose to fame in the late '90s as the central member of pop-R&B group Destiny's Child. The following decade, she started her ongoing streak of number one solo studio albums with Dangerously in Love (2003), the source of her first number one pop single, the ecstatic "Crazy in Love." Nearly omnipresent hits such as the elegantly dismissive "Irreplaceable" (2006) and boisterous "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" (2008), combined with sold-out world tours and Grammy Awards, all heightened Beyoncé's profile in the 2000s. Billboard named her female artist of the decade, while the RIAA acknowledged that, with 64 gold and platinum certifications, she was its top-selling artist. Beyoncé continued to diversify in the 2010s with the visual albums Beyoncé (2013) and Lemonade (2016), the latter of which she directed, followed by the Jay-Z collaboration Everything Is Love (2018) and her work on the remake of The Lion King (2019). The latter project was expanded with the soundtrack The Lion King: The Gift, executive-produced by Beyoncé, who also wrote and directed the related musical film Black Is King (2020). Beyoncé has since become the most awarded artist in Grammy history with Renaissance (2022), a cosmopolitan dancefloor celebration tying together gospel, disco, house, bounce, and Afrobeats with nods to ballroom culture and further proud affirmations of the singer's Southern roots.
 

Born in Houston, Beyoncé Giselle Knowles began performing at age seven, winning over 30 local competitions for her dancing and vocal abilities. She joined her cousin Kelly Rowland and classmates LaTavia Roberson and LeToya Luckett in forming an adolescent vocal group. Mathew Knowles, Beyoncé's father and Rowland's legal guardian, signed on to be the girls' manager, eventually quitting his full-time job to focus on their efforts. This situation would ultimately lead to the creation of one of the most popular female R&B groups of all time: Destiny's Child.