Beyonce wins the Grammy for Best R&B Performance for “Black Parade” in this screen grab taken from video of the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, California, U.S., March 14, 2021. CBS/Handout via REUTERS
Nehru Odeh
The globe is celebrating Beyonce, American singer, songwriter, and actress, director and producer, as she turns 40 today.
Indeed, the artiste, who has done so well for herself and humanity is worth celebrating, what with her numerous achievements in the global music industry.
Here are 28 stunning facts about the most decorated female artiste on Planet Earth
1. Beyonce was born on 4 September, 1981 in Houston, Texas
2. Her mother, Celestine “Tina” Knowles (née Beyonce) was a hairdresser and salon owner, while her father, Mathew Knowles, was a Xerox sales manager.
3. She was named after her maternal grandfather as a form of tribute.
4. She got married to rapper turned billionaire Jay-Z in 2008 and they have three children.
5. As a child, she performed in various singing and dancing competitions.
6. Her singing talent was discovered when dance instructor Darlette Johnson began humming a song and she finished it, able to hit the high-pitched notes.
7. She says Michael Jackson is her major musical influence. When she was five, she attended her first ever concert where Jackson performed and she claims to have realized her purpose.
8. When she presented him with a tribute award at the World Music Awards in 2006, Beyoncé said, “if it wasn’t for Michael Jackson, I would never ever have performed.”
9. When she was eight, she and childhood friend Kelly Rowland met LaTavia Roberson while at an audition for an all-girl entertainment group.
10. They were placed into a group called Girl’s Tyme with three other girls, and rapped and danced on the talent show circuit in Houston.
11. In 1995, Beyoncé’s father resigned from his job to manage the group.
12. The group changed their name to Destiny’s Child in 1996, based upon a passage in the Book of Isaiah In 1997.
13. She rose to fame in the late 1990s as the lead singer of Destiny’s Child, one of the best-selling girl groups of all time.
14. She once experienced depression when Luckett and Roberson left the group and she was blamed by the media, critics and blogs as the cause. Her long-standing boyfriend also left her at the time.
15. In July 2002, Beyoncé made her theatrical film debut, playing Foxxy Cleopatra alongside Mike Myers in the comedy film Austin Powers in Goldmember, which spent its first weekend atop the U.S. box office and grossed $73 million.
16. She released her first solo album, Dangerously in Love in 2003. The album featured the US Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles “Crazy in Love” and “Baby Boy”.
17. She split from her manager and father Mathew Knowles in 2010.
18. She is the most-awarded female artist of all time.
19. She is one of the world’s best-selling recording artists, having sold 118 million records worldwide.
20. She is the first artist to debut at number one on the Billboard 200 with their first six solo studio albums.
21. Her success during the 2000s was recognized with the RIAA’s Top Certified Artist of the Decade as well as Billboard’s Top Female Artist of the Decade.
22. She has won 28 Grammy Awards (which made the first female artiste with the most Grammy wins), 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. She is also the most nominated artist in Grammy Award history with a total of 79 nominations.
23. On June 26, 2011, she became the first solo female artist to headline the main Pyramid stage at the 2011 Glastonbury Festival in over twenty years.
24. 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.
25. Beyoncé was heavily influenced by Tina Turner, who she said “… is someone that I admire, because she made her strength feminine and sexy”. She admires Diana Ross as an “all-around entertainer” and Whitney Houston, who she said “inspired me to get up there and do what she did.”
26. She cited Madonna as an influence “not only for her musical style, but also for her business sense” saying that she wanted to “follow in the footsteps of Madonna and be a powerhouse and have my own empire.” She also credits Mariah Carey’s singing and her song “Vision of Love” as influencing her to begin practicing vocal runs as a child. Her other musical influences include Prince, Shakira, Lauryn Hill, Sade Adu, Donna Summer, Mary J. Blige, Anita Baker, and Toni Braxton.
27. As of 2018, Forbes calculated her net worth to be $355 million, and in June of the same year, ranked her as the 35th highest earning celebrity with annual earnings of $60 million.
28. She is known for coining the popular phrase, ‘put a ring on it,’ a euphemism for marriage proposal.