Source: Kevin Mazur / Getty
Beyonce Giselle Knowles was born on September 4, 1981, in Houston Texas. At a young age, she aspired to be a performer forming a group called Girl’s Tyme at the age of 9. Although Girl’s Tyme wasn’t the success she hoped it would be, little did Beyonce know she was on the brink of major success. Girl’s Tyme morphed into one of the greatest musical groups of all time selling more than 60 million records by 2013 also becoming the ninth most successful artist/band of the 2000s.
READ MORE BLACK MUSIC MONTH STORIES ON BLACKAMERICAWEB.COM:
But that wasn’t only the tip of Beyonce’s success. In 2002 Beyonce took a career risk leaving Destiny’s Child to launch her own solo career. Beyonce exploded on the music scene with her first solo feature on her then-rumored boyfriend Jay-Z’s song “03 Bonnie & Clyde”. The song peaked at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Following the success of “03 Bonnie & Clyde”, Beyonce dropped her first solo album “Dangerously In Love” selling 317,000 copies in its first week. The lead single off her album entitled “Crazy In Love” featured Jay-Z and became her first number-one solo single.
Four singles came from Beyonce’s “Dangerously In Love”. Those included, “Crazy In Love”, “Baby Boy” featuring Sean Paul, “Me, Myself, and I”, and “Naughty Girl”.
“Dangerously In Love” won five Grammys at the 46th Annual Grammy Awards in 2004 including Best Contemporary R&B Album. The album won a plethora of accolades and awards throughout 20004 including ASCAP Awards, BET Awards, MTV Video Music Awards, Teen Choice Awards, Billboard Music Awards, Vibe Awards, NAACP Image Awards, and many more.
The success of Beyonce’s album produced two concert tours, the Dangerously In Love Tour in 2003 and the Verizon Ladies First Tour where Beyonce co-headlined with Alicia Keys and Missy Elliott. As of 2011 “Dangerously In Love” sold over 11 million copies.
Since then, Beyonce has released seven studio albums, one soundtrack album, and one album with her husband. She has headlined seven tours and co-headlined in three tours, two were with her husband Jay-Z. Beyonce’s solo career has also taken her to the big screen starring in ten films and directing four films. In 2013 Beyonce stopped the world by releasing what she calls a visual album, containing videos for all the songs in her self-titled project.
In 2023 she became the most decorated Grammy artist winning 32 awards, the most any artist has won in their career. She is tied with Jay-Z as the most nominated artist with 88 nominations each.
While Beyonce has kept her personal life as private as possible, we do know that on April 4, 2008, she secretly married Jay-Z in a private ceremony at his home in New York. Their marriage has been riddled with rumors of Jay-Z infidelity, but the couple didn’t speak of it. The decided to share their story of marital ups and downs through their music (Lemonade, 4:44, and Everything Is Love) even going on tour together after their reconciliation. The couple has three children, Blue Ivy Carter (in 2012), and a set of twins Sir Carter and Rumi Carter (in 2017).
Beyonce has become an essential part of black music and black culture.
The post 2002: Beyonce Breaks Out As A Solo Artist | Black Music Month appeared first on Black America Web.
2002: Beyonce Breaks Out As A Solo Artist | Black Music Month was originally published on blackamericaweb.com
