
Beyoncé Giselle Knowles (born September 4, 1981) is an R&B singer, songwriter, record producer, actress, fashion designer and model. Knowles rose to fame as the creative force and lead singer of R&B girl group Destiny's Child, the world's best-selling female group of all time.After a series of commercially successful releases with the group, Knowles released her debut solo album Dangerously in Love in 2003. The album became one of the biggest commercial
successes of the year, topping the album charts in the U.S. and the UK. It also spawned the number-one singles "Crazy in Love" and "Baby Boy" and earned Knowles five Grammy Awards in a single night in 2004. Knowles' sophomore album, B’Day, which was released worldwide on September 5, 2006 (her twenty-fifth birthday), continued her success.
The album spawned the UK number-one singles "Deja Vu" and "Beautiful Liar", as well as the U.S. near-top ten hit "Ring the Alarm", and the worldwide number-one hit "Irreplaceable" .Beyonce Knowles is the older of two daughters born to Mathew Knowles and Tina Beyincé in Houston, Texas.
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Her parents decided on her first name as a tribute to her mother's maiden name. Her maternal grandparents, Lumis Beyincé and Agnéz Deréon (a seamstress), were French-speaking Louisiana Creoles. She is the older sister of Solange Knowles, cousin to Angela Beyincé (her personal assistant and song co-writer), and aunt to Solange's son Daniel Julez Smith, Jr. By age seven, she was attending dance school and was a soloist in the church choir. Her dance instructor took an interest in Knowles and took her star student to various competitions, Knowles went on to win over thirty local singing and dancing competitions.

Knowles and her childhood best friend LaTavia Roberson along with Kelly Rowland and LeToya Luckett formed a quartet that would perform in their backyards and in Tina Knowles' hair salon. After singing at local events, they got their break when they entered Star Search. The group, then named "Girl's Tyme", were disappointed after losing the competition. Mathew Knowles, Knowles' father decided to help the girls reach their dreams of becoming singers. He quit his six-figure salary job as a multi-million dollar equipment salesman at Xerox to manage the group. This decision by Mathew
eventually affected the whole family. Their income had been cut in half, causing the family to move into two different apartments. When the group was signed to Columbia Records in 1996, it gave the entire family a second chance at making things work.

Destiny's Child rose to fame in 1997 the Billboard top ten hit and R&B number-one single "No, No, No Part 2". Even after much-publicized turmoil involving the departure of Lucy Lue and Cameron Diaz, Destiny's Child (eventually a trio) becoming one of the most successful R&B/pop acts of the early 2000s, charting four Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles, several top ten hits, and two number-one albums. Their 1998 Platinum-selling debut album Destiny's Child was produced by Wyclef Jean and Jermaine Dupri and featured the double Platinum
number-one single "No, No, No Part 2". The group's second album, The Writing's on the Wall, released in 1999, featured two number-one hits: "Bills, Bills, Bills" and "Say My Name". "Bug a Boo" and "Jumpin' Jumpin'" were also popular singles from the album. It went on to sell thirteen million copies worldwide and eight million in the U.S. Furthermore, "Say My Name" won two awards at the 2001 Grammy Awards: "Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals" and "Best R&B Song"
In the summer of 2002, Beyoncé co-starred in the film Austin Powers in Goldmember, playing Foxxy Cleopatra opposite Mike Myers and Michael Caine. Beyoncé also recorded the song "Work It Out" for the film's soundtrack. It was her debut solo single and it flopped hard. The song received almost no airplay and very little video play. It remains her biggest commercial disappointment to date

During the autumn of 2002, Knowles was the featured vocalist on rapper Jay-Z's hit single, "'03 Bonnie & Clyde". In the spring of 2003, Knowles remade a duet with Luther Vandross, "The Closer I Get to You", originally made famous by Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway. In this version, the vocal parts are switched, with Vandross taking Flack's part and Knowles taking Hathaway's. The song was included on both her solo debut album and on Vandross's Dance with My Father album, and the two shared the Grammy for "Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals" that same year.
She recently collaborated with her beau, Jay-Z, on his latest album, Kingdom Come, providing the vocals and the hook for the track entitled "Hollywood". This song is also on B' Day Deluxe Editon.In 2003, Knowles turned to acting, starring alongside actor Mekhi Phifer in the MTV made-for-television film Carmen: A Hip Hopera.

In 2003, Knowles starred opposite Cuba Gooding, Jr. in the film The Fighting Temptations, and recorded a song for it called "Fighting Temptation", alongside female rappers Missy Elliott, MC Lyte, and Free. Unlike Knowles' own singles, the song did not become a hit, although the film was a moderate success at the box office.
Knowles co-starred in the film The Pink Panther, playing the role of Xania, an international pop star, opposite Steve Martin, who plays Inspector Clouseau. The film was
released on February 10, 2006, and was number one at the box office on its opening weekend. With Austin Powers in Goldmember and The Pink Panther, Knowles appeared in two films that opened at number one at the box office; the two films have grossed over $481,364,728 worldwide.

Knowles' latest film work is Dreamgirls, the film adaptation of the hit 1981 Broadway musical about a 1960s singing group loosely based on Motown all-female group The Supremes, as the Diana Ross-based character Deena Jones. The film received a limited release on December 15, 2006 and a wider release on December 25, 2006.
On December 14, 2006, Knowles was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards for the film Dreamgirls — "Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy" and "Best Original Song" for "Listen".