Beyonce

Beyonce (born Beyoncé Giselle Knowles on September 4, 1981) is an American Pop/R&b singer and songwriter. She also works as an actress and a fashion designer in her "spare time."

Beyonce was born and raised in Houston, Texas. Throughout her childhood she was enrolled within various performing arts schools and was also introduced to both singing and dancing competitions. This helped as she rose to fame in the late 1990s when she was the lead singer of the R&B group Destiny's Child, which was one of the best selling all girls group ever.

It was during the hiatus in 2003 that Destiny's Child took that Beyonce released her debut solo item, entitled Dangerously In Love. This led to her number one hits, Crazy In Love and Baby Boy. Then when Destiny's Child finally disbanded in 2005, Beyonce kept right on going, releasing her record B'Day in 2006, which debuted at number 1 on the Billboard, charts. As a soloist Beyonce has had 5 hot 100 number 1 singles. She has also sold more than 11.2 million albums and 25 million singles. In 2010 the RIAA listed Beyonce as the top artist of the decade. Also in 2010, VH1 also listed her at number 52 on the list of 100 greatest artists of all times.

In 2001 Beyonce began her acting career when she appeared in the musical film Carmen: A Hip Hopera. She then had the lead role in a film adaptation of Dreamgirls. Beyonce won 2 Golden Globe nominations for this role.

Beyonce launched her fashion line, which is known as the House of Dereon, in 2004. Since then she has gone on to endorse brands like Pepsi, Tommy Hilfiger, Armani and L'Oreal.

With all that Beyonce has going for her, it should come as no surprise that in 2010 she was ranked amongst Forbes 100 most powerful and influential people in the world. The same year she was also listed as one of the world's most powerful and influential musicians. Times then went on to include her in their list of the 100 most influential people in the world too.