Beyoncé Knowles (September 4, 1981) is an R&B singer, actress, and model. She started off in the girl group
Destiny's Child, and soon became the
Face of the Band.
In 2002, she started a solo career (mostly collaborations with rappers but without the other girls), and got her first big hit a year later, "Crazy in Love". Since then, almost every song she's sung has made it to the top of the charts. "Crazy in Love" featured
Jay-Z, who would later become her husband and the father of her first child. The two of them try to keep their private lives secret, but it's clear that
they love each other very much.
She fronted the 2013
Super Bowl halftime show with a reunited
Destiny's Child. She also had the honor of performing the national anthem at President
Barack Obama's second inauguration.
May or may not be an incarnation of the
Voudoun deity Erzulie Freda.
Discography:Selected FilmographyAs of late she's been doing some projects with
Lady Gaga, and was the guest artist for the song and music video
Telephone.
This musician provides examples of:
- Absolute Cleavage: She get's quite a lot of mileage out of this trope in her videos, such as the one for Deja Vu.
- Adorkable: She's rather shy offstage and began performing to overcome that. A lot of her offstage antics come off as being Adorkable.
- Alter Ego Acting: Sasha Fierce...or could be a demon possessing her, according to some people.
- Audience Participation Song: During her 2011 appearance at Glastonbury, she points her microphone towards the audience to help her start off "Irreplaceable". The audience did her one better and sang the entire first half of the song back to her.
- Battle Couple: Her and Jay-Z
- But Not Too Black: Often cited as a reason for her success. The trope's image also comes from a time when she was on the cover of L'Oréal, who took it too far.
- Dark-Skinned Blond: Even though her hair is naturally dark, this has become something of a signature look for her.
- Determinator: Everyone who meets her says she is this.
- Dream Team: With Lady Gaga.
- And Shakira. Ironically, Shakira is not featured in the Spanish version of "Beautiful Liar", despite being a native Spanish speaker.
- And any time her and her hubby make a track together. Especially "03 Bonnie and Clyde" and "Crazy in Love".
- Distinct Double Album: I Am...Sasha Fierce. The I Am... disc being filled with introspective ballads and Sasha Fierce seeing Beyonce's signature R&B/Pop style complete with a new persona, Sasha Fierce.
- Drugs Are Bad: "Welcome to Hollywood" mentions the deaths of Marilyn Monroe, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, John Belushi and River Phoenix.
- Fan Disservice: Not from her, of course. But NFL star Warren Sapp once imitated her famous "booty dance" during a TD celebration. 300+ pound Defensive Tackle Warren Sapp.
- Fairytale Wedding Dress: Although her actual wedding dress is a secret, she's worn a couple for performances. One for a video, and this one
with a feather-trimmed skirt for the 2009 BET awards. - First Name Basis: Although her last name is more frequently used/well-known compared to Madonna or Cher.
- Genre Shift: The song Diva was more hip-hop/rap orientated than her usual pop/R and B style.
- Happily Married: To Jay-Z.
- Hot Mom: To Blue Ivy Carter, her daughter.
- The Klutz: Since she performs and dances around in sky high heels and very elaborate costumes, it's become pretty common for her to trip and fall during concerts. There's one particularly spectacular tumble she took down the stairs on her stage, then asked the people in attendance to please not put the video on Youtube (It didn't work.) To her credit, she usually jumps right back up and keeps singing without a hitch.
- Lady Land: She somewhat invoked this during her Super Bowl performance, with her dancers and backup band being solely female. She said she got the idea to do it during rehearsals... then had to delicately break it to the male members of her band.
- Large Ham: Her choreography and on-stage persona are extremely flamboyant.
- Melismatic Vocals: This and her vibrato's make it easier to note her on the radio
- Mood Whiplash: Not really with her music, but more with her videos, with her first solo album, most of her videos were rather fast-paced, elaborate, bright, and colorful (Look at "Crazy in Love.") Now, she's done a lot of video that are very simple (usually her and a couple of dancers in black and white ("Single Ladies.")
- Mind Screw: Her latest song- Run The World (Girls). Okay, it's a pop song, but there's no structure in the song whatsoever.
- Ms. Fanservice: Oh boy, she's the first musician to be on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue (2007 edition).
- The Ojou: Even before she was rich because of her music she came from an upper-middle class family. She's also very ladylike and graceful.
- Outrun the Fireball: At the end of the music video for Diva. Complete with Unflinching Walk.
- Pretty in Mink: Has worn loads of furs, and even her promise to stop to please PETA was short-lived.
- Real-Life Relative: Has done several songs with her husband Jay-Z, on both her albums and his.
- Retraux: Several songs on 4 have a very strong '80s dance-pop vibe.
- Shout Out: "Get Me Bodied" mentions supermodel Naomi Campbell.
- Shrinking Violet: When not onstage.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: All of her music being "Girl Power" anthems or having a "Men Suck, we're not just pieces of meat" theme, combined with Three Minutes of Writhing in tiny outfits on her videos.
- Also, when you hear a song called "Single Ladies" coming from Beyonce, your first thought is probably a song about the joys of being single like "Independent Women," not a song that basically says "MARRY ME, DAMMIT!"
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: See Face of the Band and taken Up to Eleven at the 2011 vmas.
- Spoiled Sweet
- Streisand Effect: In 2013, her publicist motioned for BuzzFeed to remove some photos of her Super Bowl performance because they were "unflattering". They politely declined.
- Three Minutes of Writhing: The video for "Single Ladies" is pretty much this.
- The Unfair Sex:
- "If I Were a Boy" falls hard into this territory, enough so that R. Kelly made a remix of the song, adding in his own verses from the male perspective.
- "Irreplaceable". You have to wonder how it'd be received if a male artist referred to women as "replaceable" (and plenty of rappers do, presumably. None as high-profile as Beyoncé).
- Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: The Hot Wife to Jay-Z's Ugly Guy.
- Unkempt Beauty
- Urban Legend: There is a very persistent one that her pregnancy was fake and she actually had a surrogate. People were convinced after a video of her on an Australian talk show showed her stomach supposedly "folding". This theory ignores the fact that she would have no reason to hide having a surrogate.
- Whole Costume Reference: The outfit and hair cut◊ from Countdown are based on Audrey Hepburn's most famous outfit from the film Funny Face.
- World's Most Beautiful Woman: She was recently named this by People magazine.
- Zettai Ryouiki
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