Over the course of her life, Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter has gone from a young Houston schoolgirl into one of the world's most popular and successful superstars. Born in Houston, Texas on September 4, 1981 to Mathew and Tina Knowles, Beyonce grew up attending dance classes at a local arts school, where her singing abilities was discovered by her teacher. She got her first big break when she auditioned for the television show Star Search and was placed with her best friend Kelly Rowland and four other young girls to form the group Girls Tyme. They did not however win the talent show, with Beyonce later stating that the song they had performed was not good.
In 1995, Mathew Knowles resigned from his job in order to manage the group, which had a detrimental effect to the families income, cutting it by half. Girls Tyme was reduced to four members and was used to open up for more establish r&b performers, in an effort to attract interest from record labels. Eventually they were signed to Elektra Records, then Atlanta Records, before being cut by that label. After being left without a record label, they were finally signed with Columbia Records.
In 1996, Girl’s Tyme changed their name to Destiny’s Child and released their first album in 1998 with moderate success. Their sophomore album The Writing’s on the Wall, released in 1999, debuted at number one on the charts and has sold an estimated 8 million copies. Beyonce herself fell into severe depression during this time, after being left by her longterm boyfriend and being scrutinized by the media for members of Destiny’s Child being replaced because of a feud with her father.
Beginning in the early 2000’s, Beyonce began to venture into expanding her own career, landing several acting roles and single recordings. Her first solo recording was 03 Bonnie and Clyde with Jay Z released in 2002. The song was a huge hit around the world and in the United States, peaking at number 4 on the charts at the height of its popularity. After Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams released their own solo albums, Beyonce released her debut album in 2003 titled Dangerously In Love. The album was a huge success, selling more than 300,000 copies in its first week and spurring mega hits Crazy In Love, Baby Boy, and Naughty Girl. Destiny’s Child released a final album in 2004 before disbanding as a group.
Beyonce, having dated Jay Z for several years privately, got married on April 8th, 2008 and later that year released her third studio album, I Am Sasha Fierce. As with her two previous albums, it debuted at number one and included several hit songs, focusing on an alter ego by the name of Sasha Fierce. She took a year long gap in 2010 in order to take time off and focus on her own life, going on a 9 month trip around the world, visiting museums, music festivals, and ballet performances.