No less than 10 countries, 39 cities, 57 shows, and at least 2.7 million fans. With her Renaissance World Tour, the queen bee singer has taken the whole world by storm, or at least its biggest stadiums, in 2023. Her concerts at the Stade de France, in Saint-Denis, and at the Vélodrome, in Marseille , had been sold out for ages. A habit for the American diva, who is on her eighth world tour, and sows desire wherever she goes.
At 42, the Houston native is shattering records. For example, she holds 32 Grammy Awards, making her the most successful female artist in the history of American music awards. Madonna only received seven! So certainly, the Queen of Pop beats Queen Be in terms of fortune, with more than 531 million euros in the bank while Be had according to Forbes “only” 412 million before the Renaissance World Tour, but thanks to the income earned during this record-breaking tour, there is no doubt that one queen will replace the other. And she won’t have stolen it, having been working on it since she was very young!
At 7 years old, the press is talking about her
It’s very simple, Beyoncé Giselle Knowles never seems to have considered anything other than success, fame and wealth! Shortly after his birth in Texas, on September 4, 1981, his parents detected his talent and, already, his showmanship. It must be said that the Knowles have a taste for creation and ambition. Celestine, the mother, is a stylist and seamstress. Mathew, the father, who earns a very good living in a large printer company, will very quickly leave it to take charge of the career of his eldest daughter, then that of his little sister Solange, born in 1986.
Baby Be first takes dance lessons, before one of her teachers notices her vocal abilities. She then sang for local shows, in the school choir and that of her Methodist church and, at the age of 7, she was already being talked about in the press. At the Knowles, we are not the “pass your baccalaureate first” type. On the contrary, the kid is pushed to the limit, especially by her daddy who is not necessarily very cool (read box). At 9 years old, she joined a group of girls formed by a music producer to win a telecrochet. The Girl’s Tyme will not win Star Search, however. This is the start of a (small) series of failures which will not diminish his thirst for success. Mathew gave up his job to take care of his daughter and her friends, the group costs the family dearly but, soon, those who will be Destiny’s Child will meet their destiny. There are now four kids: Beyoncé, her cousin Kelly Rowland, LaTavia Roberson and LeToya Luckett.
The lineup will change, in names and numbers, with success and conflicts, but the one who shines the most in the sequinned outfits designed by Celestine, aka Tina, is her daughter. Be is not yet queen, but her character is clearly visible. She imposes her voice, literally and figuratively. The young lady and her acolytes are not there to put on tasteless pearls and tubes. We are fighters and we say it, we shout it, we sing it. Survivor is a hit, and so is black power. We already have the seeds of samples of Malcolm X’s words that Beyoncé will put on her albums later, and the speeches that will go with them.
A jackpot thanks to Uber
We’re not there yet. America and the world are not ready and, whatever she says today, Beyoncé is thinking first of having a career before shaking up the anthill. It’s about controlling your image. We will certainly be bootylicious, and we will promote shapes, but we want muse contracts. Over the years, in a group then solo, Beyoncé will become the image of Pepsi, L’Oréal or even more recently, supreme consecration, the prestigious jewelry brand Tiffany & Co. A black, forty-something, luscious woman who poses with her rapper husband and succeeds Audrey Hepburn, it’s amazing. And it also pays off, a lot, even if Queen and the brand jointly refused to communicate on the figures of the contract. Smart, Be is sometimes rare in musical production, not the type to release an album every year, but she doesn’t need that to fill her portfolio. In 2015, for example, when a young VTC company asked her to sing for a corporate event, she refused to pocket the $6 million fee, but asked for stock options. Four years later, when Uber went public, the value of its shares increased its salary fifty-fold.
Since 2014, the woman whose work and career we are now studying in certain American universities has been the highest paid black musician of all time. Since May, the queen and her king Jay-Z have had yet another foot on land to land on when they leave their private jet, a Bombardier Challenger 850 at 37 million euros. The royal couple who visited the Louvre for a music video have treated themselves to the most expensive house in California, a villa of almost 3,000 square meters designed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando on a cliff in Malibu with breathtaking views on the Pacific. His price ? 185 million euros. Obviously, he was paid cash… Who run the world? A Queen, and not necessarily the one we expected!
Louise Monteil
With Jay-Z, a golden couple
©ABACA
If Beyoncé has become an icon, the couple she forms with Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, is even more so. At the beginning of the 2000s, when he added his voice to Crazy in Love, they were officially only friends. The rapper-producer and the singer hid their relationship for years and even managed to say yes to each other for life, far from the paparazzi, in their apartment in Manhattan, on April 4, 2008. There were only around thirty people there at the time. ‘guests but the couple brought 70,000 white orchids from Thailand, and the bride’s ring cost more than 3 million euros. The creation of their empire is underway. Since then, Jay-Z has become the first billionaire rapper in history, and the parents of three children have changed their tune by capitalizing on their relationship, even if it means discussing possible penknife wounds in Jay’s marriage contract in the album Lemonade. “I can’t believe we made it,” sing the Carters in Apeshit, their 2018 hit, the video for which was filmed, excuse me, at the Louvre reserved exclusively for them…
My father, this zero
©Bestimage
Without her father, Beyoncé would never have reached the top. It was Mathew Knowles who pushed her every day from childhood with iron discipline so that she sang, danced and played sports. He quit his job for her. But his harshness scared away some Destiny’s Child, who even sued him in 2000. He was also accused of harassment by a dancer. Worse, Mathew would steal from the cash register to pay for prostitutes and drugs. Beyoncé discovers that he had at least one child outside of wedlock. Tina filed for divorce in 2011 and Beyoncé separated from him immediately on a business level. For years, they no longer see each other and Mathew will try to destroy the singer in the media. From now on, father and daughter are reconciled… but no longer work together!
Ultimate fashion icon
Since her debut and the outfits designed by her mother, Beyoncé has been a fashion reference for millions of young women around the world. One of his rare flops in life was his sportswear brand Ivy Park, which did not work despite the alliance with Adidas which ended up letting go of the business. The bombshell has since recovered. To add to the shock, Balmain, hand in hand with its stylist, designed a look responding to each of the sixteen songs from its latest album, Renaissance.
The succession is assured !
Blue Ivy, the eldest of Jay-Z and Queen Be, made a first short appearance with her mother in January at a concert in Dubai before performing regularly with mom during the Renaissance tour. The one who will celebrate her 12th birthday on January 7 is not in her star debut, since she has appeared in several clips of her mum, and has put her voice on a few tracks including Brown Skin Girl, from the album Black is King, which earned her several awards including a Grammy and a Bet Awards, making her the youngest winner of these two awards! In the music video, she appears with Beyoncé alongside Naomi Campbell, Lupita Nyong’o and Kelly Rowland. Her performance earned her a Grammy Award, making her the youngest solo artist to win a Grammy award in Grammy history.
His career
1997 : DESTINY’S CHILD
After signing with Columbia, the group, which was then a quartet, released its very first album which sold more than 3 million copies worldwide.
2001: SURVIVOR
Now three with Beyoncé, Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams, the group reached its peak with this album which sold more than 15 million copies.
2003: DANGEROUSLY IN LOVE
The diva’s first solo album enjoyed phenomenal success driven by the single Crazy in Love. 11 million copies will be sold worldwide.
2006: B’DAY
Huge success again for this 2nd solo album which is released on Queen’s 25th birthday. Eight million copies will be sold worldwide.
2008: I AM…SASHA FIERCE
Another hit with more than eight million copies sold worldwide and a new interplanetary and timeless hit, Single Ladies.
2013: BEYONCE
This 5th studio album with its surprise release will place number 1 in 107 countries on iTunes. Special feature: each title has its clip.
2016: LEMONADE
Huge blow, the album was released without any prior announcement and Beyoncé practically confirmed that Jay-Z was cheating on her. Another global hit.
2018: EVERYTHING IS LOVE
This is the first album that Jay-Z and Beyoncé have signed together. It will be number 1 in the United States and Great Britain.
2022: RENAISSANCE
Written and recorded during confinement, it ranked number 1 in dozens of countries, including France.
2023: RENAISSANCE, A FILM BY BEYONCÉ
After filling stadiums around the world, the singer is storming cinemas to tell the story of the Renaissance tour.