Beyoncé's first job was sweeping hair in her mother's salon
As a child in Houston, Beyoncé Knowles earned her first wages sweeping up hair at her mother's salon, sometimes singing for the customers. At seven she beat teenagers twice her age in a school talent show with Imagine. Her family later gambled half its income on her girl group, and it nearly broke them.
She was born in Houston on September 4, 1981, to Tina, a hairdresser and salon owner of Louisiana Creole heritage, and Mathew, a Xerox sales manager. A dance teacher noticed her voice by humming a tune that the little girl finished. At nine she enrolled in a music magnet school, and in 1990 she auditioned for a girls' act that, with Kelly Rowland, became Girl's Tyme, doing rap and dance routines on the local talent circuit.
Early setbacks were sharp. In 1993 the group lost on Star Search, then the biggest televised talent contest, which Beyoncé blamed on the wrong song. In 1995 her father quit his job to manage them, halving household income; the family split into separate apartments, a first record deal with Elektra fell through, and her parents briefly separated. A Columbia contract followed, and in 1996 the group took the name Destiny's Child from a passage in Isaiah. The Writing's on the Wall sold 13 million copies, and Survivor in 2001 opened at number one with 663,000 sold in a week.
Her solo debut in 2003, Dangerously in Love, arrived behind Crazy in Love, which topped the Hot 100 for eight straight weeks; the album won five Grammys and passed 11 million sales. B'Day, released on her 25th birthday, produced Irreplaceable, the most successful chart hit of 2007. With The Pink Panther and Check on It, she became the first woman to hold the top US film and single at once.
Later albums changed the industry itself. Her 2013 surprise release helped popularise visual albums and led to Friday becoming the global release day, while Renaissance and Cowboy Carter highlighted Black pioneers in dance and country music. She holds a record 35 Grammy Awards and is the only woman whose first eight studio albums all debuted at the top of the Billboard 200.
Source: Beyoncé
