Leading Women connects you to extraordinary women of our time -- remarkable professionals who have made it to the top in all areas of business, the arts, sport, culture, science and more.
17 Grammy awards, $75
million in world record sales and a fourth world tour underway, Beyonce is one
of the world's biggest names in show business.
From performances at this year's Superbowl to
the presidential inauguration,
few celebrities have the success, drive and international cachet of the high
profile soulstress.
But she doesn't just
dominate the music charts and the stage ... Beyonce is a global brand and works
hard to keep it that way.
Her name appears
everywhere from fashion labels to fragrance bottles and Pepsi commercials. On
the heels of her own HBO documentary 'Life Is But A Dream', she and husband Jay-Z
were also named the pop music industry's first billionaire couple.
Forbes also ranked
Beyonce as the 32nd most powerful woman in
the world last year, estimating her earnings at $40 million, a figure likely to
grow as she reaps the rewards from her Mrs Carter Show World Tour and
lucrative H&M campaign.
Through a
carefully-managed image, the 31-year-old star shows she can do it all by
portraying herself as a sexy performer, an astute businesswoman, a dutiful wife
and loving mother and a girl-next-door from Texas.
"Beyonce inspires
others to dream because she is always reminding us that she was just a young
girl from Houston, Texas, who had a dream to be a performer, and look at her
now," says Cori Murray, entertainment editor of Essence Magazine.
"She had a dream,
she envisioned it. Hard work, determination, and this is the result," sums
up Gail Mitchell, senior editor at Billboard Magazine.
Beyonce’s mom and dad, Tina and Matthew Knowles |
Family ties
The daughter of a
hairdresser and an IBM marketing executive, Beyonce took to the stage early.
She began performing with a girl band -- later known as Destiny's Child - at
the age of eight, managed by her father Matthew Knowles and his marketing
expertise.
It took some years
before Destiny's Child made their major label breakthrough by signing with
Columbia Records in 1999 with the album "The Writing's On The Wall"
and two number one singles "Bills, Bills, Bills" and "Say My
Name."
Matthew Knowles left
his job at IBM and remained Beyonce's manager into her solo career -- which
began in 2003 with her album "Dangerously In Love" -- until 2011 when
the pair parted ways.
"It was hard for me to let
her go -- it was hard for both of us to let each other go," her father
later told The Sun newspaper. "This was not a normal ending of a business
agreement. This was a dad and a daughter and it was incredibly painful and it
had some difficulties."
Aside
from her music, she has mastered the art of celebrity endorsements over the
years by striking lucrative deals with Pepsi and L'Oreal and launching
fragrances with Tommy Hilfiger.
Savvy
sponsorship deals
Sealing a $50 million
multi-year deal with Pepsi in December, the partnership includes commercials
and print ads as well as a fund to support the singer's chosen creative
projects. Far from featuring old tunes as many ads do, Beyonce's latest Pepsi
commercial previews a new song "Grown Woman," which will feature
on her forthcoming album.
"Beyonce's
influence in pop culture [is] not just in the music industry, but also in the
beauty industry and in fashion," says fashion stylist June Ambrose.
"She has become the poster child in terms of her brand being so well
recognized."
The singer and her
mother Tina Knowles run a fashion label House of Dereon, named after the star's
seamstress grandmother.
She stays involved at
every stage of her campaigns, giving her control over her own brand.
"This is not a woman who
just lends her name to it and then she is off to her yacht," says Murray
of Essence Magazine.
The
control extends to her own image. In her current world tour, she refused to
accredit press photographers and banned all but authorized pictures from her
own entertainment company, according to several media reports.
Career
evolution
Beyonce
is executive producer of her own HBO documentary "Life Is But A
Dream" in which she tells her story through her own eyes. The film is
filled with home movie clips from her childhood in Houston to her show
preparations and her life with Jay-Z and 15-month-old daughter Blue Ivy.
From starring in her own
documentary to films such as "Dreamgirls," "Cadillac
Records" and "The Fighting Temptations," the songstress has kept
her name in lights by contributing to movie soundtracks, most recently film
director Baz Luhrmann's "The Great Gatsby."
Luhrmann wrote in Time Magazine as it named Beyonce
among the world's 100 most influential people in 2013: "She and
Jay Z are the royal couple of culture, and she is the queen bee.
Power networking
"She's gone beyond
being a popular singer, even beyond being a pop-cultural icon ... Right now,
she is the heir-apparent diva of the USA, the reigning national voice."
From granting Oprah an
exclusive OWN interview to supporting President Obama's 2012 re-election
campaign, Beyonce's proven her influence extends well beyond her voice by
making friends in high places.
In return, Obama called the singer "a role
model for his daughters"at an election fundraiser hosted by the
power couple and she performed the national anthem at his second inauguration.
While stellar
performances and lucrative endorsement deals far from guarantee a star's long
term future in the fickle world of entertainment, one thing is for certain --Beyonce
has proven she is a survivor.
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