The Ultimate Guide to Beyoncé

Only a select few have successfully made the leap from group member to solo artist: Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney, Phil Collins, Diana Ross and Beyoncé. Among her contemporaries, the 41-year-old is in a class all her own: 200 million records sold, seven consecutive No. 1 albums, 21 Top 10 hit singles and 32 Grammy Awards, more than anyone in history. Next, she’s primed to set another personal best with the Renaissance World Tour, projected by Billboard to gross $300 million in 2023. Twenty years ago, the lead vocalist for Destiny’s Child ventured out on her own with Dangerously in Love, and with every album since she has continued to break records while also dismantling the industry. When Beyoncé dropped in 2013, it was accompanied by a music video for every single track, introducing the concept of a visual album. In recent years, as she’s shied away from the spotlight to raise her three children with husband Jay-Z, she does little to no press. Want to know what’s going on with Beyoncé? Listen to her latest album. “I [want] the focus to be on my music, because if my art isn’t strong enough or meaningful enough to keep people interested and inspired, then I’m in the wrong business,” she told Harper’s Bazaar in 2021. Passion and drive is nothing new to Beyoncé, who had recorded 50 songs by the time she was 10. All these decades later, every time she steps into the studio it still feels like the first time. And that drive to create and al- ways challenge herself as an artist is what will keep the fire burning, she says. “I have learned that I have to keep on dreaming.”