Sexy Pop Diva Beyonce Knowles

She has become musical royalty, a multi-million dollar earning singer and actress, instantly recognizable to audiences around the world by her first name Beyonce. Born in Houston, Texas, on 4 September 1981, Beyonce Knowles has always been a natural performer. She first hit big in the late 1990s as lead singer of Destiny's Child, a group which had developed from an original line-up featuring her cousin Kelly Rowland and two school friends. Their first album produced the No. 1 single Bills, Bills, Bills. This was followed with the smash hit Say My Name from their second album. Beyonce made her acting debut in 2001 with MTV's Carmen: A Hip Hopera. Leading roles in hit movies such as the musical Dreamgirls, Austin Powers sequel Goldmember and as R&B legend Etta James in Cadillac Records have followed.

Beyonce's first solo album, the multi-million dollar earning Dangerously In Love, was released just over a year before Destiny's Child disbanded in 2005. Her solo career reached only more astronomical heights of stardom with hits such as Irreplaceable, Deja Vu, Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It), If I Were A Boy and Halo. The success helped her make it to Forbes' Top 10 list of entertainment's highest-earning women, as well as take over 20 Grammy awards. She won six of those in 2010 - a record for a female artist on a single night, which was equalled by Adele in 2012. One record she will forever keep is becoming the first woman to reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with her first five albums. Her sometimes rocky marriage, often reflected in her lyrics, to hip-hop artist Jay-Z, has also seen Beyonce seldom far from the gossip magazines.