Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter (born September 4, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, and businesswoman widely regarded as one of the most culturally significant entertainers of the 21st century, celebrated for her vocal ability, artistic reinventions, and electrifying live performances. She first rose to fame in the late 1990s as the lead singer of Destiny's Child before launching a massively successful solo career with albums like Dangerously in Love (2003) and the critically acclaimed Lemonade (2016), the latter of which sparked sociopolitical discourse and was the best-selling album of its year. With over 200 million records sold, she is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, holds a record 35 Grammy Awards, and is the only woman whose first eight studio albums each debuted atop the US Billboard 200. Her innovative Beyoncé (2013) popularized the surprise visual album format, while her recent trilogy—Renaissance (2022) and Cowboy Carter (2024)—has highlighted the overlooked contributions of Black pioneers to American musical and cultural history. Married to rapper Jay-Z, she is also the first woman to headline an all-stadium tour and the highest-grossing Black live music artist in history.