Lots of people have been crowned the Queen Of Pop over the years – from Madonna to Lady Gaga, and from Whitney Houston to Britney Spears. With that said, I’d like to make a case for the fact that the true Queen of Pop has been right in front of us all along… and it’s Beyonce.
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She’s broken more industry records than you can count – being the first woman with three albums to all reach over a billion streams, the first woman to have an album and single simultaneously hit the top spot in both the UK and US charts, and the first woman to have a song topping twelve charts at once.
Even outside of music, she was the first non-model or athlete to shoot a the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit addition, and she has shot more magazine covers than any other black artist in the world.
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Not only that, but the movie Dreamgirls in which she starred in and helped to make, is the only movie in history to have three separate tracks nominated for Best Song at the Academy Awards.
It would be impossible to name all her accolades, especially now – since her empire has just grown to include an award-winning documentary alongside her many other projects. Plus, when she’s not learning impossibly intensive dance routines or creating chart-topping tunes, she’s raising three children!
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All that together makes her the undisputed Queen of Pop in my eyes, but just in case you’re not convinced – we’re counting down the top 10 things you might not have known about Beyonce.
1. Beyoncé has only ever had two boyfriends
Before Jaz Z came along, Beyoncé had only ever had one other boyfriend! For a woman who could practically have any man in the world, that doesn’t seem like a lot at all. In 2008, she told the Telegraph; “When I was 12, 13 I had my first boyfriend, and he was my boyfriend till I was 17.”
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She went on to say: “At that age, that was a long time. I’ve always been very loyal and a little more mature. Though I was too young for it to really be a boyfriend – we didn’t live together, we didn’t, you know… That was my only experience with a guy, and since then I’ve only had one other boyfriend in my life – Jay.”
Jay z and Beyonce met when she was just 18, somewhere around the year 1997. In 2001, they appeared together on the cover of Vanity Fair’s music issue and apparently sparks were already flying, with the two flirting constantly and trying to figure out if they should make their feelings more clear.
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Throughout 2002 and 2003, he two collaborated together on both Crazy In Love and Bonnie and Clyde, fuelling rumours and leading fans to go crazy (no pun intended!) over whether the two of them were together or not. They did eventually make things official and come out publicly about the relationship, but only at the 2004 VMAs.
2. She suffered from depression in the Destiny’s Child era
Going solo might have been the best career decision Beyonce ever made, but it wasn’t without its own set of consequences. After Kelly Rowland announced that the girl group were going their separate ways, it was Beyonce who got the brunt of the blame – with critics and fans implying that she was only out for herself and obsessed with the spotlight.
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As a result of this scrutiny, Beyonce fell into a period of depression, where she would lock herself in her room for days on end, and even struggled to eat or sleep regularly. She called it a lonely period in her life, where she wasn’t sure who her friends were, or what the point of her vigorous touring schedule was.
It even got to the point where she wasn’t sure what day it was, and couldn’t say what city she was performing in on any given day. She kept up with touring and performing, but did everything in a blur.
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It got so bad that when she would win awards at awards shows, she would only be thinking about the next show she had to do, and didn’t feel proud of herself at all. Eventually because of this, her mum forced her to take a break and take care of her mental health.
3. ‘If I Were A Boy’ is about a bad experience with pizza
‘If I Were A Boy,’ the lead single from Beyoncé’s third solo album I Am…Sasha Fierce, was written by some folks called BC Jean and Toby Gad.
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Whilst Jean and Toby were walking through Times Square in New York, Jean claimed she wished she was a boy so that she didn’t have to worry about eating a slice of pizza (she was off carbs at the time.)
This prompted a discussion between the pair about what else she would do if she was a boy and low and behold, there you have it! They got straight into the studio to lay down the lyrics, and the track became the B-Side to the also iconic Single Ladies.
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Critics called it the best and most meaningful song she had ever written, and even claimed it showed a whole new side to her 12 years into her performance! In fact, some people were so jealous that they tweaked a performance of the track to make it seem wildly off-key, then started a rumour that the fake tape was actually the audio from Beyonce’s in-studio vocals. Yikes.
4. After two days in this world, Beyoncé And Jay Z’s Daughter Was A Record Breaker!
Right after the birth of their first child, Jay Z released the track ‘Glory’ on his social networking page. The track included audio of Blue’s crying, which meant she had to be credited as a contributor on the track, since technically her vocals were being used.
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The song was about the joy Jay-Z felt at becoming a father, and the tragedy him and Beyonce had previously gone through, since their last attempt to have a child had resulted in a miscarrige. As well as including Blue’s cries, the track also opened with the sound of her heartbeat, signalling the start of a new era for the family.
The song was massively well-received, with Time Magazine calling it “the greatest love song in hip-hop history”. Not only that, but when it shot into the Billboard 100 just two days after Blue was born, Blue became the youngest person ever to have her song in the charts.
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Not bad for a two-year-old but, when you have musical geniuses Jay-Z and Beyonce for parents, it’s probably expected that you get involved in the family business from a young age.
5. A word was added to the Oxford English Dictionary thanks to Queen B
There are many important milestones you can hit when you become a musician, and each performer will have one that they think is the most important. For some, the dream might be to have their song nominated for a Grammy, or even an Academy Award.
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For more ambitious people, the goal might even be to reach for an EGOT, which involves winning an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony. One thing not a lot of musicians aim for though, is to coin a term so iconic that it ends up in the dictionary.
Not many artists can claim that honour, but Beyonce is one of the few who can, since it’s because of her that the word “Bootylicious” is in the dictionary. She didn’t actually invent the word, but the Destiny’s Child song definitely helped to popularise it, which is one of the criteria you need to hit to get a word included in the dictionary.
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Apparently, usage of the word shot up so much after the song was released, that it entered into what language experts call “common usage”. That means if you say the word Bootylicious on the street, everyone is pretty much guaranteed to know what you mean.
6. She took part in an American talent show
At 12 years old, Beyoncé entered the biggest talent show on TV at the time called ‘Star Search.’ She entered as part of a band called ‘Girl Tyme’, who wound up taking second place in the heat overall. At the time Beyonce was crushed, since she had assumed they would win, immediately all get record deals, and become massively successful.
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Since then though, she has said losing was the best thing that could have happened to her, since it taught her that working super hard doesn’t always result in immediate success. Instead, luck plays a part too, and there’s always a chance that someone more talented than you could deserve the prize as well.
Of course, the question you’re probably asking yourself is who on Earth could beat Beyonce, especially adorable 12-year-old Beyonce? Well, the answer is Skeleton Crew – a rock/grunge band that were already fully grown men at the time of the competition.
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The group almost dropped out of the contest, since they apparently felt mean competing against preteens. However, it’s a good job they didn’t, since doing so gave them their greatest success later down the line.
In 2013, Beyonce released an album that included audio of Skeleton Crew beating her all those years ago, as well as a direct namecheck of the band itself. The group had mostly retired to allow each member to focus on their families, but the release of the album gave them a huge boost in popularity.
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Suddenly they were getting calls from journalists all over the world, all wanting to know what their story was. This reinvigorated their passion, leading them to tour even more than usual as well as release new music – and that in turn even got them a record deal!
7. Her father took a massive pay cut to manage them
Beyonce might be the star of the family, but she’s not the only one who knows how to work hard for what she wants. Her father, Matthew Knowles, began as a medical equipment salesman – and worked his way up the food chain of the company for over ten years.
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However, in 1992 he chanced it all, by leaving the job to pursue a career in the record business. Though it meant taking a 50% pay cut, he committed to his dreams and founded Music World Entertainment – a record company that included several separate companies for gospel music, country music, and even kids music.
It was a risky move, as he had to essentially halve the family’s household income, and for a time, he and his wife were even forced to move into separate apartments. However, the gamble paid off as more artists were signed to his label, eventually teaming up with huge names in the music industry, such as Sony and Interscope.
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You’d think Knowles would have settled down after the gamble paid off, but instead he took another huge risk – resigning from his job as manager of the label to become the manager of just one act: Destiny’s child. With his guidance, the girl group became a worldwide sensation, and Knowles even managed the careers’ of Destiny’s other two members after his own daughter left the group.
Since then, he has literally written the book on the habits of successful people, as well as producing a movie starring Beyonce called Obsessed. He has also taught courses around America on breaking into the entertainment business, and has become an advisor for several new music-related companies, such as Tunedly.
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However, the news that Bey fans might be most interested in is his latest project – which is allegedly a musical based around the many songs of Beyonce and Destiny’s Child. Fingers crossed…
8. Her dad gave her a lot of homework
Given how much Beyonce’s father had riding on his daughter’s music career, it’s hardly surprising that he took it so seriously. However, some of the techniques he used to make sure Destiny’s Child were at the top of their game might be a little surprising.
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For example, he gave all three of the girls literal homework in the form of videos they had to watch, which usually included footage of musical greats. These included videos of Micheal Jackson, but also focused on powerful women, such as Janet Jackson, Tina Turner, and Whitney Houston.
Her father encouraged Beyonce to study the moves and body language of the performers, almost like football players watching game tapes in order to prepare for their own matches. However, that wasn’t the only approach he tried that was inspired by sports.
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As well as making the members of Destiny’s child do research like athletes, he also made them work out like athletes. As well as encouraging them to eat healthy and work out, he forced them to sing while jogging, which apparently gave them better breath control and stamina onstage.
9. She is the fifth most followed person on Instagram.
Beyoncé is the fifth most followed account in the world, with 113 million people keeping up to date with the Queen B on the social media platform! Her feed is carefully curated, and mostly features professional photography, usually to promote her latest project.
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There are very few candids, probably since they would look out of place amongst all the official press images and model photoshoots. With that said, there are some breaks from the theme – usually when she posts her own performance videos, or the occasional Throwback Thursday, which no-one can resist.
The crazy thing is, despite her fierce feed – Beyonce isn’t the most followed person in Instagram. In fact, she’s not even the most followed musician. As far as female pop-stars go, Selena Gomez and Arianna Grande both beat Queen B, with Arianna raking in 118 million whilst Gomez tops them both at 135 million.
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However, even being the most fabulous artist isn’t enough to snag the top spot as far as followers go, since Instagram itself actually holds the record. To beat the platform, Beyonce would have to surpass its impressive 234 million people.
10. Her alter ego is called Sasha Fierce
Lots of musicians have alter egos, but those that do tend to be on the rockier side of things. David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust is obviously the most popular example, but there are also others, such as Alice Cooper, Marilyn Manson or even Slim Shady.
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All of these personas are a chance for artists to embody a character, and to amplify a certain part of their personality. Whether that aspect is real or imagined, creating a character allows the audience to connect to the story being told, even if it’s not necessarily the artist’s true feelings.
It’s easy to understand why some artists would need an alter ego, since they’re dealing with outlandish concepts like outer space, or difficult issues like politics and the media. However, Beyonce herself has an alter ego for a very different reason.
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Though it might be hard to imagine, Beyonce herself gets very nervous onstage, and created the character of Sasha Fierce to help channel her stage fright in a healthy way. Sasha is unafraid, extroverted and bold, which is why her performances are so high energy and explosive. By contrast, Beyonce herself is quiet and reserved, and needs the character of Sasha to truly express herself through her music.
11. Kelly Rowland announced Destiny’s Child’s separation
Even after they leave the girl groups that made them famous, some performers find themselves continually living in the shadows of their past career – which is something that has never happened to Beyonce. Though it was Destiny’s Child that shot her to fame, she found solo success almost immediately, with some of the biggest releases of her career happening just following the split in the mid-2000s.
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This is something that could have caused serious resentment amongst the group’s former members, but thankfully they have never been anything but completely supportive of each other. Even right at the beginning when the split was announced, Beyonce made sure to say that it was “the last album, but not the last show”.
Since then, the girls have collaborated on each other’s projects dozens of times. Both Roland and Williams have appeared in Beyonce’s music videos and, along with her sister Solange Knowles, have performed as her back up dancers at live appearances.
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Not only that, but on the fourth Destiny’s Child compilation album they released, they recorded their first new song together, called Nuclear. The song was produced by Pharell Williams, and helped bring the girls even closer together, as a few short years later they reunited onstage at Coachella during Beyonce’s headline slot.
12. She’s a record-breaking tweeter
Everyone knows that the halftime show is the most exciting part of the Superbowl, but just in case anyone doubted that fact, Beyonce proved it again in 2013. Her elaborately choreographed set made headlines for its creativity as well as its sheer scale, and it was all anyone was talking about the next day.
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In fact, the show unexpectedly netted Beyonce another broken record. Her performance was the most tweeted-about halftime show in history, but the record went further than that. The set also became the most tweeted about live event in all of history – at least in 2013.
The numbers are wild, with the event inspiring over 268,000 tweets per minute. Just behind that was the blackout of the Superdome following the performance, which netted about 231,000 tweets per minute of its own. Before and since, the record has been broken only a handful of times.
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Andy Murray’s Wimbledon win came close, as did Spain’s winning of the Euro 2012 Cup. As for pop star moments, the only one that came close was the reuniting of the Spice Girls for the 2012 London election. As for events that knocked Beyonce off the top spot, that honour goes to the re-election of Barak Obama, which led to over 327,000 tweets per minute.
13. She has an all-Spanish album
Singing takes talent, and singing as well as Beyonce does takes talent that not many people have. Singing as well as Beyonce, but in another language? That’s an even rarer skill, but it is a skill that Queen Bey herself has.
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Beyonce learned Spanish in school, but struggles to speak the language, and never really became fluent. By contrast however, she can sing in Spanish with relative ease – saying in interviews that the melody of the track helps her make sense of the words and even improves her pronunciation.
This explains why she has more Spanish singles than your typical pop star. It started when she released a Spanish version of Irreplaceable, which became massively successful and even charted. To follow this up, she released a six-track album entirely in Spanish, featuring reworks and covers of some of her most successful songs.
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Since then, she has collaborated on a number of songs that involved singing partly or entirely in Spanish. The most famous of these is Beautiful Liar, a song she teamed up with Shakira on, which has both English, Spanish and “Spanglish” versions. Not only that, but she has featured in Spanish on other songs, such as Alejandro Fernández’s Amor Gitano.
14. Her favourite number is four
It’s not unusual for creative people to have superstitions and odd obsessions. People were developing strange fascinations as far back as William Shakespeare, who insisted on carrying a compass with him everywhere he went.
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Not only that, but he slept with it in his hands and always made sure to sleep facing north – which he thought gave him energy and creativity, as well as bringing him inspiration.
Not only that, but it’s surprisingly common for musicians and actors to focus in on specific numbers. Famous musician Prince was obsessed with the number seven, referencing it over and over again in his lyrics. Not only that, but legendary Hollywood actress Audrey Hepburn was drawn to the number 55, requesting it as her dressing room number every time she filmed a movie.
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Beyonce’s favourite number is four, but there are at least reasons to back up why this is. Her birthday falls on the fourth of the month, as does Jay-Z’s. To celebrate this, they were married on April fourth – which is the fourth day of the fourth month.
Not to mention, both Jay-Z and Beyonce have paid tribute to the number in their music, with Beyonce calling her fourth album simply “4”, and Jay-Z naming one of his albums 4:44, after a song on the album by the same name. He wrote the track when he woke up at, you guessed it, 4:44 in the morning.
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All that might seem pretty extreme, but it gets worse, since their love of the number four is even included in their daughter’s name. Blue has four letters, and Ivy is a reference to the Roman numeral of the number four, which is presented as just an I and a V.
15. Beyoncé was in an Austin Powers movie
Yup! Beyoncé is no stranger to the big screen, having parts in Dreamgirls and lending her voice to Queen Tara in Epic, but it’s hard to imagine her in an Austin Powers movie. Luckily for us, we don’t have to imagine it.
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Bey played Foxxy Cleopatra, a 70s bombshell, in Austin Powers in Goldmember. It was her first starring role, and required her to play a sassy and comedic character, who used to date the flamboyant Austin Powers. The movie got mixed reviews, but was perfect for Beyonce, since she was allowed to write and perform music for the movie.
Beyonce’s part in the movie was actually pretty controversial, since the movie was deliberately tongue-in-cheek and filled with double entendre. This conflicted with Beyonce’s image at the time, which was as a polished and clean cut pop-star.
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With that said, taking the role did turn out pretty well for her in the end. She received an MTV movie award nomination for her best female break-out performance, as well as a Teen’s Choice Award nomination for the same thing. She also received a nomination for the Best Female Butt-Kicker at the Kid’s Choice Awards.
16. Beyonce has always been a star
Beyonce might be an unstoppable powerhouse now, but most musicians spend years honing their talent, until eventually they’re ready to try their shot at the big leagues. However, Beyonce is no ordinary superstar, and so she was ready to wow people with her talent right from the start.
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For example, she was seven years old when the adults around her realised that she might have something special. She was singing along with her dance teacher during a rehearsal when her teacher struggled to hit the high notes. Beyonce of course hit them effortlessly, leading to those around her beginning to take notice.
Once the singing ball was rolling, Beyonce went from strength to strength pretty quickly. At just eight years old, she won a school singing competition, by doing a rendition of The Beatles’ song Imagine that made everybody cry. Not only that, but she got a standing ovation, both from the other students and the parents.
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It wasn’t long after that when Beyonce met the girls who would become her Destiny’s Child bandmates and best friends. They were all grouped together in an audition and the chemistry was instant, and of course the rest is history.
17. She loves art
Beyonce is a triple threat: she can sing, she can dance, and she can act. Not only that, but she does all that and makes it look easy, while training every day in the gym, writing music, and even looking after her three children. However, even outside of that, she has other talents that might surprise even her most loyal fans.
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For example, Queen Bey is actually a devoted painter. She first picked up a brush at 18, in order to release some of the pressure she felt with her music career.
Painting helped to distract her from her rigorous touring and recording schedule, and led her to a greater love of art, with Von Gough in particular inspiring both the subjects she paints, and the way she paints them.
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Beyonce’s love of art and painting even continues when she’s not at home. While on tour, her favourite thing to do is get up early and head out into the city, visiting whatever museums and art galleries are around. Although, she has said in interviews that her second favourite thing to do on tour is sleep until 3pm and watch cartoons in bed.
18. She’s an award-winning journalist
Around 2010, Beyonce decided to take a year off from touring and recording music, in order to decompress and reevaluate her priorities. This was especially important since in her early years with Destiny’s Child, she had dealt with severe depression due to burning out from the workload.
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In order to reflect on her year away from the music industry, she wrote an article titled Eat, Play, Love, a pun on the popular book and movie Eat Pray Love, which is about travelling and finding yourself after a breakup.
Beyonce’s article was less about a failed relationship, but was about rediscovering yourself as you get older, and about why it’s important to take time away from the spotlight. It reflected on her childhood going to the rodeo, as well as talking about her mother, and the other powerful women in her life.
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The article was massively well-received for its honesty and eloquence, especially since Beyonce had been a notoriously private person up until that point. In the end, the New York Association of Black Journalists awarded it with a prestigious title, making Beyonce one of the few non-journalists to be honoured in this way.
29. Beyonce is dedicated to charity
Celebrities doing charity work is nothing new, but Beyonce has dedicated herself to many different causes, and even founded some charities herself in order to help make the world a better place. As one example, after she starred in the movie Cadillac Records, she donated her entire fee to charity.
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The charity she picked was Pheonix House, a company dedicated to housing and sheltering heroin addicts, in order to help them recover from their addiction and reenter the workforce with the support they needed. The amount she gave to the cause was roughly $4 million.
Later, Beyonce helped start the Survivor Foundation with fellow member of Destiny’s Child Kelly Rowland. The two of them created and helped to fund the organisation, which was dedicated to helping victims of Hurricane Katrina. Since then, the charity has helped to feed hundreds of low-income children every year, as well as allowing them to meet Santa Clause and receive gifts at Christmas.
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She also co-founded the organisation Chime For Change, which is dedicated to making the lives of women better. The charity, which focuses on women’s access to healthcare and justice, has been endorsed by many other celebrities, including Alicia Keys and Desmond Tutu.
30. She can be a slob
Beyonce is a famously private person, so it can be hard to see what her personal life really looks like. In fact, the majority of what we see is from snapshots taken by the paparazzi, which are notoriously obsessed with making celebrities look as bad as possible.
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Despite this, the few glances the public gets into Bey’s personal life seem pretty perfect, whether she’s out boating with her children, or cuddled up next to Jay-Z at a basketball game. Even when she’s caught at her worst, stuffing her face full of pizza or skipping make-up for a day, it still seems like she’s living her best life.
However, no-one is perfect, even if some celebrities can seem like it. Beyonce does have flaws, and one in particular she brings up again and again in interviews. Apparently: Beyonce is kind of messy.
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Now, she’s not a hoarder, although with the amount of money she has she probably could be. Instead, she has a reputation for being a bit slobby, leaving clothes around and generally not tidying up unless she has to. Seems like a pretty minor flaw considering she’s the queen of pop, but apparently it drives Jay-Z crazy.
31. She takes record-keeping to the next level
Keeping a diary is nothing new, in fact many musicians have kept journals that have been pored over and scrutinised after they’ve died. Some contain lyrics and poetry, while others just contain thoughts and feelings, but all are an invaluable part of musical history.
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Beyonce does keep a diary detailing how she thinks her personal and professional lives are going, but she also takes things way further than that. She has a building which contains not only her journals, but also old recordings, costumes and even copies of all of her ideas – just in case.
The building is temperature controlled and has full-time security, as well as being based on existing art and history archives around the world. This is to make sure she is insured in case of an emergency, but also to ensure her legacy after she has gone.
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Is it a little extreme? Yes, but she’s not the first pop star to keep memorabilia for herself. A whole floor of Lady Gaga’s apartment complex was apparently dedicated to just her costumes, which also had to be closely monitored for security reasons.
32. She can be petty
Some artists, especially musicians, have a reputation for acting like divas, but that’s never been true of Beyonce. In fact it’s kind of the opposite, with the press regarding her the same way they do royalty – as a picture of grace and kindness.
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That’s not surprising, when she is constantly going above and beyond to be kind to fans, such as secretly sneaking into hospital when two of them were injured by a pyrotechnics incident, and refusing to let press be informed so she could stay with them for longer, and ensure they were okay.
However, at the end of the day Beyonce is human, which means she does have petty human moments. The difference is, when you have as much power and money as she does, it’s easy to go a lot bigger with your petty revenge.
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And, while Beyonce has never been the time of person to make a shady remark to the press, or to get into a Twitter spat with someone she has fallen out with, she does have her own ways of getting her own back.
For example, when the MTV Awards refused to let her use her own image from her performance of her ceremony, she spent a whole year being followed around by a camera crew, who filmed her every waking moment.
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Not only did she then direct, produce and star in a documentary about the experience, but she also made it that any media outlet wishing to use her image in their own material would have to rent or buy the image from Beyonce’s own estate.
33. Beyonce took Lady Gaga’s place
Beyonce doesn’t collaborate with other artists easily, and the times she has done it have been few and far between. In fact, she’s so cagey about working with other artists to help bring their vision to life, that her most frequent and loyal collaborators have been her family.
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With that said, one artist she did agree to work with was Lady Gaga, the unorthodox queen of pop. Together, the two of them released Telephone, which was a smash hit and one of the most iconic pop crossovers not just of the year, but of the decade.
Lady Gaga later went on to follow in Beyonce’s footsteps, by transitioning into cinema and even into musicals. The last film she worked on was A Star Is Born, which netted her an Academy Award nomination as well as a bunch of other accolades.
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The strange thing is, Beyonce herself was set to play exactly the same part, in an adaptation of A Star Is Born that was supposed to begin filming in 2015.
The film would have starred her as the young musician Annie, while Tom Cruise or Hugh Jackman played the handsome older musician.
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Beyonce eventually dropped out of the project, saying spending time with her family was more important to her than her acting career.
34. She’s meticulous about her performances
Beyonce is an astounding vocalist, but what really sets her performances apart is the spectacle. Normally involving several costume changes, high energy dance routines and elaborate set-pieces, the work she and her backing vocalists and dancers do far exceeds just singing.
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In order to prepare for a huge festival appearance or gruelling tour, Beyonce makes several sacrifices, such as committing to eating no carbs, no dairy and no meat, and spending hours in the gym and dance studio every day, perfecting both her body and the choreography.
However, even once the rehearsal process is over, the hard work isn’t done – since she won’t let the choreography stay the same from the beginning of the tour to the end.
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Instead, Beyonce continually tweaks the staging, moves and even lighting over the course of the tour – which means the best time to see her is probably on the last date she plays.
In order to make sure her fans are getting the best version of the show possible, Beyonce sets up cameras to film every performance she does, and then watches all the footage back after getting home from the show.
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There, she watches for any mistakes, as well as any moves that aren’t translating well into the crowd.
Once that’s done, she writes up notes for how she believes things could be improved, and then hands the notes out to every dancer, vocalist and musician in the morning. Then they get back to rehearsing, implementing the changes so that night’s performance is even better.
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She herself is not excluded, often asking for feedback from the others on stage with her. She also makes sure to tweak her performance a little more each night, based on what the crowd are responding well to.
35. Crazy In Love almost didn’t happen
Crazy In Love is one of Beyonce’s most iconic tracks. Appearing on her first solo album, it was important for establishing her identity outside of Destiny’s Child, and it definitely succeeded.
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It shot to the number one spot on the hip-hop charts instantly, both in the US and across the pond in the UK. It won three awards at the MTV Video Music Awards, and was one of the most performed and covered songs full stop in 2014.
However, Crazy In Love as we know and love it almost didn’t happen at all. The musician responsible for creating the track’s iconic hook loved the sound, but his fellow bandmates didn’t.
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The loop was tucked away at the bottom of a drawer, with the musician stating he’d never use it unless the right artist came along.
The right artist turned out to be Beyonce, but even she took some convincing. She believed the now iconic horns were too old school, and wouldn’t gel with her modern sound.
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Not only that, but when she agreed to perform the song and went off to write lyrics, she penned the whole thing in just two hours – and with a raging hangover. Needless to say, she didn’t expect it to be a huge success.
Now all this talk of Queen B along with the hot weather we’re experiencing at the moment is leaving us feeling a little faint.[adunit mobile=”RTK_wCZW”]
We bow down to you, the Queen.
