TheGrio’s 100: Beyoncé Knowles, American icon for generations to come

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When President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama shared their first dance together as the first couple, the song they danced to — Etta James’ lapidary classic “At Last” — was sung by Beyoncé Knowles, who could relate to the words in the song’s title. She later admitted that the performance was the crown in her career. But the inaugural gig also represented how, at last, after pursuit of a dream that started in childhood, Beyoncé had arrived at the kind of first-name-basis, multi-hyphenate stardom that few entertainers ever achieve.

Groomed for a life onstage, she made her breakthrough inch by inch in talent shows and contests in her native Texas. She joined a singing group with Kelly Rowland, which became Destiny’s Child in 1997. More than nine years, four studio albums and 50 million record sales later, with the group at its peak, Beyoncé opted to move on to a solo career — always a risky proposition. When your group is named the World Music Awards best-selling female group of all time, how do you top that?

WATCH BEYONCE PERFORM “SINGLE LADIES” ON THE TODAY SHOW IN NOVEMBER, 2008:
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But Beyoncé did. Her voice, always a thing apart, became more of a singular presence as she matured. Even in an unfavorable review of one of her records, Chris Richards of The Washington Post found much to recommend, “Even when she’s coasting, she soars above her imitators. It’s all in her voice — a superhuman instrument … smitten, scorned, amorous, antagonistic …” Her voice took her to new level at the 2010 Grammy Awards when she” took home a record six awards for a female in one night.

After Destiny’s Child, she’s gone on to pursuits as a high-profile film actress, working both comedy and drama, a record producer, a fragrance designer (her Heat perfume debuts this year), an endorser of a range of quality products, a philanthropist, and a social activist prepared to step up to the plate in the face of human tragedy on a wide scale (see her performance in the Hope for Haiti Now telethon).

Then there’s her very personal triumph, as the wife of another storm-force presence in the entertainment world. When Beyoncé married Jay-Z in April 2008, it seemed like the union of two forces of nature, and it was. But it was also more evidence (as if that were needed) that Beyoncé Knowles was doing justice to her alter ego — Sasha Fierce — before Beyoncé ever gave it a name.