The Bite Magazine - Issue 11

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her marital name, Mrs Carter as the title
of her tour which saw the singer emulate
different queens through her fashion with
collaborations with numerous designers
and fashion houses.Then, at the end of last
year, Sasha Fierce was replaced with a new
alter-ego called Yoncé and featured in a
seemingly provocative video, with models
Jourdan Dunn and Joan Smalls.
Beyoncé is unarguably the most successful
of the three Destiny’s Child singers.
Whilst her 2002 single ‘Work It Out’
from the Austin Powers in Goldmember
soundtrack didn’t fare well in the charts,
she enjoyed huge success with her 2003
debut album, Dangerously in Love. The
album featuring number one singles
‘Crazy in Love’ and ‘Baby Boy’ sold 11
million copies and earned the singer five
Grammy Awards. Her video for ‘Crazy in
Love’ which featured Jay Z for the first
time saw the chemistry between the two
and sparked rumours of a relationship.
Her second solo album, B’Day released
after the disbandment of Destiny’s Child
in 2005 contained hits such as ‘Déjà Vu’,
‘Irreplaceable’ and ‘Beautiful Liar’. The
following year, the singer ventured into
acting, starring opposite Jennifer Hudson
and Jamie Foxx in Dreamgirls, Steve Martin
in The Pink Panther, Idris Elba in Obsessed
and Adrien Brody in Cadillac Records.
Her alter-ego titled 2008 album, I Am…
Sasha Fierce earned her a record-setting
six Grammy Awards in 2010 and cited
influence from her marriage to Jay Z and
her role as Etta James in Cadillac Records.
The dynamic singer is well known
for exercising female sexuality and
empowerment through songs such as
‘Irreplaceable’, ‘Single Ladies (Put a Ring
on It)’ and ‘Run the World’. Thanks to
her dynamic, highly choreographed
performances, Beyoncé is praised as one
of the best performers in contemporary
popular music. To date, she has won 17
Grammy Awards and sold over 75 million
records as a solo artist and 60 million
with Destiny’s Child. With ‘Pretty Hurts’,
the fourth single taken from her fifth
studio album, Beyoncé, the singer delivers
a self-empowerment song that highlights
society’s perception of beauty standards
and analyses the female body image. The
music video focuses on the negative
effect of beauty pageants which the
singer described as, “the most humiliating,
judgemental place you can be as a woman.”
She added,“I feel like sometimes the world
is a big contest, we’re all being judged. I
wanted to capture how humiliating and
insecure that makes you feel.” The song
written by Australian singer/songwriter Sia
Furler was previously offered to Katy Perry
and Rihanna but was quickly snapped up by
Beyoncé as soon as the opportunity arose.
She said,“The second I heard the song, I’m
like, ‘I have to sing this song, I don’t care
how hard I have to fight for this song, this
is my song!’”
With Jay Z honouring his wife with a
memorabilia video in celebration of her
33rd birthday, amidst rumours of the
couple splitting at the end of the ‘On the
Run’ tour and reports of Beyoncé’s second
pregnancy, we’ll just have to wait and see
what happens in the months to come.
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