Intro

Hello and Welcome to this episode of the podcast, "The Mnemonic Tree", where we add a single mnemonic leaf, to our Tree of Knowledge.

Today's episode, is on the mega talented Beyonce. Her career as Destiny’s Childs lead singer garnered her enough success for a lifetime, but now she has done that, along with, pursuing a hugely successful solo career.

She is a sagacious businesswoman with ventures including a streaming music service, records, modelling, a clothing line and film production. All this while cementing her place as a cultural icon over the past two decades.

So, with no further ado, we will begin with a summary from Wikipedia.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Beyonc%C3%A9_Knowles_2004_L%27Or%C3%A9al_brand(cropped).jpg

Wikipedia Summary

Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter (née Knowles; /biˈɒnseɪ/ ( listen) bee-ON-say;[4] born September 4, 1981)[5] is an American singer, songwriter and dancer. Regarded as one of the most successful performers of her generation, she is known for her boundary-pushing artistry and vocal abilities.[6][7] Her success earned her the nickname "Queen Bey" and led her to become a pop icon of the 21st century.[8][9]

Beyoncé started performing in various singing and dancing competitions as a child. She rose to fame in the late 1990s as a member of the R&B girl group Destiny's Child, one of the best-selling girl groups of all time. Their hiatus saw the release of her debut album Dangerously in Love (2003), which featured the US Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles "Crazy in Love" and "Baby Boy." Following the 2006 disbanding of Destiny's Child, Beyoncé released a series of successful solo albums, including B'Day (2006), I Am... Sasha Fierce (2008), 4 (2011), Beyoncé (2013), Lemonade (2016), and Renaissance (2022), and became the first solo artist to have their first seven studio albums debut at number one on the Billboard 200.[10][11]

After professionally splitting from her manager and father, Mathew Knowles, in 2010, Beyoncé's artistry achieved wider critical acclaim for releasing sonically experimental visual albums and exploring societal themes such as infidelity, feminism, womanism, escapism, and hedonism. In 2018, she released Everything Is Love, a collaborative album with her husband, Jay-Z, as the Carters. In 2020, she released the musical film Black Is King, inspired by the music of the film soundtrack The Lion King: The Gift (2019), with praise from critics. Beyoncé also starred in multiple films such as Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002), The Pink Panther (2006), Dreamgirls (2006), Cadillac Records (2008), Obsessed (2009), and The Lion King (2019).

Having sold 200 million records worldwide, Beyoncé is one of the world's best-selling recording artists.[12][13] Throughout her career, she has amassed multiple chart-topping singles, including "Check on It," "Irreplaceable," "Single Ladies," and "Break My Soul." As a featured artist, Beyoncé topped the Billboard Hot 100 with the remixes of "Perfect" by Ed Sheeran and "Savage" by Megan Thee Stallion. With 31 career top-ten singles on the Billboard Hot 100, she became the first female artist and third overall to achieve at least twenty as a solo artist and ten as a group member.[14]

Beyoncé's accolades include 32 Grammy Awards, 26 MTV Video Music Awards (including the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award in 2014), 24 NAACP Image Awards, 31 BET Awards, and 17 Soul Train Music Awards, all of which are more than any other artist. Her success during the 2000s earned her recognition as the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)'s Top Certified Artist of the Decade and Billboard's Top Female Artist of the Decade.[15] In 2014, Billboard named her the highest-earning black musician of all time. In 2020, Time magazine featured her among a list of 100 women who defined the last century.[16]

Extracted from: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyonc%C3%A9]

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Beyonc%C3%A9_Knowles_GMA_2011_cropped.jpg

Mnemonic

Beyonce – Top 5 Songs Mnemonic - CHaRFS

(Picture Beyonce coming back home after winning another grammy and after way too many celebratory drinks, charfing (throwing up) in the back of the limo)

1. Crazy in Love

2. Halo

3. Run the World (Girls)

4. Formation

5. Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)

Five Fun Facts

1. Beyonce had an early start, winning her first talent show at just seven years old. She won against competitors twice her age with a version of John Lennon’s “Imagine”. This win prompted her father to enter her into more competitions which paid dividends winning a stupendous 35 competitions in a row.

2. Now this could be a fact or a factoid, but Beyonce apparently adopted her alter ego, Sasha Fierce, to overcome stage fright. Now considering she performed from the age of seven in a million competitions, performed in front of customers at her mum’s salon, after which she hustled them for money, along with being front and centre to most of her video clips, I find it a little hard to believe that stage fright was one of her main challenges ………… just saying!

3. Beyonce made history when she was the first solo-artist to have six consecutive albums hit and debut at No.1 on the Billboard 200 chart.

4. Beyonce loves art, but took that to a whole different level when she and Jay-Z rented out the entire Louvre Museum to film the music video for their song “Apeshit.” Some of the pieces featured in the film clip included the “Venus de Milo”, “The Mona Lisa”, “the Greek goddess “Nike” and “The Coronation of Napoleon”, which is just to name a few.

Now, apparently a true story from that day of filming the videoclip at the Louvre. Beyonce according to sources, had misplaced her phone, which was totally understandable considering Beyonce and the troupe of dancers were basically half naked during the clip. Anyway, she asked one of the janitors if they had seen it, as it was very special to her as it was a gift from Jay Z and was diamond studded. Now, the janitor told her she hadn’t seen it, but offered to give it a call to see if they could locate it. To which Beyonce replied “unfortunately that’s not going to work because I left it on silent” to which the janitor replied “Oh well, if you liked it, you should have put a ring on it!”

5. Beyonce was actually asked to play the lead role in “A Star Is Born”. In the end scheduling conflicts made it impossible and the role eventually went to Lady Gaga, which she made her own. Well, sort of, along with Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Beyonce_in_Rome.jpg

Three Question Quiz

Q.1. Which movie did Beyonce appear in first? Your options are Dreamgirls or Austin Powers in Goldmember

Q.2. Beyonce is the most-nominated and awarded woman in Grammys history. Is that true or false?

Q.3. Beyonce was the lead singer of which R&B girl group?

Bonus Q. What is Beyonce middle name?

Bonus Q. Which state in America was Beyonce born and raised?

Mnemonic Recap

Beyonce – Top 5 Songs Mnemonic - CHaRFS

(Picture Beyonce coming back home after winning another grammy and after way too many celebratory drinks, charfing (throwing up) in the back of the limo)

1. Crazy in Love

2. Halo

3. Run the World (Girls)

4. Formation

5. Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)

Three Question Quiz Answers

Q.1. Which movie did Beyonce appear in first. Your options are Dreamgirls or Austin Powers in Goldmember

A. Austin Powers in Goldmember in 2002. Dreamgirls was in 2006

Q.2. Beyonce is the most-nominated and awarded woman in Grammys history. Is that true or false?

A. True. To this point she has 79 nominations and 28 awards

Q.3. Beyonce was the lead singer of which R&B girl group?

A. Destiny’s Child