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Beyonce

Beyoncé Giselle Knowles (born September 4, 1981) is an American R&B singer, songwriter, record producer, music video director, actress, dancer, and fashion designer. Knowles rose to fame as the creative force and lead singer of the R&B girl group Destiny's Child, the world's best-selling female group of all time.

Knowles' second studio album, B'Day, was released worldwide on September 4, 2006 and on September 5, 2006 in the U.S. to coincide with the celebration of Knowles' twenty-fifth birthday. In its first week, the album sold more than 541,000 copies in the U.S., immediately coming in at number one, making it her highest first-week sales as a solo artist. This is also the highest first-week sales of any solo female artist in 2006, a record which used to be held by pop singer Christina Aguilera whose album Back to Basics sold 346,000 copies in its first week. In the UK, it debuted at number three with sales of 45,000 copies, and, with combined sales with the deluxe edition, has sold 497,000 copies and has been certified double platinum. "Déjà Vu", the album's first single, features Jay-Z and co-production by Rodney Jerkins. Other co-producers on B'Day included Rich Harrison, The Neptunes, and Swizz Beatz. Currently, the album has been certified triple platinum in the U.S. for shipments of over three million copies. The album has had global success, selling over seven million copies worldwide.

The album's lead single "Déjà Vu" became a top five hit in the United States and a number-one hit on the U.S. R&B chart and the UK chart, making it Knowles' second UK number-one single, when it climbed twenty spots to take the top spot over Shakira featuring Wyclef Jean's "Hips Don't Lie" in the week of August 27, 2006.

The second single, "Ring the Alarm", was leaked to the Internet on August 8, 2006. The video for "Ring the Alarm" was released on August 16, 2006 on Yahoo.com and peaked at number one on the website's videos chart. "Ring the Alarm" became Knowles' highest-charting single debut, when it debuted at number twelve on the singles chart but only peaked at number eleven.

Outside North America, "Irreplaceable" was released as the album's second international single in October 2006. The single debuted at number eighty-seven on the Hot 100—where it would later spend ten consecutive weeks at number one—and number forty-two on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. It was the longest-running number-one single of the year as a result of its ten-week stay atop the Billboard Hot 100. The song peaked at number four on the UK Singles Chart and number one on the Australian Singles Chart. It also took over on the Irish Singles Chart, peaking at number one in its second week. "Irreplaceable" is her fourth number one and her eighth top ten hit as a solo artist on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, as well as her fourth number-one hit on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. In December 2006, a Spanish-language version of "Irreplaceable", called "Imprescindible", was released.

On December 6, the nominations for the 2007 Grammy Awards were announced, and Knowles received five, of which she won "Best Contemporary R&B Album".

On February 28, "Beautiful Liar", a duet with Latin superstar Shakira, and "Upgrade U", Knowles' fifth collaboration with Jay-Z, were released as the latest singles from B'Day. To promote the new releases, Knowles premiered music videos for both singles on MTV's Total Request Live and BET's 106 & Park on February 28, 2007, respectively.

Knowles re-released B'Day as a deluxe edition on April 3, 2007. It features new tracks—including "Beautiful Liar", which made Billboard history when it jumped from number ninety-four to number three on the Hot 100 in one week on April 7, 2007, and "Amor Gitano", a duet with Mexican singer Alejandro Fernández used as the theme song for the Colombian telenovela Zorro: La Espada y la Rosa. Also included are Spanish-language versions of "Irreplaceable", "Listen", and "Beautiful Liar".

On April 2, full-length videos for "Get Me Bodied", "Green Light", and "Suga Mama" premiered on BET to promote B'Day Anthology Video Album released on the following day. A fifty-seven-second preview of "Kitty Kat" was included also, appearing as an intro in the video for "Green Light". Sony BMG has released all of the videos (with the exception of "Still in Love (Kissing You)") from the DVD to their official music video website, Musicbox.

In Australia, the deluxe edition of B'Day was released on April 16, 2007. Unlike the U.S. release, the Australian edition comes packaged in a CD/DVD combo featuring nineteen tracks on the CD and twelve music videos on the DVD. The Australian release does not feature the track "Still in Love (Kissing You)" on either the CD or DVD. However, the CD does feature the tracks "If" and "Check on It", which are not featured on the U.S. release. Additionally, "World Wide Woman" appears as a hidden track on the U.S. release while it is an officially-listed track on the Australian disc. Finally, apart from the track "Amor Gitano", the Australian disc does not feature any of the Spanish tracks. The European and the Asian edition of B'Day are the same as the Australian release.

In the week of April 22, the deluxe edition of B'Day and the B'Day Anthology Video Album that include the song "Still in Love (Kissing You)" were pulled from distribution due to a lawsuit filed by English singer Des'ree. The lawsuit is over Knowles' cover of Des'ree's 1998 "I'm Kissing You", which was granted permission—within certain limits. For one thing, they would allow use of the song, but not in video form. They would also allow use of the song only if the title was not changed. Despite follow-ups, they didn't hear back from Knowles' camp. On March 27, according to the complaint, they discovered that Knowles and her record label planned to proceed with their plans to include the song on the re-release anyway which they changed the title to the song and made a video from which they didn't follow copyrighted laws. In a letter they wrote to Knowles' lawyer and her distribution group Sony, the Royalty Network called the move "completely unacceptable. Des'ree is apparently seeking $150,000 in damages".

More singles have been released from the deluxe edition of B'Day. "Amor Gitano" was released as a CD single in South America and other countries such as Mexico; "Get Me Bodied" has been released in North America; and the Freemasons remix of "Green Light" has been released as the fifth British single.

Knowles has embarked on her lengthy The Beyoncé Experience concert tour which has sold out various shows worldwide. Opening acts included Robin Thicke (in North America), Lemar (in Europe), Katy Shotter (in North America and the UK), and Chris Brown (in Australia). She is touring from April 10 to November 12, 2007.

Knowles' new deluxe live DVD, The Beyoncé Experience Live!, which was recorded on September 2, 2007 at Los Angeles' Staples Center, is slated for a November 20, 2007 release.

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