Beyoncé Covers Forbes Magazine June 2009!
Inside Beyonce’s Entertainment Empire
Beyonce Knowles is a perfectionist. That’s how she rakes in $87 million a year.
n a crisp Thursday evening in late April a Cadillac Escalade barrels down a cross street in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, coming to a halt before the School of Visual Arts. Four-and-a-half-inch heels emerge, then the rest of Beyoncé Knowles, wearing a crowd-delighting, hip-hugging, black-sequined Balmain dress. Flashbulbs and shrieks explode from a gathering in the hundreds. The 27-year-old singer is there to promote Obsessed, a movie thriller she’s been plugging relentlessly since the beginning of the week. Beyoncé works the crowd for 45 minutes before heading into the theater. With two bodyguards, a publicist and a stylist alongside, she takes questions from the press. Yes, she did get bruised while filming the fight scene. That hoax, where Howard Stern played a distorted version of “If I Were a Boy,” making her sound grotesquely off-key–oh, that was silly.
After the premiere Beyoncé headed to a party at the Bowery Hotel. It had been quite a day. Call time at the Today show was 6 a.m. to rehearse and get made up for a live interview and performance. After that she appears on The View (11 a.m.) before heading over to tape Larry King [not quite] Live, followed by 106 & Park at BET. She has a few hours to herself at a downtown apartment.
In Pictures: How Beyonce Makes Her Millions
That’s the way much of her life has played out for the past 20 years–one reason she has sold upward of 118 million records, won ten Grammys, starred in seven films and headlined three solo tours. This year she will bring in an estimated $87 million from publishing and music sales, touring and other performances, film work, her fashion collection and endorsement deals. That diversified portfolio helps her land at number 4 on the FORBES Celebrity 100 list, a ranking based on income and visibility. Beyoncé constantly works and reworks her act, watching every two-hour performance on tour–even after her hundredth appearance–taking notes on how to improve. “I’m never satisfied,” she says, adding with a nervous laugh, “I’m sure sometimes it’s not easy working for me.” Then, seriously: “I’ve never met anyone that works harder than me in my industry.”
Such diligence invites comparison with another 27-year-old at the top of the charts. Britney Spears is a study in contrast. After peaking early she has demonstrated a spectacular capacity for melting down. (Spears, number 13 on our list, is back on tour–and reportedly on medication.) “I’ve worked too hard and sacrificed too much to do something silly that would mess up the brand I’ve created all of these years,” says Beyoncé. To say nothing of the jobs of the roughly 400 people who work for her or her enterprises.
Beyoncé grew up in a four-bedroom home in Houston’s upscale third ward with her father, Mathew, a salesman at Xerox (later at Johnson & Johnson); mother, Tina, a hair salon owner; and younger sister, Solange, now a singer. A dance teacher spotted Beyoncé and encouraged the shy first-grader to enroll in her school’s talent show–the first of three dozen competitions she won over the next few years. At age 9 Beyoncé joined and devoted every spare minute to an R&B group called Girlz Tyme, which didn’t produce an album but did make it to Star Search.
Soon after, her father quit his day job to take over the group, imposing a boot camp regimen, cutting members and changing its name to Destiny’s Child. Under his authority the band rehearsed for hours every day, working with a media coach, a choreographer and a voice teacher who lived for a time in an apartment over their garage. Knowles jogged with the girls as they sang, an exercise to build stamina, and booked them anywhere he could. “There was nothing too small or too large,” he recalls–church services, grocery store openings, fashion shows, Six Flags. When it wasn’t performing, the group was practicing. Unrelentingly. “Repetition, repetition,” says her dad. “Beyoncé has always had such passion about music that she never complained about doing it again.”
She still doesn’t, judging by the number of takes she endured on a set at the Silvercup Studios in Long Island City, N.Y. It was 10 a.m. the Friday before her premiere, and Beyoncé had already spent an hour-plus at a morning workout with her personal trainer. She gave over much of the day to produce public service announcements and ad spots for the Feeding America campaign, an effort with General Mills. Beyoncé has spent considerable time (and money) on charities–she and her family created the Survivor Foundation to provide temporary housing to Hurricane Katrina and other disaster victims; she donated her acting salary from playing the once-drug-addicted blues singer Etta James in Cadillac Records (2008) to Phoenix House. This six-hour ordeal of radio and TV spots plus a print ad wasn’t totally selfless: General Mills is sponsoring the U.S. leg of her I Am tour this summer. Concertgoers will be able to donate nonperishable goods.
While she huddled with General Mills staffers working through the talking points, Beyoncé’s retinue danced around her, making sure her caramel skin was painted just right, her tresses blown yardstick straight. She did take after take, working through the feigned emotions–concern, surprise, urgency–until the food company sponsors, looking wilted, were satisfied. Was she willing to record a “personal” video message on the campaign for the General Mills sales meeting? Sure. Take photos with the staff? Of course. After that Beyoncé put herself through two hours of a cover shoot, plus an interview, for a magazine. Then she was off for an evening playing Uno with her 4-year-old nephew Julez.
Beyoncé caught her break in 1997, when Destiny’s Child signed with Columbia Records (still her label). Its first song, “Killing Time,” was on the soundtrack for Men in Black. But within the group, trouble bubbled. Band members LaTavia Roberson and LeToya Luckett fired Mathew Knowles as their manager and claimed in a lawsuit that he owed them money and favored his lead vocalist (Beyoncé), accusations that spawned nasty headlines. Knowles still denies the claim, but the case was settled out of court. The notoriety may have helped pump sales for the group’s second album, The Writing’s on the Wall, which sold 8 million or so copies. Despite continued infighting–Destiny’s Child was soon down to a trio–the band kept churning out albums and became the top-selling female recording group of all time.
Beyoncé found her own voice in 2003. Her solo debut, Dangerously in Love, sold 4 million copies and took five Grammys. Soon after her second album, B’Day (2006), she was off on a 30-country tour. But it’s her latest solo effort, the double-disc I Am … Sasha Fierce (2008), that shows off Beyoncé’s range and stick-to-itiveness. With 17 songs on the deluxe album, winnowed from the 70-plus recorded, the collection took a year to compile, combining two distinct styles of music (introspective R&B ballads and club-ready dance tracks). Beyoncé had a hand in writing and producing nearly every cut. At a time when album sales have dropped 45% since the peak in 2000, I Am … Sasha Fierce has sold 4 million copies worldwide. Thanks to her popularity and clout, Beyoncé splits the profits with Columbia, a deal reserved for A-list performers. “We’re about 40 hits in, and she’s [just] 27 years old,” says Rob Stringer, president of Columbia/Epic Label Group.
Sasha Fierce is Beyoncé ‘s alter ego on stage, a persona she has characterized as “the fun, more sensual, more aggressive, more outspoken … and glamorous side.” Her doppelgänger satisfies an obvious need to ham it up–the same impulse that landed her parts in movies, including her 2006 role as Deena Jones, a character loosely based on Diana Ross, in Dreamgirls. (“It’s very rare to find [good] musicians who are also good actors,” says Christopher Silbermann, president of ICM, the talent agency that represents her.)
Just as obviously, Sasha Fierce provides cover for someone obsessively protective of her private life. “Just because you’re a celebrity, [people] feel like they have to know everything about you,” Beyoncé pouts–and tenses up. “I disagree.” Example? While she’s been photographed with Jay-Z for nearly a decade, she declined publicly to acknowledge their romantic involvement–and marriage last year–until recently. (Her camp insisted the rap star not be interviewed for this story.) Nor does she appear comfortable talking about the strain her career has had on her family. (Mathew’s decision years ago to manage Destiny’s Child caused emotional and financial havoc–including a brief separation from his wife–that forced the sale of their Houston home.)
Surprisingly, perhaps, Beyoncé is still a bit insecure about her talents. At times she sounds like the ruffled girl on Star Search. “Like everyone else, you work really hard and you want it to be great; you want your friends to like it,” she muses. “What makes me feel comfortable is practice and knowing I’m prepared. But I still, of course, get nervous.”
You wouldn’t know that from the other side of the tripod, as Beyoncé began her week modeling her own fashion lines, Deréon and House of Deréon, at Chelsea Piers in Manhattan. Out of this session will come ads to present the fall collections. Over ten hours Beyoncé was in and out of dresses, showcasing different sportswear, footwear, handbags, jewelry and eyewear.
On Tuesday she arrived at a soundstage in Brooklyn to shoot a music video for “Sweet Dreams,” a single from her latest album. The choreography she’d picked up weeks ago in L.A. she had to now relearn with a different group. The session lasted from 10 a.m. until 2 a.m. the next morning.
Eight hours later, hair and makeup ready, Beyoncé taped the first of three dozen television and radio interviews around Manhattan to boost Obsessed. While her first nonsinging role required less screen time than her costars Idris Elba and Ali Larter had, Beyoncé has done a disproportionate amount of time flogging the movie. (It bombed critically, though the film has already brought in $65 million.)
Two days later she was off to Zagreb, Croatia to kick off the 110-date I Am tour. It was a long-sought opportunity to focus on just one thing: her singing.
Looking forward to getting her latest album, lol
You make some good points. I guess it depends on your standpoint. You can live to be a hundred if you give up all the things that make you want to live to be a hundred. Woody Allen Born 1935
The new Zune browser is surprisingly good, but not as good as the iPod’s. It works well, but isn’t as fast as Safari, and has a clunkier interface. If you occasionally plan on using the web browser that’s not an issue, but if you’re planning to browse the web alot from your PMP then the iPod’s larger screen and better browser may be important.
Definitely believe that which you said. Your favorite reason seemed to be on the internet the easiest thing to be aware of. I say to you, I certainly get annoyed while people think about worries that they just don’t know about. You managed to hit the nail upon the top as well as defined out the whole thing without having side-effects , people could take a signal. Will probably be back to get more. Thanks
very nice post, i certainly love this website, keep on it
Whilst I must disagree with a few of the info, however I still truly liked it. I expect looking at a great deal more of this posts.
Hello.This post was really interesting, particularly because I was investigating for thoughts on this topic last week. Yours, AMG.
I am always looking online for tips that can assist me. Thank you!
I truly appreciate this post. I’ve been looking everywhere for this! Thank goodness I found it on Bing. You’ve made my day! Thank you again!
Hello. magnificent job. I did not expect this particular. This is an excellent story. Thanks!
I just saved Beyonce Daily – A Beyonce Fansite – 4 OUT NOW! on Digg, hope this helps get you more traffic. Correct using this write-up, I really believe this website needs more due consideration. I’ll likely be returning shortly to read considerably more, thanks for the blog post it is fantastic
I adore your wp template, exactly where did you get a hold of it from?
I saw a lot of website but I think this one contains something special in it. “The trouble with being poor is that it takes up all your time.” by Willem de Kooning.
Pretty component of content. I became aware of your web site plus accession capital to assert i always get actually enjoyed account your site posts. Anyway I will be registering to your augment and even I achievement you access consistently rapidly.
Some really excellent info , Gladiola I discovered this. “Three things you can be judged by your voice, your face, and your disposition.” by Ignas Bernstein.
Gday. I was considering adding a hyperlink back to your website since both of our web sites are based around the same niche. Would you prefer I link to you using your website address: http://beyoncedaily.org/2009/06/03/beyonce-covers-forbes-magazine-june-2009 or website title: Beyonce Daily – A Beyonce Fansite – 4 OUT NOW!. Please make sure to let me know at your earliest convenience. Cheers
Good job over again. Thanks a lot.
How To Trade Penny Stocks and Daily Penny Stock Alerts- Get the list of top penny stocks to trade, and learn how to trade penny stocks like a pro.
I just added this blog site to my google reader, great stuff. Can’t get enough!
You made some nice points there. I looked on the internet for the issue and found most people will go along with with your website.
I’ve said that least 4956785 times. SCK was here
I was very pleased to find this site.I wished to thanks a ton for this terrific read!! I definitely enjoying every little bit of it and I have you saved as a favorite to check out new stuff you post.
Your home is valueble for me. Thanks!…
You’re the best, thanks for the awesome blog post. I’m having troubles subscribing to your blogs feed. Thought I’d let you know
Great info once again! Thank you.
I’ve been surfing online greater than three hours these days, yet I by no means discovered any fascinating article like yours. It’s lovely price sufficient for me. In my view, if all web owners and bloggers made just right content material as you probably did, the internet will probably be much more helpful than ever before. “I think that maybe if women and children were in charge we would get somewhere.” by James Grover Thurber.
I like this site so much, saved to my bookmarks. “Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be.” by Peter De Vries.
Howdy this really is sort of of off topic however i was wondering if blogs use WYSIWYG editors or if you should manually code with HTML. Im starting your blog soon but have zero coding expertise therefore i want to get guidance from someone with experience. Any help is enormously appreciated!
I happen to be commenting to make you understand what a fantastic experience my friend’s girl gained going through the blog. She figured out such a lot of things, which include how it is like to possess an incredible giving character to get many people very easily fully understand certain multifaceted topics. You really exceeded her expectations. Thank you for coming up with those warm and helpful, trusted, explanatory as well as unique tips about that topic to Ethel.
Winter 1st Week Release Reflect Week
Your website is very slow on account of open
I’m really enjoying the theme/design of your site. Do you ever run into any internet browser compatibility issues? A number of my blog audience have complained about my blog not working correctly in Explorer but looks great in Firefox. Do you have any recommendations to help fix this problem?
I am not sure but if your be aware of it or otherwise not, however the sites making the important big AdSense money usually have followers it does not rely on search engines. Internet mavens like Chris Pirillo or Joel Comm have been getting the online world a bit and also have followings because of their websites. Therefore they’re able to consistently make six figures with AdSense.
I discovered your blog site on google and check a few of your early posts. Continue to keep up the very good operate. I just additional up your RSS feed to my MSN News Reader. Seeking forward to reading more from you later on!…
These include the particular businesses that are near for a long time not to mention recognize the travel home business inside of and also through.
You are my aspiration, I possess few web logs and occasionally run out from brand
. “To die for a religion is easier than to live it absolutely.” by Jorge Luis Borges.
You have noted very interesting details! ps decent site.
Just carry on doing good content.
I wanted to follow up and let you know how much I cherished discovering your website today. I would consider it a good honor to operate at my company and be able to make use of the tips discussed on your blog and also engage in visitors’ remarks like this. Should a position regarding guest writer become on offer at your end, make sure you let me know.
I and my pals have been digesting the best secrets and techniques from your web site while suddenly I had a terrible feeling I never expressed respect to the web blog owner for them. Most of the boys became absolutely very interested to see them and have in effect actually been tapping into those things. Appreciation for really being considerably kind and also for picking out variety of impressive subject areas most people are really eager to know about. My very own sincere apologies for not expressing appreciation to you earlier.
I am also writing to let you be aware of of the useful discovery my girl encountered visiting your web site. She came to find a good number of issues, which included what it’s like to possess a very effective helping nature to let many others easily thoroughly grasp a variety of problematic matters. You truly surpassed our expectations. Thanks for rendering the necessary, trustworthy, informative and even easy tips about this topic to Jane.
I have been surfing on-line greater than 3 hours lately, yet I never found any attention-grabbing article like yours. It is pretty value sufficient for me. Personally, if all webmasters and bloggers made just right content material as you did, the net can be much more helpful than ever before.
Thanks the show! .Nancy.Are
Your package determination relies on the actual functions that you really may wish to embark on.
Somebody necessarily help to make seriously posts I’d state. This is the first time I frequented your web page and thus far? I amazed with the research you made to make this actual submit extraordinary. Great task!
Thanks for writing your thoughts. Being a blogger, I am constantly trying to find unique and different tips on how to think about a subject. I get great inspiration in doing this. Thank you once again
very interesting subject , great post.
Due to assured is truly a whole bunch of information and facts you will have to your websites!
Hi there! I just wish to give an enormous thumbs up for the nice information you’ve right here on this post. I shall be coming once again to your blog for extra soon.
I am curious to find out what blog system you have been using? I’m experiencing some minor security problems with my latest website and I’d like to find something more secure. Do you have any recommendations?