Beyoncé interview

Beyoncé is one multi-talented singer. She’s a pop princess, actress, fashion icon, a global superstar and what not. So when Beyoncé Knowles declares she’s taking a few months off, it’s hard to believe she’ll be kicking her heels.

“It takes time to figure out who you are. I am still discovering things about myself,” says Beyoncé.

Beyoncé who is so well-mannered and humble is an American royalty, and an audience with her is not just a pleasure, it’s a privilege. The 28-year-old pop star is one of the most successful performers, with 64 gold and platinum certifications for sales, and 16 Grammys (13 as a solo artist and three with Destiny’s Child). With husband Jay-Z, she bags the title of Forbes magazine’s top-earning Hollywood couple (between them they earned around £80 million from June 2008-2009), with inspiring connections from Hollywood to the White House (Jay-Z is said to have Obama on speed dial, and Beyoncé was chosen to sing at the President’s Inaugural Ball).

However, in the wake of overexposed media couples such as Brangelina and the Beckhams, Mr. and Mrs. Carter (Jay-Z’s real name is Shawn Carter) have chosen to keep their relationship private. Unlike many other celebrities, they both prefer to keep their life private. Especially on subjects related to the possibility of a pregnancy (Beyoncé has announced that she is taking a few months off, prompting baby rumours).

One of the ways in which Beyoncé has sought to shield herself was by the creation in 2008 of an on-stage alter ego called Sasha Fierce – more belligerent, sensual and outrageous than the shy, sweet woman. Though, she unveils, she has less need to hide behind Sasha now.

“I don’t need Sasha so much any more because these days I know who I am. It takes time to figure out who you are and I am still discovering different things about myself – as I am exposed to different experiences I think; ‘Oh, I like this, I didn’t know I liked this.’ That’s the journey of life that is so exciting. More and more I know who I am, I find out what I like, I find out what I want and that makes me feel so free. I don’t need to hide any more,” she says.

And if Beyoncé has been careful in the past about revealing her real facades to the public, she has no such fears anymore.  She has a perfect figure. Going against the size-zero trend and championing a move towards ‘bootylicious’ (a word that has, much to her amusement, now slipped into the Oxford English Dictionary), she is one of the few really encouraging role models for young girls. Not just because of her own body but also because of the tough, yet free female messages of her lyrics.

“I think I am a feminist in a way. It’s not something I consciously decided I was going to be; perhaps it’s because I grew up in a singing group with other women, and that was so helpful to me. It kept me out of so much trouble and out of bad relationships. My friendships with my girls are just so much a part of me that there are things I am never going to do that would upset that bond. I never want to betray that friendship because I love being a woman and I love being a friend to other women.”

“I think we learn a lot from our female friends – female friendship is very, very important. It’s good to support each other and I do try to put that message in my music,” she says with a smile.

Since her childhood, music was Beyoncé Giselle Knowles’s life. The elder of two daughters (her younger sister Solange is also a singer-songwriter) born to Mathew, a medical equipment salesman, and Tina, a hair stylist, she was raised in Houston, Texas, and won her first talent contest at the age of seven. And when she turned nine along with close friend Kelly Rowland, she had become part of an all-girl rapping and dancing group called Girl’s Tyme.

Managed by her father, who gave up his job and later became a famous music manager, and encouraged by her mother (who designed their costumes), the girls competed in a national television talent show and eventually evolved, in 1997, into Destiny’s Child. All their hard work of years finally paid off; as the group achieved international fame and went on to pick up three Grammys.

In 2000, Beyoncé signed a three-album deal and embarked on a hugely successful solo career, with spin-offs into acting (the lead role in an MTV modern-day version of Carmen was followed by her portrayal of Foxxy Cleopatra in Austin Powers in Goldmember in 2002). In the same year, she began dating Jay-Z (she had a teen romance with a boy called Lyndall from the ages of 13 to 17, but has subsequently said that Shawn was her first real boyfriend), marrying him in 2008.

She’s as ambitious and driven like her husband. Once she even said that she wanted a Tony and an Oscar to add to her collection of Grammys and the couple has such hectic working lives that Jay-Z admitted their Valentine’s Day date this year took place on Skype. Accomplishing a balance in her life, she confides, is difficult

“For me, balance is always really hard to find. I love so many different things, and to have the discipline to turn certain things away and focus on one thing at a time so that I can give it 100 per cent is really hard”.

“Probably the biggest challenge in my life is time – making sure I have time to be a wife, to be a singer, to be a songwriter, to be an actor and still have time for my clothing line and now for my perfume. I am like any other woman who has a child, who has a husband, who has a job. I think it’s the hardest thing about being a woman because we have so many responsibilities.”

As she is expecting a baby, she is still positive about the fact that she will eventually be able to maintain a good balance between being a good mother and a wife.

“My ambition is to continue to learn about the world and to eventually have a family,” she says with a shy smile.

However, she is keen on pursuing her acting career very seriously following her critically acclaimed roles in Dreamgirls and Cadillac Records. “I really feel I have learnt a lot about myself in the last two movies and I still want to grow as an actor,” she says.

Often referred to as one of the most beautiful women in the world, she is not particularly vain, she says. Beauty, she insists, is about more than just external looks. “I think a beautiful woman is someone who is confident but not competitive with other women – someone who is warm to everyone. Because my mother told me ever since I can remember that beauty is from within, that looks will fade, I have always been aware that you have to have something deeper to be really beautiful”, she says.

She says that her mother is very important to her. Beyoncé and her mother Tina have a clothing line called House of Deréon and are so close that she can tell when her mother enters a room because she recognizes her perfume.

But how does she keep herself sane and grounded? She says, “Family does keep me grounded. But you know what I do? I try really hard to make sure that every day I have my 30 minutes of quiet time. Mostly I just lie in bed and meditate and think what my goal is. Some days, of course, I can’t manage 30 minutes, but it’s really important to have those quiet moments.” she says with a slightly regretful smile.