Beyonce performs on stage during "The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour" at Staples Center on December 3, in Los Angeles. She surprised fans by dropping her fifth LP, entitled "Beyonce," exclusively on iTunes with no advance notice. Here is a look back at her life and career:
In 1998, Beyoncé was known simply as another member of Destiny's Child, a four-member girl group who released a self-titled debut that year and had a breakthrough with the remix of their single "No, No, No, No."
Seen here with the final version of the group that put her on the map, Destiny's Child, Beyoncé performs with Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams for President-elect George W. Bush during a pre-inaugural event in Washington on January 19, 2001.
When Beyoncé took the stage in Melbourne on April 29, 2002, she was just a year away from releasing her first solo album, "Dangerously In Love."
Back in November 2002, before they tied the knot, Jay-Z and Beyoncé fueled rumors that they were dating by becoming musical collaborators. Bey appeared on Jay-Z's 2002 single, "03 Bonnie & Clyde," and he appeared on her single "Crazy In Love" the following summer.
A decade before she wowed viewers at the 2013 Super Bowl Halftime Show, Bey jammed with Carlos Santana during the Super Bowl XXXVII Pregame Show in San Diego on January 26, 2003.
Having stepped out on her own, Beyoncé presents the humanitarian award to Michael Jackson at the 2003 Radio Music Awards in Las Vegas on October 27, 2003.
The singer is affectionately referred to as Queen Bey, not in the least because of her heralded work ethic, which is often put to good use on stage. Here, she performs during the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards in New York on August 28, 2003.
Beyoncé was right back at the Super Bowl in 2004, as she performed the the national anthem to kick off Super Bowl XXXVIII on February 1 of that year.
At the 46th Grammy Awards Show in February 2004, she joined Prince on stage to perform a medley of his hits. The singer left the ceremony with five Grammys in hand.
Although her solo career had taken off by 2005, Beyoncé still performed with Destiny's Child that year in Sydney, Australia on the heels of their 2004 album, "Destiny Fulfilled."
After releasing another best-seller with 2006's "B'Day" and starring in "Dreamgirls" that same year, Beyoncé was readying to release a third solo album, "I Am ... Sasha Fierce" when she took the stage at the 50th Grammy Awards Show on February 10, 2008. Somehow, she snuck in a secret marriage to Jay-Z that April.
In this publicity image Beyonce Knowles is shown during the filming of her music video "Single Ladies (Put A Ring on It)."
Just months after giving birth, Beyoncé was red carpet ready at the Costume Institute Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on May 7, 2012.
In 2011, Beyoncé stole the show at the MTV Video Music Awards when she walked the red carpet and, with the careful placement of her hands, revealed that she was expecting. The star and husband Jay welcomed Blue Ivy in January 2012.
In this undated image released by Beyonce.com, Beyonce Knowles holds her daughter Blue Ivy in a recent family photo. A hand-written note accompanying the photos reads, "We welcome you to share our joy."
In April 2012, Bey stepped out for a stroll in New York with her daughter, 4 months old at the time.
Earlier this year, Beyoncé found herself at the center a firestorm after it was revealed she used a "backup track" to sing the national anthem at the inauguration of President Barack Obama on January 21.
After the inauguration dust-up, Beyoncé had something to prove when she held a news conference for her Pepsi Super Bowl XLVII Halftime Show on January 31. After belting out "The Star-Spangled Banner," the singer paused and turned to the press and asked: "Any questions?"
Kelly Rowland, Beyonce Knowles and Michelle Williams reunited as Destiny's Child to perform during the Super Bowl XLVII Halftime Show on February 3, in New Orleans.
In March, the singer reveled in her "Queen Bey" image with the song "Bow Down."
In early April, the singer and her husband were once again the subject of critical headlines when they took a trip to Cuba to celebrate their fifth anniversary.
In early May, Beyoncé was the subject of pregnancy rumors as observers noted that her dress to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute Gala conveniently covered her midsection. The speculation grew stronger after she had to cancel a concert due to exhaustion and dehydration. She denied that she was pregnant.
In September 2013, Jay-Z and Beyoncé once again topped the Forbes list of biggest-earning celebrity couples.
- Beyonce addresses gender inequality in an essay on Maria Shriver's website
- The singer points out the gap in average income between men and women
- The topic is something she also touches on frequently in her music
- Beyonce: We need to stop buying into the myth about gender equality
Editor's note: Leading Women connects you to extraordinary women of our time -- remarkable professionals who have made it to the top in all areas of business, the arts, sport, culture, science and more.
(CNN) -- When Beyonce tells people to "bow down," they listen.
Now the star is hoping to bring the same show-stopping power to the issue of gender inequality with an essay on Maria Shriver's website, The Shriver Report.
In "The Shriver Report: A Woman's Nation Pushes Back from the Brink," the 32-year-old pop star -- writing under her full name, Beyonce Knowles-Carter -- proclaims that "gender equality is a myth!"
The "average working woman earns only 77 percent of what the average working man makes. But unless women and men both say this is unacceptable, things will not change."
Beyonce calls out men... and women
Humanity, she continues, "requires both men and women, and we are equally important and need one another. ... We have to teach our boys the rules of equality and respect, so that as they grow up, gender equality becomes a natural way of life. And we have to teach our girls that they can reach as high as humanly possible."
Beyonce: The poster child for success
Beyonce: Becoming a businesswoman
Beyonce: The poster child for success
Her words are likely familiar to those who know her music, which references the trials of womanhood and female empowerment going all the way back to her work with Destiny's Child.
That's not to imply that Beyonce's pop music message doesn't have its conflicts. In the 1999 Destiny's Child song, "Bills, Bills, Bills," the lyrics scold a lover who's gone from footing the bill to asking for money. "Silly me, why haven't I found another," the song continues. "Can you pay my bills? ... If you did then maybe we could chill."
On the other hand, there are Destiny's Child anthems like "Independent Women," Parts I and II, with lyrics such as "I buy my own diamonds and I buy my own rings. ... Try to control me, boy you get dismissed," which became a nightclub rallying cry.
Given her prominence and success, her statements on womanhood and feminism are often a source of public debate.
Last April, Beyonce told British Vogue that she hesitated to call herself a feminist. (Katy Perry similarly ducked the designation while accepting 2012's Billboard Woman of the Year award, during which she said she's "not a feminist," but does "believe in the strength of women.")
The word feminist "can be very extreme," she told Vogue. "But I guess I am a modern-day feminist. I do believe in equality. Why do you have to choose what type of woman you are? Why do you have to label yourself anything? I'm just a woman and I love being a woman."
A woman, for the record, who celebrates the power of women -- that much is clear from her two most recent albums alone. On her 2011 disc "4" there was the self-assured "Who Run the World (Girls)?," in which she praises the power of women: "My persuasion/can build a nation .... (We're) smart enough to make these millions/strong enough to bear the children/then get back to business."
And her chart-topping surprise 2013 release, the self-titled "Beyonce," has been endlessly debated as a symbol of her feminist perspective -- or lack thereof.
In the song "***Flawless" from that album Beyonce samples words from celebrated writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's April 2013 TED Talk "We Should All Be Feminists."
"Because I am female, I am expected to aspire to marriage," Adichie says in the sample. "Marriage can be a source of joy and love and mutual support, but why do we teach girls to aspire to marriage, and we don't teach boys the same?"
In her piece for The Shriver Report, Beyonce echoes Adichie's perspective, saying "these old attitudes are drilled into us from the very beginning. ... Men have to demand that their wives, daughters, mothers, and sisters earn more -- commensurate with their qualifications and not their gender. Equality will be achieved when men and women are granted equal pay and equal respect."
The singer's contribution is one of many pieces that fill Shriver's report, which explores the rates of financial insecurity among American women, examines its impact, and offers solutions for change.
Along with Beyonce, Shriver's report pulled in actress Eva Longoria, who wrote a piece entitled "Empowering Latinas," and basketball star LeBron James, who penned an appreciation of the nation's working mothers.
The report, which is in partnership with the Center for American Progress, can be downloaded for free here.
