📍Houston, Texas, USA
1981 – 1999“Beyoncé Giselle Knowles was born in Houston in September 1981 and grew up in the city's historic Black neighbourhoods south of downtown, first on Rosedale Street near MacGregor Park and then in a two-storey house on Parkwood Drive in Riverside Terrace, a leafy area of mid-century homes next to the Third Ward. Her father, Mathew, was a top salesman for Xerox, and her mother, Tina, ran Headliners, a busy hair salon where Beyoncé swept floors and sang and danced for the clients, who became her first audience. Her younger sister, Solange, was born in 1986. She was a shy child until she found the stage. At St Mary's Montessori school, her dance teacher heard her finish a song she had been humming and realised the quiet girl could really sing. At seven she won a school talent show singing John Lennon's Imagine, and her parents moved her to Parker Elementary, a music magnet school. She sang in the choir at St John's United Methodist Church downtown, which her family attended for years, and as a child she played in nearby Parkwood Park, which later gave her company its name. At nine she joined a girl group called Girls Tyme that rehearsed in the family's backyard and at the salon. When the group lost on the television talent show Star Search in 1992, she was devastated, but her father left his job to manage them, and her mother designed their costumes. The group became Destiny's Child, and their first major record deal came in 1997, while she was a student at Houston's High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. She has always called Houston home, and her music is full of references to H-Town, its food, its churches and its Southern Black culture.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today