Pay it Forward Beyoncé

Pay it Forward Beyoncé Pay it Forward: Beyoncé Image Source: BeyGOOD Haiti - YouTubeIN 2016, even for someone who does not keep a close eye on Beyonce news, it would be  extremely difficult to find someone who has never heard of Beyoncé. The singer’s  social media following alone is a mind-boggling  167.8m people (composed of 10.1m on YouTube; 14.5m on  Twitter; 64.6m on Facebook; and 78.6m on Instagram). The 100m records she has sold as a solo artist, and 60m with Destiny’s Child, makes her  one of the best-selling artistes in the history of recorded music.Her 19-year career is festooned with plaudits and accolades, including 20 Grammy Awards; Billboard awards such as ‘Top Radio Songs Artists of the Decade’ and ‘Top Female Artist of the 2000s’; a TIME magazine listing as one of the world’s 100 most influential people in 2013 and 2014; and many more.Born  Beyoncé Giselle Knowles in Houston, Texas, to Celestine Knowles, a hairdressing  salon owner, and Mathew Knowles, a Xerox sales manager, her singing talent was d iscovered early, when  her dance instructor at St Mary’s Montessori School, Houston  began humming a song and the young girl joined in, hitting all the high-pitched notes. Beyoncé and her childhood friend Kelly Rowland went on to form Destiny’s Child, and the rest is history.But her popularity stems as much from her ability to capably and stylishly walk the line  between many contrasts. She’s at once a sex symbol and a symbol of female empowerment;  a  paragon of high fashion and bling who her fans  regard as remarkably down to earth and likeable.Beyoncé  has a social conscience, and walks the walk as well as talking the talk, empathically supporting movements and campaigns that aim to protect rights for young women and girls, as well as giving generously to the needy and victims of illness and misfortune. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Support for Victims of Natural Disaster Victimsvideo source: youtubeIN JANUARY  2010, in repsonse to  the earthquake in Haiti that claimed the lives of up to 200,000 people,  Beyoncé took part in Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief, a TV special organised  by George Clooney and Wyclef Jean. She was also named as the face of limited edition CFDA Fashion For Haiti t-shirt, which raised over $1m for the causeEarlier, in the wake of  Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Beyoncé and Kelly Rowland founded the Survivor Foundation, to provide victims in the Houston area with housing, with Beyoncé alone contributing $250,000. The foundation has since expanded to provide aid to victims of Hurricane Ike.Children’s Charitiesvideo source: YOUTUBEBEYONCÉ and the incumbent First Lady of the US, Michelle Obama, joined forces with the National Association of Broadcasters Education Foundation in April 2011, to promote a campaign against childhood obesity, Let’s Move!  In support of the campaign, Beyoncé reworked her single Get Me Bodied  into a track called  Move Your Body  for the  Let’s Move !  flash workout initiative (see video above).  â€œIt’s all about promoting the benefits of healthy eating and exercise… but what we want to do is make it fun by doing something that we all love to do, and that’s dance,” Beyoncé said.On a more sombre note, in 2011, 10  years after the 9/11 terror attacks, Beyoncé also released a cover of the Lee Greenwood song, God Bless the USA, as a charity single to help raise money for the New York Police  Fire Widows’    Children’s Benefit Fund. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Feminismvideo source: YOUTUBEIN 2013 Beyoncé teamed up with Salma Hayek and Frida Giannini for a Gucci campaign called Chime for Change, aimed at globally spreading the message of female empowerment. In June 2013, artists including  Ellie Goulding, Florence and the Machine, and Rita Ora performed at a London concert in aid of the campaign. Ahead of the star-studded gig, Beyoncé appeared in a campaign video with Cameron Diaz, John Legen d and Kylie Minogue, in which  they revealed how they’d been inspired by their mothers and by other powerful women. Aided by the crowd-funding platform Catapult, gig-goers could choose which of a number of different  projects promoting the education of women and girls they would support.Social JusticeDURING 2012  singer joined a number of other celebrities to produce a video for Demand A Plan, a group effort by 950 US mayors and others to influence the federal government to change its stance on gun control laws, in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.video source: youtubeBeyoncé was named as  an ambassador for the World Humanitarian Day campaign in 2012. The singer used  her song I Was Here and its music video, to promote the campaign.video source: youtubeShe also has an involvement with food donation campaign, Miss a Meal, and is a keen supporter of Goodwill charity through online auctions at Charitybuzz, which helps the creation of jobs for the unemployed across Europe and USA