Beyonce had already had a great taste of mainstream success with her multi-platinum selling efforts with Destiny’s Child, but 2003 put her on test to prove if she can make it on her own.
And boy did she do that and more.
Beyonce’s first solo release was ‘Dangerously In Love’ which was released in the year 2003, and served as a testimony to the kind of force in Pop music she was about to become.
Every song, every video and every production in this award-winning modern-day classic was exemplary of the kind of fierceness and energy she was capable of putting into her work as a soloist. It was almost as Destiny’s Child (as great a vocal group it was) was just holding her back from spreading her wings, fully.
The singer and performer earned her very first chart-topper on Billboard Hot 100 with the lead single of this best-selling LP, which became a signature staple in her career, entitled – Crazy In Love.
Featuring her now-husband, and then-new-fling – Jay Z, the uptempo banger – with it’s infectious production and ultra-catchy verses, ascended to the top of the charts, spending eight consecutive weeks at number one on the Hot 100.
Yet it wasn’t just the musical production of the track, but also her assertive, feisty vocal delivery as she professed a maddening, sickening and lust-filled love in the most inimitable fashion – that turned it into an absolute banger.
The success of the album didn’t quite end here, as she continued her spree of hits with songs like ‘Naughty Girl, ‘Me, Myself and I’ and ‘Baby Boy’ – the latter of which, surpassed Crazy In Love’s achievement on the charts, spending a total of 9 weeks at #1.
All in all, Knowles’ debut LP did not just prove that she had the mileage to go the whole sprint as a soloist, it also turned into one of the best debut albums ever, and one of her own career-best offerings – and the rest, as they say, is history.