18 December 2013
Newsdesk
Beyoncé Knowles has "neglected all the people she loves" to be successful.
Last week the singer stunned the industry by releasing an unannounced full-length album which immediately topped the iTunes chart. The eponymous offering had been a complete secret beforehand and boasts 14 songs along with 17 music videos.
To accompany it, the star has shot a YouTube video series called Self-Titled and in the second instalment, Part 2. Imperfection, she speaks of everything she has sacrificed for her career.
"My message behind this album was finding the beauty in imperfection. I had this image of a trophy and me accepting these awards, and kinda training myself to be this champion and at the end of the day when you go through all of these things, is it worth it?" she questions.
"You get this trophy, and you're like, 'I basically starved. I have neglected all of the people I love, I conformed to what everybody else thinks I should be. And I have this trophy. What does that mean?' The trophy represents all of the sacrifices that I made as a kid. All of the time that I lost being on the road and in the studios as a child and I just wanna blow that sh*t up."
Beyoncé competed on US TV talent show Star Search when she was young, alongside her former Destiny's Child bandmate Kelly Rowland and other girls. The band didn't win, which taught the star that everyone has to lose at some point in their lives.
Although the singer loves her job, it pales into insignificance when she thinks about her husband Jay Z and their 23-month-old daughter Blue Ivy.
"I have a lot of awards and I have a lot of these things that are amazing and I worked my ass off. I worked harder than probably anyone I know to get those things. But nothing feels like my child saying, 'Mommy!' Nothing feels like when I look my husband in the eyes," she says.
"Nothing feels like I'm respected, when I get on the stage and see I'm changing people's lives. Those are the things that matter, and at this point in my life, that's what I'm striving for. Growth. Love. Happiness. Fun. Enjoy your life, it's short. That's the message."
