Dangerously in Love

Recorded during Destiny's Child's hiatus, the album took Beyoncé into a wider role: she co-wrote most of the songs, chose which ones to produce and shared ideas on mixing and mastering. Its release was pushed back more than once, which gave her time to record more songs, among them Crazy in Love. Forty-three songs were finished in all. The title came from a track on Survivor, which she re-recorded as Dangerously in Love 2. Guests included Jay-Z, Missy Elliott, Sean Paul, Big Boi of Outkast, Sleepy Brown and Luther Vandross, and Markus Klinko photographed the cover.

It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with 317,000 copies in its first week, and Beyoncé became the first female artist, and the fifth artist ever, to top both the singles and albums charts in the United States and the United Kingdom at once. Four singles followed: Crazy in Love, Baby Boy (nine weeks at number one), Me, Myself and I (number four) and Naughty Girl (number three). Reviews were mixed, with a Metacritic score of 63, though Mark Anthony Neal of PopMatters called it an artistic leap. It won five Grammys at the 46th ceremony, tying the record for most won by a woman in one night, and has been certified septuple platinum in the US.