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Blue Ivy Carter
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Born:
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January 7, 2012 (age 9)
Manhattan, New York City, New York, U.S.A. |
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Hometown:
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Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
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Occupation:
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Media personality, actress & singer
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Parents:
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Little Siblings:
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Nicknames:
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Blue Blue & Baba
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Blue Ivy Carter (born January 7, 2012) is a Louisiana Creole-American/African-American media personality, actress & singer.
Beyoncé's pregnancy was announced during the performance of "Love On Top" at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards. She finished the performance by unbuttoning her blazer and rubbing her stomach to confirm her pregnancy. On January 7, 2012, Beyoncé gave birth to her at Lenox Hill Hospital in Upper East Side, Manhattan in New York City under heavy security. 2 days later, Jay-Z released a song dedicated to her called Glory on his website, Lifeandtimes.com. The song detailed the couple's pregnancy struggles, including a miscarriage Beyoncé suffered before becoming pregnant with Blue. Blue's cries are included at the end of the song & she was officially credited as B.I.C. on it. At 2 days old, she became the youngest person ever to appear on a Billboard chart when Glory debuted on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.
In 2012, Hvar, Croatia named Carter an honorary citizen. Before Carter's birth, her parents had visited the town, where Beyoncé had first considered naming her Blue Ivy.
In August 2014, Carter joined her father Jay-Z onstage at the MTV Video Music Awards, where they presented Beyoncé with the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award. Carter has continued to attend music award ceremonies with her parents, including the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards, where she made headlines for the cost of the clothing she wore (a $10,950 Mischka Aoki princess gown and $565 Giuseppe Zanotti high-top sneakers).
In 2018, Carter attended first grade at the Center for Early Education, a private school in West Hollywood, California.
In January 2020, just before Carter's eighth birthday, rapper Megan Thee Stallion posted photos to her Instagram and Twitter of her, Beyoncé, and Carter. Vanity Fair writer K. Austin Collins replied, "I have a feeling the jay z face genes are about to really hit Blue Ivy and I feel so sorry for her." Harper's Bazaar web editor Violet Lucca replied to Collins' tweet, stating "They haven't already? Or she'll just get plastic surgery at 16 a la Kylie Jenner and we'll all have to pretend that she always looked that way…I can't allow myself to feel too sorry for the incredibly rich!" The two were slammed online, leading to an apology from both and the pair deleting their tweets.
Career[edit | edit source]
Dubbed the "Princess of Pop" by Rolling Stone, Carter was featured gurgling and crying on her father's single "Glory", a song released two days after her birth celebrating her. Because of "Glory", Carter is the youngest person to ever chart on the Billboard charts.
In 2020, Carter sang on the track "Brown Skin Girl", earning accolades and awards for the performance. She was the youngest recipient of a BET Award when she received the BET Her Award. She also was awarded the Soul Train Music Award for The Ashford & Simpson Songwriter's Award, as well as the prize for Outstanding Duo, Group or Collaboration at the 2020 NAACP Image Award ceremony.
In November 2020, Carter narrated Matthew A. Cherry's book Hair Love about an African American father doing his daughter's hair for the first time. Variety posited "there’s a chance she could contend for a Grammy nomination for spoken word."
Cultural depictions of Carter[edit | edit source]
In February 2012, Saturday Night Live parodied a baby Carter being sung to by Justin Timberlake playing Bon Iver. In January 2013, Saturday Night Live aired a parody of Carter and Beyoncé, where Carter's crib was "lined with one of Diana Ross's finest wigs."
In 2018, Carter was the subject of an impersonation by drag queen The Vixen on the Snatch Game episode on Season 10 of RuPaul's Drag Race. Into stated the characterization rested on "brat... without pushing Blue into more nuanced territory."
Writing about Carter[edit | edit source]
In 2012, Jaclyn Friedman came under fire for her piece, Unsolicited Advice For Blue Ivy, which was heavily criticized by African American women for alleged racist overtones. Friedman subsequently issued a public apology on her blog, and donated the fee she received for the piece to SisterSong, an activist group that primarily supports women of color.
Trivia[edit | edit source]
- Blue Ivy was named after Jay's favorite color, blue & the Roman numeral, IV.
- Blue Ivy's Louisana Creole-American and African-American on Beyoncé's side and African-American on Jay's side.
- Blue Ivy was 5 when Rumi & Sir were born.
- On the 2014 episode of BET's 106 & Park, Karrueche Tran and Brandon Broady talked topics about Blue Ivy’s hypothetical thoughts during the events at the MTV Video Music Awards. Tran has a distasteful joke about her uncombed hair, but the show's producer has been suspended. According to his Twitter account, he reads four comments made about the then-2-year-old, but he apologizes for the joke and explained that Tran was simply reading lines. On November 14, 2014, BET (Black Entertainment Television) cancelled 106 & Park three months after.
- In a Change.org website article, the petition, reportedly created by a New York woman named Jasmine Toliver, reads "This matter has escalated to the child developing matted dreads and lint balls. Please let's get the word out to properly care for Blue Ivy hair."
- Blue Ivy had many other hairdos like afro puffs, braids, natural curls and flat-ironed sleeks.
- She starred in her mother's music videos such as "Formation" in 2016 (the song was featured in her mother's sixth studio album Lemonade) and "Spirit" in 2019 (the song was featured in the soundtrack of Disney's live-action remake version of The Lion King).
- According to Instagram, a pic that shows her mother is pregnant and Blue Ivy's hair is done in braids with beads.
- In the 2021 commercial for Ivy Park (along with her mother), she wears a mask.
