All hail the queen Fierce: "I'm more powerful than my mind can even digest," Beyonce has said of her status as an artist. Photo: AP Images She looks like a supermodel, sings like an angel and, as far as we've seen, aces everything she tries her perfectly formed hand at. Some of the following observations might apply to her various contemporaries but all of them can be said only of her. Independent women and gentlemen, here The Shortlist presents seven reasons why Beyonce Giselle Knowles-Carter is truly one of a kind. She has long transcended her mega-selling group Incredibly, it is 11 years since the woman who now proudly calls herself Mrs Carter released her first solo single, the dirty funk grind Work It Out, for the soundtrack to the third Austin Powers movie, Goldmember. Before that, in the dim and distant days before Twitter, Facebook and even Myspace (ask your dad), she was the shining light of all-girl outfit Destiny's Child, who sold tens of millions of albums worldwide, won scores of awards and helped make modern R&B one of the strongest forces in pop. That Beyonce went on to become even bigger on her own might have surprised nobody but it was a substantial achievement nonetheless. "I worked so hard during my childhood to meet this goal," the 32-year-old told GQ this year. By the time I was 30 years old, I could do what I want. Also, if you bring into consideration the quality of DC's tunes, Queen Bey's reunion with Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams at this year's Superbowl was infinitely more impressive than Justin Timberlake and those NSync muppets at the MTV Video Music Awards. She has been more than "just" a singer from the beginning Don't get us wrong - being a great singer is nothing to be sniffed at and Beyonce can bust a lung with the best of them. However she also contributed to the songwriting on Destiny's Child's eponymous 1998 debut and got her first production credit on follow-up The Writing's on the Wall. By third album Survivor her fingerprints in both capacities were on every original song. The triple-whammy of singles Jumpin' Jumpin', Independent Women Part 1 (the song DC did for the first Charlie's Angels flick) and Survivor won Beyonce the Songwriter of the Year award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers in 2002. "I love my job," she told GQ, "but it's more than that. I need it. Industry stalwart: Beyonce Giselle Knowles-Carter is truly one of a kind. She is a role model to women famous and otherwise In a world where prominent female pop stars from Madonna to Miley Cyrus have often arguably gone too far with their sexually provocative antics to sell their wares, Beyonce has always known where to draw the line. Sure, she was Bootylicious long before the term "twerk" became commonplace and she has hardly shied away from revealing outfits over the years, but there has always been a certain elegance to her presentation, as well as the sense she is always in charge. "I'm always thinking about women and what we need to hear," she says in this year's documentary/puff piece Beyonce: Life is but a Dream. In a recent interview with the Herald, teenage sensation Lorde singled her out as a rare pop star she looks up to: "I think Beyonce is pretty cool," Lorde said. She's got that attitude of, like, doing things for the girls. But she is also a little bit bonkers Performers talk all the time about "becoming someone else when they're on stage." So while it was no surprise to hear Beyonce say something similar in 2008, it was a bit of a shock to find out she'd not just given her alter ego a crazy sobriquet but that she'd made a high-concept double album and named it after her. I Am ... Sasha Fierce featured two of Beyonce's best-loved tunes in the hyperactive Single Ladies (Put a Ring on it) and the sublime Halo. Some 18 months later her credentials as someone with eccentric tendencies were further enhanced by her collaboration with bona fide fruit loop Lady Gaga on Telephone. And then Beyonce "killed" Sasha Fierce, to boot. She knows how to handle herself Embarrassing clips from Beyonce gigs are all over the internet - of our heroine slipping on stairs while performing, getting her hair caught in an electric fan, being slapped on the backside and hugged/dragged off stage by perhaps a more dangerous kind of fan. But watch on and you'll see how she picks herself up and resumes flinging herself about after the fall; or continues singing without missing a note while her flunkies try to free her hair; or how she coolly but sweetly tells off the bum-slapper and quickly forgives the overzealous hugger. So classy is Beyonce, the show always goes on. "I now know that, yes, I am powerful," she told GQ. I'm more powerful than my mind can even digest and understand. She may have been talking about her status as an artist, rather than her physical strength, but still don't try and grab her on her Australian tour - she could probably have your legs broken if she wanted to. Look! Up on the screen! The handful of acting roles Beyonce has taken on have, broadly speaking, found her adding a bit of high-wattage glamour and personality to mainstream comedies (Goldmember, 2002; The Pink Panther, 2006) or relying heavily on her singing talents (The Fighting Temptations, 2003; Cadillac Records, 2008). Her Golden Globe-nominated performance as a young Diana Ross-like ingenue in Dreamgirls (2006) showed she could genuinely act, while her role as a woman trying to protect her marriage from her husband's stalker in Obsessed (2009) suggested she was keen to branch out of her comfort zone. "I realised that if anything is too comfortable, I want to run from it," she told W magazine in 2011 of her role choices. It's no fun being safe. She literally has it all Career? I think we've covered that. Happy marriage to an independently successful megastar? Check Jay-Z's ever-wide grin. Motherhood? Check Beyonce's own grin. Although perhaps not her toddler's when she's old enough to realise her parents called her Blue Ivy. "That's what life is," the pop icon, wife and mother says in Beyonce: Life is but a Dream. It's the greatest show on earth. Beyonce Details October 31-November 3, 8pm, Allphones Arena, Olympic Park. Tickets Regular ones sold out but VIP packages are available at ticketek.com.au from $650. Live A hair-flinging, booty-shaking, R&B-pop-belting force of nature. Best track Recent (ish): Love on Top, 2011. Old-school: Crazy in Love, 2003. 1981 Beyonce Giselle Knowles is born in Houston, Texas. 1992 Meets Kelly Rowland and both become part of six-piece girl group Girl's Tyme. 1998 Now a four-piece and with an infinitely better name, the group's eponymous debut Destiny's Child is released. 2000 Michelle Williams joins Knowles and Rowland in the final, definitive line-up of Destiny's Child. 2002 Beyonce releases her first solo single, Work It Out. 2003 Debut solo album Dangerously In Love is an instant smash hit. Wins five Grammys to go with the three she won with Destiny's Child. 2006 Scores a Golden Globe nomination for best actress in a musical or comedy for Dreamgirls. 2008 Marries Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter in New York. 2010 I Am ... Sasha Fierce wins six Grammys. Beyonce's mantelpiece probably breaks. 2012 Gives birth to daughter Blue Ivy Carter. 2013 Performs at both US President Obama's inauguration and the Super Bowl. Brings The Mrs Carter Show world tour to Australia.