With its blaring horns and dancefloor swagger, Beyoncé’s first solo hit was a regal fanfare announcing her unstoppable ascent to the pop pantheonRead the 100 greatest list as it counts downCrazy in Love rewrote pop history the moment it landed. Beyoncé’s 2003 smash hit is widely considered her debut solo single – eclipsing its largely forgotten predecessor, Work It Out, released a year earlier on the soundtrack to Austin Powers: Goldmember. After
Beyoncé had affirmed her talents with Destiny’s Child as the R&B group’s lead and dabbled in acting (a role in Goldmember and musical Carmen: A Hip Hopera), few doubted she had the goods to go it alone; if anything, the stakes were sky high.
Beyoncé’s demigod status is divisive, but she wasn’t universally liked even before she became a dominant pop-cultural force. Her drive, perfectionism and near birth-right stardom was read as ego. Her solo bid came in the wake of Destiny’s Child’s controversial personnel shuffles and departures. It wasn’t long before the press blamed Beyoncé – the golden girl whose father managed the band and whose mother dressed them, saving the most stylish iterations of their matching outfits for her daughter. The media stoked a battle of the bandmates; when Kelly Rowland stepped out to team up with
Rapper Nelly on 2002 R&B hit Dilemma, the release of Beyoncé’s first solo album was delayed.