Beyoncé

So, what you do when you've claimed the pinnacle of girl-group stardom and the outfit you front officially becomes the best-selling female group of all time? If you're Beyoncé Knowles, you leap for an even higher peak, powered by all the skills — the voice, the look, the moves, the presence — at your command. Beyoncé's first solo smash was a message to her man, but she may as well have delivered "Crazy In Love" on behalf of the millions who fell for the tune's come-hither vocals, bootylicious beats, and blasting brass hook. Since then, it's been one B-day hit after another, from "Listen," the show-stopper she cowrote for her dazzling turn in Dreamgirls, to the fierce-tastic, go-girl anthem "Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)." There's no stopping Beyoncé, and there's no stopping us — find more of the woman's Essentials in Next Steps.

Sometimes we just have to wonder — is there anything Beyoncé can't do? She can put over the edgy Dancehall spice of "Video Phone" every bit as powerfully as the retro funk of "Work It Out," from her movie debut as Foxxy Cleopatra in Austin Powers in Goldmember — the role that proved, yeah, she can act too. There's the sexy dance-floor stomp of "Get Me Bodied (Extended Mix)," and the sweet soul seduction of the bed-warmer "Be With You." Beyoncé even breaks out the Español for her twice-as-nice duet with Shakira, "Beautiful Liar (Bello Embustero)," and when we look for the word to describe all the things she is, she's ready with her own: "Diva."

Beyoncé Knowles calls her high-wattage, larger-than-life diva persona Sasha Fierce, and while it's most definitely appropriate, you'd have to come up with a million more monikers to name all the aspects of her multifaceted talents. Not satisfied to rest on her laurels as the shining apex of a phenomenon called Destiny's Child, Beyoncé lifted off to solo superstardom, and still continues to push her artistic limits as far as they'll take her, whether she's issuing an invitation to watch her in action on "Check On It (feat. Bun B & Slim Thug)," letting a bad boy know he's not so "Irreplaceable," or paying tribute to an R&B icon, and even serenading a President, with her soaring take on the Etta James classic "At Last."