When Beyoncé announced she was pregnant with first child Blue Ivy Carter at the MTV Video Music Awards, her fans were ecstatic. The singer was three years into her marriage to Jay-Z and touched her stomach during her performance. She told the crowd, “I have a surprise.”

Blue was born on Jan. 7, 2012, and what’s no surprise is what a talented and accomplished young woman she has become in the last 12 years. She has followed in both her mother and father’s footsteps as an award-winning singer, dancer, and artist. She’s also a big sister to her twin siblings, Rumi and Sir, who were born in June 2017.

Here’s everything to know about the eldest Carter and her path so far.

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Blue is Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s oldest daughter. She was born in Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, so she is a native New Yorker just like her dad. Beyoncé and Jay-Z debuted their first pictures of her on their Tumblr HelloBlueIvyCarter with a handwritten note that read, “We welcome you to share in our joy. Thank you for respecting our privacy during this beautiful time in our lives.”

It was signed: “The Carter Family.”

Jay-Z was very quick to release a song about Blue called “Glory,” and it featured B.I.C. (Blue Ivy Carter) with samples of Blue crying at the end of the track.

“Most amazing feeling I feel, words can’t describe the feeling for real,” he rapped. “Baby I paint the sky blue, my greatest creation was you, you. Glory.”

In the lyrics, he mentions that Blue was conceived in Paris, and then got more serious and talked about the anxieties he suffered during Beyoncé’s pregnancy.

“False alarms and false stops, all made better by the sound of your heart / All the pain of the last time, pray so hard it was the last time.”

Now 12 years old, the preteen already has a number of flourishing careers in entertainment and fashion. She has even dabbled in book narration.

What have her parents said about her?

After being named the World’s Most Beautiful Woman in People in 2012, Beyoncé discussed how motherhood changed her feelings about herself.

“I feel more beautiful than I’ve ever felt because I’ve given birth,” she said. “I have never felt so connected, never felt like I had such a purpose on this earth.”

On LeBron James’ show, The Shop: Uninterrupted, Jay-Z also discussed how fatherhood changed him.

“It’s amazing. It’s a very grounding thing,” he said. “I didn’t learn how to swim until Blue was born. There goes everything you need to know. This is a metaphor for our relationship. If she ever fell in the water, and I couldn’t get her, I couldn’t even fathom that thought. I gotta learn how to swim. That’s it. That was the beginning of our relationship.”

Beyoncé shared a bit about the actual childbirth in a 2013 interview with Vogue, saying, “My family and my closest people were there when I gave birth. Everything that scared me just was not present in that room. So for me to really let go and really appreciate every contraction … It was the best day of my life.”

Though Blue has already shown an interest and talent in many facets of entertainment, Jay-Z told The Sunday Times that he and Beyoncé don’t want to push her toward anything.

“Feeling loved is the most important thing a child needs, you know?” he said. “Not, ‘Here’s this business that I’m going to hand over to you, that I’m creating for you.’ What if my child doesn’t want to be in music or sports?”

He added, “I have no idea, right? But as long as your child feels supported and feels loved, I think anything is possible.”

Does Blue Ivy sing, too?

After her debut on “Glory,” the young star received a Guinness World Record award for being the youngest person to have a song appear on a Billboard chart. The song charted for U.S. R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.

She later achieved another world record, this time for “youngest individually credited winner at the Grammy Awards,” when Beyoncé’s track “Brown Skin Girl” from The Lion King: The Gift won Best Music Video in 2021. Blue sings in the song and has a writing credit. She was only 9 years old at the time.

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She raps too, making appearances on her dad’s 4:44 album.

When did Blue Ivy start dancing on the Renaissance Tour?
Blue started dancing early in life and has appeared in Beyoncé’s music videos for “Spirit” and “Formation.” In 2022, she danced at the Academy Awards when her mom performed “Be Alive” from the movie King Richard.