Beyoncé Knowles the most important and compelling popular musician of the twenty-first century ... the result, the logical end point, of a century-plus of pop. No one has that voice, no one moves the way she moves, no one can hold an audience the way she does ... When Beyoncé does an album, when Beyoncé sings a song, when Beyoncé does anything, it's an event, and it's broadly influential. Right now, she is the heir-apparent diva of the USA – the reigning national voice.