The images surfaced on Jay-Z’s lifestyle blog, Life + Times, on Friday afternoon (Feb. 10). “We welcome you to share in our joy. Thank you for respecting our privacy during this beautiful time in our lives. – The Carter Family” was released as a message to the couple’s fans.

Behold, the first photos of Blue Ivy Carter:

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Nothing is confirmed and the number feels too high to be believed, but MediaTakeout claims their source is well-placed within Cowell’s camp. Recently the top names mentioned as potential judges has been Beyonce, Perez Hilton and Mariah Carey.

Since the firing there has been chattering about why some of the judges have been fired. For one, Paula Abdul is said to have been fired because she was too easy on contestants. That might fly in the face of the rumors of new judges considering Hilton has made his new career out of being nice and neither Beyonce nor Mariah Carey are known as particularly tough individuals or mean.

Regardless, it’s abundantly clear that the show is going through a major, make-or-break reset. The pressure’s on for Cowell, who walked away from “American Idol” and bet his American TV career on “The X Factor,” poaching Abdul and effectively crippling the nation’s most popular television show.

The song “Glory” made its debut on his social website Life and Times on Monday – two days after he and wife Beyonce gave birth to daughter Blue Ivy.

An official statement from the couple came Monday afternoon, as both said: “We are happy to announce the arrival of our beautiful daughter, Blue Ivy Carter. Her birth was emotional and extremely peaceful, we are in heaven. … It was the best experience of both of our lives. We are thankful to everyone for all your prayers, well wishes, love and support.”

Jay-Z’s song, in which he says “you’re my child with a child from Destiny’s Child,” gives more revelations, such as a miscarriage:
“Last time the miscarriage was so tragic/We was afraid you’d disappear/But nah baby you magic.”

The song’s refrain is: “The most amazing feeling I feel/Words can’t describe what I’m feeling for real/ Maybe I paint the sky blue/My greatest creation was you. You. Glory.”

Why Blue? ay-Z has three albums with the word “blueprint” in their titles: The Blueprint was released in 2001; The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse, in 2002; and The Blueprint 3, in 2009.

Perhaps at some point the parents will make clear why they chose the name.

Until then, there’s one thing the family is clear about, as proud aunt Solange declared on Twitter on Sunday. Blue Ivy, she said, is “the most beautiful girl in the world.”

Last week Twitter buzzed with the news that Beyonce had given birth to a girl, who she had named Tiana May Carter.

However, on Sunday, Solange tweeted:

Shout out to my sister for being THE cutest pregnant woman ever!

Billboard also reports that on New Year’s Eve a pregnant Beyonce was spotted having dinner in Brooklyn with Jay-Z, before heading to her sister’s house party.

More news to come. We’ll keep you up to date!

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“So I made a list to myself of all the things I wanted to do in that time,” she says, in a Downtown Manhattan loft, looking as effervescently recharged as she should after 12 months downtime. She wanted to go to the ballet, to learn to cook, to master the Final Cut Pro edit suite she’d bought herself, to pick her nephew up from school, to see Broadway shows, to sleep in her own bed and not in a hotel. “I wanted to live my life,” she explains.”

“For the first time in my life I was able to travel the world and hear different influences,” she says, “To see different kinds of dance and choreography and taste different types of food and just be able to relax and have great conversations.” Previously, Beyoncé: The Artist had taken priority. It was time for Beyoncé: The Person to step forward. “I felt like I had worked so hard all my life that it was important that I was just able to be inspired and to digest everything I have been doing for so long.”

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This being Beyoncé, the rest period started to slowly metamorphose into the new record, 4. She could turn off the schedule, but she could not turn off her intuitive feeling for creating dynamic music. It was time to set a new bar. For the first time ever, she made a record not because the label had penciled one in on the marketing wall-chart but because she wanted to make one for herself. “It was a labor of love. It was done because I love what I do and not because I was trying to make a certain type of album. Because it was my playground, it was real.”

The result is a shape-shifting piece of musical work for Beyoncé . Opening with three platinum-plated ballads to mid-tempos, 4 sets out its vision as a radical sidestep from the era-defining club and pop hits of Destiny’s Child. For the first half of the album, before she jumps off into the street-smart 90s New Jack bounce of “Party”, a collaboration with Kanye West and Andre 3000, you might even call it her rock record. ‘Other people have said that,’ she says, looking delighted with the note. Touring the world along with her husband and his entourage had opened her up to the possibilities of new genres and the magnitude of the festival experience. She had started looking beyond stadiums, watching Linkin Park and Muse and Rage Against The Machine whip up their adoring fans in different ways than pop music intuits. She liked what she saw. Beyoncé started thinking about the possibility of re-writing her place in musical history:

“It’s bolder than the music on my previous albums because I’m bolder,” she notes. “The more mature I become and the more life experiences I have, the more I have to talk about. I really focused on songs being classics. I really focused on songs being classics, songs that would last, songs that I could sing when I’m 40 and when I’m 60. I feel like it’s important I start shaping my legacy. Doing things that have a little more substance. I really want people to think when they listen to my music. I want them to feel more than ‘OK, I’m at a party, I’m dancing’. I want it to be a conversation. I wanted to help them through their painful memories and their most happy moments.”

With long-term co-writer The-Dream in the second chair, a record started to emerge. “I feel like it’s important to have a personal connection and a natural chemistry with people who are writing songs with you because it’s you at your most vulnerable moments, saying your deepest thoughts. I felt like he’s almost like a brother to me.” An extended list of collaborators began filtering through studio time she booked herself, for love. An audacious musicality had started to emerge with The-Dream. The venerated songwriter Diane Warren scripted “I Was Here” specifically for Beyoncé and told the press unequivocally “It is the best song I’ve ever written.”

New collaborators were discovered in new ways. “I am always anxious to find someone new just because I believe it brings out something in me and it keeps me really honest,” she says. She first heard new soul voice Frank Ocean in her husband’s car. “After one song I said ‘OK, who is that? because I want them on a flight tonight.’ And Jay told me it was Frank Ocean and I immediately reached out and he came in the next day. He’s an artist and I can’t wait for everyone to hear him because he is just the truth. He is refreshing to the industry.” She says she can “spend hours and hours on the internet and I love to click on the artists that are recommended to me, and I’ve found some great artists that I would never find any other way.”

The new names were complemented by bona fide legends. “I worked with Babyface,” continues Beyoncé, “because I feel like he’s one of the best R&B songwriters ever, in history. He is one of the songwriters that opened the doors up for all of the writers that are great and wonderful right now.” They crafted the timeless rock/funk workout “Best Thing I Never Had” together.

“I was really listening to a lot of Boys II Men for the harmonies and Etta James and Aretha Franklin and Prince and Michael (Jackson) and I just wanted to do a gumbo of all the things that I loved, and I wanted to create things that just didn’t typically go together.” Echoes of Michael can be heard on the booty-shaking summer joint “Love on Top,” “and Purple Rain” is an influence on the heartrending opening ballad “1+1″. “I mixed the baritone sax with the synth. The synth is very electronic and the baritone sax is so full and warm and real and when you put them together playing the same thing it was just something so new. It was so much fun putting bridges back into songs and twelve part harmonies back into songs and huge choruses and breakdowns and guitar solos and drum solos and all the things that I love in music that I feel like I just want to hear again.”

Still shy of her 30th birthday, Beyoncé’s musical maturation is almost complete. “Progression as an artist is the most important thing to me. That is what success is for me. I feel like if I stay in one spot then I am not doing my job, I’m not growing as a human being and I’m wasting time. I always want to challenge myself. I always want to have that nervous ball in my stomach before I go on the stage. That’s how I know that I’m doing the right job.”
Her personal ethics and work methodology stretch even further. “I always want to challenge the music industry. I feel like it’s kind of my job to create the new up-tempos. It’s kind of my job to set the tone and be the example. So it’s sometimes risky but it’s the only reason I’ve been able to last for as long as I have in this industry. Because it’s really short-lived and I feel like if people can predict your next move then it’s just not interesting.”

Few people would have predicted 4. Few people, that is, other than Beyoncé. In her award winning Hollywood roles, Beyoncé found a new release for her artistry outside of the music industry. Later this year she will begin filming for director Clint Eastwood on his remake of the evergreen classic A Star Is Born. But it was her turn as a locum Supreme in Dreamgirls and Etta James in the story of Cadillac Records that really released something in the singer, that ushered her down a new pathway for her artistry:

“I fell in love with doing films when I did Dreamgirls. That was the first time that I really felt like I acted. I felt like I became a better person and learnt something about myself in that role. But I’ve taken it steps further when I played Etta James. It’s the most I’d learned about myself until the recording of this album, 4. Playing that character and going to a deeper place, completely losing all ego. Completely losing all insecurities and almost being naked and vulnerable and not thinking about what anybody else is thinking about me. Just being completely me. To have that private moment and be able to share it with the world was something really difficult. To express myself and express the imperfections in my voice. The raspiness and the pain. Everything I’ve been through in my life I put into that film and I learnt that I can make my job so much more than music. It can almost be therapy for me. When I went into the studio for this album I used that same passion, honesty, and approach with my vocals that I channeled as Etta James. It’s a lot rawer. It comes from a deep place. I only sang things once. I wanted it to be really emotional and sincere and I learnt that from doing the movies. I feel like when I play the right character it makes me so much better as a musician and a performer.”

Next year, 2012, will mark the 15th anniversary of Beyoncé as a pre-eminent member of the musical fraternity. In a fickle entertainment world, where pop icons come and go within three-year cycles, it’s a moment worth celebrating. “I can’t believe that I’ve achieved all that I’ve achieved. I never, ever would imagine all the things that I’ve done.”

Unsurprisingly her forthcoming 30th birthday is not a cause of trepidation but one of celebration. “I am so excited about turning 30. It actually is mind-boggling to me that people get, you know, scared or frightened or ‘Oh my God, I’m 30!’ it’s so old. That’s ridiculous. I don’t know whether it’s because a lot of my friends are a lot older than I am and I always feel young and I can’t wait to grow older and wiser and be more comfortable in my skin but 30 is like the best age you can ever be. You’re a woman but you’re still young and you know, I’m so looking forward to it.”

It’s just another benchmark in the life of this incredible performer, pop star and woman.

4 is in stores and online June 27 in the UK and June 28 in the US.

Fans of Nintendo’s fashion-themed Style Savvy™ game for the Nintendo DS™ and Nintendo DSi™ systems will have access to some hot new designs this year, thanks to an expanded partnership between Nintendo and renowned entertainment icon Beyoncé. Style Savvy players with broadband Internet access will soon be able to download five designs from the real-life Deréon clothing line co-created by Beyoncé and her mother, designer Tina Knowles. As managers of their own virtual boutiques, players can incorporate these chic Deréon fashions as they create one-of-a-kind looks for their in-game clientele.

“Style Savvy is all about creativity and fashion, both of which are really important to me,” says Beyoncé. “I love that I get to become a stylist and take over my own boutique, and it’s so much fun to see some of my Deréon designs added to the mix.”

The burgeoning partnership between Nintendo and Beyoncé began in 2009 with a memorable ad campaign for Rhythm Heaven™, a music-themed game for Nintendo DS and Nintendo DSi. Known for her innovative sense of style, the talented musician and actress is an apt spokeswoman for the imaginative, fashion-forward fun of Style Savvy. Fans will get a unique glimpse into this relationship with the launch of two new Style Savvy TV spots starring Beyoncé, both scheduled to begin airing on Nickelodeon the week prior to this year’s Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards and during the event itself.

After launching in November, Style Savvy enjoyed a warm reception among holiday consumers, giving fashion buffs and female gamers of all ages a remarkable new way to experience the portable fun of Nintendo DS and Nintendo DSi. Beyoncé’s upcoming promotional efforts and downloadable Deréon designs are set to sustain the game’s momentum well into 2010.

Style Savvy invites players of any age to express their individual sense of style by managing a virtual clothing boutique. Choosing from more than 10,000 items in a wide variety of styles, designer labels and price points, players can create distinctive looks to satisfy customers with various tastes and budget constraints. Using the simple controls of the hand-held Nintendo DS or Nintendo DSi systems, players can enjoy Style Savvy anytime, anywhere.

One of 2008′s most anticipated new album releases, I AM… SASHA FIERCE is Beyoncé’s first new studio collection since her Grammy-winning multi-platinum-selling B’DAY debuted at #1 on charts around the world shortly after its international release on September 4, 2006 (in celebration of Beyoncé’s 25th birthday).

Each of the discs on Beyoncé’s new double album reveals a distinctly different side of her personality, character and sensibility, a forum for the yin-and-yang of her developing artistry.

One of the discs, titled I AM…, provides Beyoncé with a musical showcase for a group of intimate heartfelt ballads while the SASHA FIERCE disc gives voice to Beyoncé’s up-tempo dance-oriented other side.

“SASHA FIERCE is my alter ego,” says Beyoncé, “and now she has a last name. I have someone else that takes over when it’s time for me to work and when I’m on stage, this alter ego that I’ve created that kind of protects me and who I really am. That’s why half the record, I AM…, is about who I am underneath all the makeup, underneath the lights, and underneath all the exciting star drama. And SASHA FIERCE is the fun, more sensual, more aggressive, more outspoken side and more glamorous side that comes out when I’m working and when I’m on the stage. The double album allows me to take more risks and really step out of myself, or shall I say, step more into myself, and reveal a side of me that people only know me see.”

With I AM…, Beyoncé reveals a variety of musical aspects and interests that may take her fans by surprise. Citing a range of influences including “folk songs and alternative songs and acoustic guitar…stuff that’s different from what I sing,” Beyoncé has produced, written, recorded and performed a finely crafted selection of contemporary ballads that combine the best elements of pop and soul music while expanding the possibilities of both genres.

“You can hear with ‘If I Were A Boy,’ (one of the album’s first singles), it’s not a traditional R&B song,” she offers. “It’s difficult to grow and to break out and do new things because people have strong expectations. I feel like at this point, I wanted people to hear songs with stronger lyrics and songs that made you feel. I love singing ballads because I feel like the music and the emotion in the story is told so much better. It’s a better connection because you can hear it and it’s not all these other distractions. I really wanted people to hear my voice and hear what I had to say.”

For her I AM… collection, Beyoncé collaborated with some “writers and producers that I normally hadn’t worked with” including producer Toby Gad on “If I Were A Boy” and UK songwriter Amanda Ghost on “Disappear,” which reminds Beyoncé “of the Beatles a tad bit,” “Satellites” and “Ave Maria,” in which Beyoncé re-imagines a classic aria in a new and original musical setting. “When I knew that certain things I wanted to say, I couldn’t say myself, I invited other writers to come in,” she says. “Lyrically, it’s the best album I’ve ever had. If a song didn’t say anything or mean anything to me, I didn’t put it on the record.”

According to Beyoncé, “SASHA FIERCE is kind of the opposite, she’s more the other side because sometimes you don’t want to think; sometimes you just want to feel good. She’s the party girl, she’s Bootylicious. She is but I’m not. She’s my alter ego. I’m finally revealing who I am.”

The lead-in track on the SASHA FIERCE disc is “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It),” Beyoncé’s scorching anthem of personal empowerment. “That song is all about: ‘I’ve been with you all this time, you’re taking too long and now I’m looking hot and you see it and you gotta suffer because you shoulda put a ring on it,’” Beyoncé explains. “In my life, when I put on the stilettos, it’s all about being confident, sometimes overly confident, and hearing all the things that women need to hear to boost themselves and go out and to move on.”

“SASHA FIERCE is fun. There’s an up-tempo song called ‘Radio’ that basically talks about my childhood. It just seems like a feel-good record but when you really listen to the lyrics, it’s about me growing up. In my household, I didn’t go to all of the parties and I didn’t do all the things that a lot of the other teenage girls did because I was so in love with my radio and my music. I was so in love with this radio and my parents were happy that I was into something positive. I try to make up-tempo records that feel good but underneath they’re still saying something. SASHA FIERCE is a collection of the kinds of songs that I’m usually known for and I love just as much as the more intimate side of me.”

Songs on Beyoncé’s I AM… include “If I Were A Boy,” “Halo,” “Disappear,” “Broken Hearted Girl,” “Ave Maria,” and “Satellites.” Beyoncé’s SASHA FIERCE records include “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It),” “Radio,” “Diva,” “Sweet Dreams,” and “Video Phone.”

Producers and writers collaborating with Beyoncé on I AM… SASHA FIERCE include Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, Stargate, C. “Tricky” Stewart & Terius “The Dream” Nash, Rodney “DarkChild” Jerkins, Sean “The Pen” Garrett, Solange, Jim Jonsin, Rico Love and Ryan Tedder.

I AM… SASHA FIERCE is Executive Produced by Beyoncé Knowles and Mathew Knowles for Music World Productions, Inc.

In addition to the multiple artistic achievements on I AM… SASHA FIERCE, Beyoncé has recently completed work on a pair of high profile movie projects including her role as R&B legend Etta James in Darnell James’ “Cadillac Records.” According to Beyoncé, becoming Etta James on-screen, “was a challenge for me emotionally because Etta had a lot of challenges in her life, things that I’ve never experienced. I had to really dig deep so that I could have the right performance and represent her well. One thing she taught me is her fearlessness; she was Etta all the time. She was bold and she did not try to change who she was for anyone. She was one of the queens. If it weren’t for her crossing over -she was the first African-American woman to cross over on the radio, I wouldn’t have the opportunities that I have. It was the best performance I think I’ve done on screen. It gave me the strength and the confidence to step out of my comfort zone even more.”

Corporate line:
One of 2008′s most hotly anticipated album releases, “I Am..Sasha Fierce” marks the artist’s first new studio collection since the Grammy-winning multi-platinum-selling “B’Day” debuted at #1 on charts around the world shortly after its international release on September 4, 2006. With all songs co-written and co-produced by Beyonce, the artist’s third studio album is her most personal, reflective and revelatory collection to-date.

The good:
“If I Were A Boy” – The rare deep moments in the career of Beyonce comes with lyrics like “I think I could understand/How it feels to love a girl/I swear I’d be a better man.”

“Halo” – Another song that has more meaning than the usual Beyonce song. It’s nice to see her expand beyond the bubblegum pop songs of old.

“Disappear” – This is more vanilla and yet Beyonce’s voice steals the show and makes you forget that what you are listening to doesn’t call for depth.

“Ave Maria” – Beyonce only toys with the Mozart piece and yet it works surprisingly well.

“Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” – Sickly sweet and fun.

“Diva” – Hot, hot, hot. It’s funny to listen to Beyonce sing on a track that could easily be a hip-hop song.

The rest:
“Video Phone” – The rare track that doesn’t kill.

Finally:
Beyonce is fierce. This is a surprising album. Why? Because its so solid and has many areas of depth that go beyond the norm of a pop singer. Anyone with a slight interest in Beyonce would do themselves a favor and buy this album.