Beyonce reportedly marries Jay-Z in New York

Singer Beyonce Knowles has wed rapper boyfriend Jay-Z in New York, the People magazine has reported.

Although nothing has been officially confirmed, the People quotes a friend of the couple as saying: "It happened earlier this evening [Friday]. Jay wanted it to be a really private affair – close friends and family."

Guests included Beyonce's mother Tina Knowles, her father and manager Mathew, her sister Solange, Destiny's Child members Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams, and friend Gwyneth Paltrow, it said.

According to the article, the ceremony was followed by a party at Jay-Z's apartment in Manhattan's Tribeca district.

Rumours about the couple's impending nuptials were sparked when they sought a marriage licence at a village hall in Scarsdale, New York, on Tuesday.

On Friday, workers erected a white tent on top of the building in Tribeca where Jay-Z owns a penthouse apartment.

And as waiting staff, flowers and music equipment arrived the wedding buzz intensified.

The two have been together since September 2002, and they performed together in music videos for two of her hit singles, Crazy in Love and Deja Vu

Beyoncé: The Ice Princess

Beyoncé Knowles is tired, hungry and sick of acting crazy. For seven hours inside a cavernous hangar on the Brooklyn waterfront she’s been lip-synching histrionically, hurling into walls and generally behaving like a diva one Klonopin away from a breakdown. But she does look good. Her hair is tousled in an elegant pile, and she’s dressed like Sharon Stone in the notorious interrogation scene of Basic Instinct — white sleeveless turtleneck, white skirt slit up the sides. As her riotous new single “Ring the Alarm” blares, she pantomimes hysteria. Every twitch, snap of the neck and jerk of the hips dramatizes the theme of manic jealousy. Not that she’s enjoying temporary insanity. “I’m tired of acting so nutty — it’s hard,” she says between takes. Hanging her head, she seems to have shrunk by half since the cameras began to roll at 7:30 A.M.. A small village of bodyguards, production assistants, extras, ass wipers and her mom populate the set. When the director calls for another take, Beyoncé dutifully slams into the interrogation chair. She raises her head, rolls back her shoulders and rapidly crosses and uncrosses her legs — as Stone did while exposing her crotch to Michael Douglas in the most rewound moment in cinematic history. The song hits a climax and Beyoncé’s legs swing open, revealing to Blender a view of … skin-tone bicycle shorts. Beyoncé Knowles can grow tired. She can act crazy. And she can be one hell of a tease. But she is not the type to slip up. * * * “I don’t like being interviewed.” It’s not much of a conversation starter, but at least she says it with a disarming smile. Three days after the video shoot, Beyoncé is back in the Manhattan studio where she made B’Day, her dance-floor-targeting second solo album. Her long blond hair is swept back with a gold hair band, and her feet are strapped into gold sandals. Her voice is warm and deep, curling into sentences like a cat nestling into a blanket. Beyoncé Giselle Knowles is both a thoroughly modern star and an anachronism. She has a clothing line, a movie career and major endorsement contracts. She’s partial to space-age R&B beats and big-budget videos. So far, so twenty-first century. But female pop stars of her magnitude typically detonate in a fireball of Cheetos, nipple brooches and front-page divorces. They let camera crews trail them for “intimate” TV shows. From officially sanctioned Brangelina baby photos to VH1 celebreality to MySpace, this is a time of unprecedented pop-star exposure — and Beyoncé isn’t interested in exposing herself. It’s a neat trick: She’s become one of the world’s most visible women while building walls around herself. For the past four years, she’s dated kingpin rapper and Def Jam Recordings president and CEO Jay-Z, jetting from NBA games to the tropics with him (and her Shih Tzu, Munchy, who travels in a $1,500 Louis Vuitton doggie carrier). But Beyoncé has never even publicly acknowledged their relationship, which seems both coy and silly after the constant paparazzi photos of the couple sunbathing together on yachts.

Beyonce Goes From R&B to Latin Diva

Beyonce is a woman of many crowns: Grammy-winning singer, actress, producer and dancer, among them. Now, the R&B diva can add another: Latin songstress. The former Child of Destiny released a collection of Latin songs, dubbed 'Irreemplazable,' featuring reworked tracks from her smash album, 'B'Day,' and the 'Dreamgirls' soundtrack, including the chart-topping duet with Latin superstar Alejandro Fernandez, 'Amor Gitano.' The latter now serves as the theme song for the Telemundo telenovela, 'Zorro: La Espada y La Rosa (The Sword and the Rose)'.

Note to Shakira: Watch your back.

Listen to Beyonce's Latin tunes after the jump.