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"Girls really do run the world! Beyonce held a &amp;quot;visual album&amp;quot; screening of her self titled fifth album (featuring 17 epic videos) Saturday, Dec. 21 at the School of Visual Arts in NYC -- and the global singing sensation shared with fans that her inspiration was none other than Madonna!\r\n\r\nFollowing a screening of all 17 videos, which were played consecutively with movie theater quality sound, Beyonce took to the stage to address the crowd. &amp;quot;I felt like I wanted to follow in the footsteps of Madonna and be a powerhouse and have my own empire,&amp;quot; the songstress shared of the Queen of Pop, 55, who actually attended Beyonce&amp;apos;s Brooklyn show on Thursday, Dec. 19. Madonna shared an adorable Instagram photo from the show of the &amp;quot;XO&amp;quot; singer planting a kiss on her 8-year-old daughter Mercy James.\r\n\r\n\r\nThe &amp;quot;Run the World&amp;quot; singer, wearing a stunning sheer black dress at the screening, added that she wanted to &amp;quot;show other women, when you get to this point in your career, you don&amp;#x2019;t have to go sign with someone else and share your money, and your success, you can do it yourself.&amp;quot;\r\nHow did she manage to pull it all together? &amp;quot;I found a team of underdogs, a team of women, a team of people that no one believed in,&amp;quot; she shared. &amp;quot;And we worked together and we stayed up all night and we were progressive and we did not follow the rules and we said, &amp;#x2018;Why can&amp;#x2019;t we do it?&amp;#x2019; and I don&amp;#x2019;t think people believed, you know?&amp;quot;\r\n\r\nAlthough she managed to keep her fifth studio label under wraps until its stunning iTunes release on Dec. 13, Beyonce had conceived the idea of a &amp;quot;visual album&amp;quot; some time ago. &amp;quot;I said to so many people, &amp;apos;I have an idea to do a visual album,&amp;apos; and everyone was like &amp;apos;Ok,&amp;apos;&amp;quot; she told the crowd. &amp;quot;And we did it! And not only did we do it, it&amp;#x2019;s my company and I&amp;#x2019;m very proud of that.&amp;quot;\r\nBeyonce&amp;apos;s husband Jay Z is also a successful entrepreneur who manages his own clothing company and record label, among other ventures. &amp;quot;She was very humble -- almost in tears with appreciation at times,&amp;quot; said Us Weekly&amp;apos;s Entertainment Director Ian Drew, who attended the screening Saturday night."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.usmagazine.com/entertainment/news/beyonce-wanted-to-follow-in-the-footsteps-of-madonna-singer-shared-at-visual-album-screening-in-nyc-20132212>