Bibi McGill

Bibi McGill (born Belinda McGill) is an American guitarist, yogi, producer and DJ best known as the lead guitarist and musical director of Beyoncé's backing band, the Suga Mamas, as well as for her work with P!nk, Paulina Rubio and Chilean rock group La Ley.

McGill grew up in Denver, Colorado.

She began playing guitar after her father witnessed her pretending to play guitar with a pool stick.

He enrolled her in private lessons at age 12.

In an interview with the Denver Post, McGill's mom recalled her playing guitar in the style of blues musician B. B. King.

Her parents gave her the nickname of BB when she was born.

When she started playing guitar, everyone kept calling her BB Queen but she didn't like the name so she changed the spelling to Bibi McGill.

She played for the jazz band in school, her own punk band and the Denver Citywide Marching Band.

She graduated from the University of Colorado with a degree in music scoring and arranging.

When she saw that there were limited opportunities in the music scene in Denver, McGill moved to Los Angeles and began playing gigs in small clubs such as the Whiskey and The Viper Room.

In the late 1980s, McGill was a part of a Christian metal band called Ezra.

In 1988, they released a demo titled The Choice.

The band was very well known in the Denver area.

Before getting the gig with Pink, she auditioned for Courtney Love and was waiting for Mick Jagger to return to the United States because he was looking for a female guitarist.

She recalls in an interview with Ebony Magazine getting a call from Pink's team to perform with her on Saturday Night Live based on her notoriety from her performances in clubs around Los Angeles.

She has also done modeling on the side and appeared in commercials for Heineken, Motorola and Nike.

In 2001, she was hired by Pink for her promotional tour and appeared with her on Saturday Night Live, Total Request Live, the Billboard Music Awards, The Tonight Show and Top of the Pops.

Along with appearing in Pink's music video for Don't Let Me Get Me, she performed with her on Dick Clark's New Years Rockin' Eve to ring in the year 2002.

In 2002, she went on tour with Paulina Rubio's band on Enrique Iglesias's tour that year.

She also performed with her on the 1st annual Los Premios MTV Latinoamerica previously known as the MTV Video Music Awards Latinoamerica where she performed a cover of the KISS song, "I Was Made For Loving You" with Rubio.

From 2003-2005, McGill toured with the Chilean Rock group La Ley.

She performed the songs Hombre and Aqui at the Vina del Mar International Song Festival in 2005.

After getting tired of the physical demands of touring, she decided to give it up and commit to living a peaceful life.

In 2006, pop recording artist Beyoncé was looking for an all -female band to empower women.

A member of Beyonce's team called McGill's father who was a barber at the time and has cut his hair for years.

He called her to encourage her to go to the audition.

The team member heard about McGill through her father and recommended her when Beyoncé did a worldwide press release for auditions.

McGill first told her dad no but then regretted the decision and decided to go to tell him that she went.

McGill got the gig during a call back after the first audition for Beyoncé's 10-piece, all-female band, the Suga Mamas in 2006 as lead guitarist, later becoming musical director for the Beyoncé Experience and I Am...World Tour.

With Beyoncé's band she has toured around the world in four of Beyoncé's tours, The Beyoncé Experience (2007), The I Am...World Tour (2009-2010), Mrs. Carter World Tour (2013-2014), and the On The Run Tour (2014) with Beyoncé and Jay-Z.

She also played in three specials: I Am...Yours live at the Wynn Las Vegas (2009), Live At Roseland Ballroom (2011) and Beyonce Live in Atlantic City (2012).

While playing for Beyonce, she performed at various awards shows, TV shows and variety shows such as Good Morning America, the Today show, the Grammys, American Music Awards, World Music Awards, The Oprah Winfrey Show and the BET Awards.

McGill has also performed with Beyonce at the White House for President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama's 50th birthday party and also played at various festivals such as the Glastonbury Festival in 2011.

McGill's has had some of her most memorable solos during the Beyonce era.

On the Beyoncé Experience and I Am...World Tour, she performed a solo during Freakum Dress and was known for the phrase "Bibi Take Me Higher" after Beyoncé shouted it before her solo.

McGill's Freakum dress solo is known for its Randy Rhoads style.

She has also done solos for If I Were A Boy and I Care.

In 2013, at the Super Bowl halftime show in 2013, Bibi performed a "pyrotechnic guitar solo" where fireworks shot out of her Randy Rhoads signature Jackson guitar.

The pyrotechnic stunt was performed during the song Crazy In Love.

The solo went on to become the greatest and most notable solo of McGill's career and was praised by many including Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone Magazine calling the performance a "ready-made obligatory-Slash cameo guitar solo. Along with the Beyoncé gig itself, the Super Bowl also gave McGill even more mainstream attention. Beyoncé's halftime show became the fourth most watched halftime show with 110.8 million viewers after Madonna's Super Bowl XLVI halftime show which was watched by 112.5 million viewers, Bruno Mars' Super Bowl XLVIII halftime show with 115.3 million viewers and Katy Perry's Super Bowl XLIX halftime show with 118.5 million viewers. McGill received a lot of positive attention from both social media and music critics for the solo.