Beyonce’s daughter named honorary citizen of Croatian island

Entertainer Jay-Z and wife Beyoncé. AFP FILE PHOTO

ZAGREB—American superstars Beyonce and Jay-Z’s daughter Blue Ivy has been named an honorary citizen of the Croatian town of Hvar, after reports the couple named her for a local tree, media said Monday.

“The story of the origin of your girl’s name, Blue Ivy, has brought huge media attention and great tourism promotion to the town of Hvar,” said Mayor Pjerino Bebic in a letter sent to the couple, according to local news portal Dalmacija News.

“I have decided to grant your daughter the status of honorary citizen of the town.”

Known as the sunniest town in Croatia, Hvar sits on the island of the same name in the Adriatic Sea.

Blue Ivy, born in January, was reportedly named after a tree wrapped in blue ivy the couple had seen on the island during their visit in September 2011, shortly after the two singers announced Beyonce’s pregnancy.

Media in Croatia have recently broadcast a video that Beyonce, 30, shot during the visit to Hvar in which she posed next to a tree covered with ivy, saying her child could be named Blue Ivy.

Bebic invited the couple to pay another visit to the island, which is situated off Croatia’s central Adriatic coast and boasts 320 sunny days a year.

Beyonce and Jay-Z have already visited the most prominent Croatian coastal town, Dubrovnik, in August 2009.

Beyonce, who rose to fame in the late 1990s as the lead singer of girl group Destiny’s Child, has had 12 top-10 pop singles in the United States as a solo artist and has sold more than 25 million albums worldwide.

She has also earned 16 Grammy awards — three more than her 42-year-old husband, Jay-Z, who is regarded as one of the greatest rappers of all time and has sold some 50 million albums.

The pair collaborated on Beyonce’s wildly popular single “Crazy In Love.”