From Destiny's Child to music queenmaker: Kelly Rowland has a new handpicked girl groupWhen Kelly Rowland at age 11 joined a group of spunky Houston preteens called Girls Tyme, no one could have imagined theyโd become one of the biggest girl groups in music history.
It happened after the group lost โStar Searchโ and emerged as the teenage R&B quartet Destinyโs Child in 1997. DC won Grammys, released era-defining hits, sold more than 60 million records and even turned its most infamous blemish (lineup switches and messy lawsuits) into a signature hit.
When its members โ Rowland, Michelle Williams and Beyoncรฉ (who inserted that "Star Search" loss into her bold anthem "Flawless") โ disbanded in 2005 for solo pursuits, the era of girl groups faded.
Rowland is hoping to change that with a new group sheโs handpicked and mentored through her BET reality show โChasing Destiny.โ
"I've been feeling like there was a void in the marketplace in girl groups," the 35-year-old says. โIt was time.โ
Rowland is perched on a table inside a Santa Monica recording studio (a plaque for her former groupโs 2002 remix album hangs in the studioโs lobby). Sheโs surrounded by Brienna DeVlugt, Ashly Williams, Kristal Lyndriette, Shyann Roberts and Gabrielle Carreiro, the five women sheโs chosen for the group that already had a commitment from Epic Records even before the selection process began.
Since April, the early stages of the quintetโs inception has unfolded via the 10-part BET docuseries that follows Rowland and choreographer-creative director Frank Gatson Jr. as they build and nurture the group.
With this weekโs conclusion of the Tuesday-night showโs first season, the new group will be launched into the ultimate reality showcase โ the pop music marketplace.
Created and executive produced by Rowland, the series has been driven by the singerโs desire to see a group of women โ particularly black women โ showcase the sisterhood, female empowerment and talent that steered En Vogue, TLC, SWV, Xscape and her own group to the top of the charts.
โThereโs something exciting about hearing different voices in one song,โ Rowland says. โI just feel like thereโs more to offer. There should be more than two.โ
The two groups sheโs referencing, Fifth Harmony and U.K. sensation Little Mix, are anomalies in a sea of short-lived, mostly forgettable collectives that have failed to make a splash in recent years. (Last year, Fifth Harmony notched the first top 20 single by an all-female group in the U.S. since the Pussycat Dolls in 2009.)
Rowland had wanted to develop a group since the Destinyโs Child final tour concluded, but only started seriously considering the idea after the birth of her son, Titan, in 2014.
While filming the process for TV tapped into the market thatโs long been the main breeding ground for recent girl and boy groups (Fifth Harmony, Little Mix and One Direction were all assembled on different editions of the reality competition series โThe X Factorโ), Rowlandโs decision to make a show out of the groupโs formation spoke closer to the business savvy sheโs gathered over 20 years in the business.
โI love the idea of TV because when itโs time to break [an artist], labels talk about how thereโs not enough money in the budget,โ she explains. โSo I thought, what else could I do to ensure more promo that they donโt necessarily have to pay for, that creates more eyeballs โ and gets the label excited as well.โ
Under Rowlandโs guidance, โChasing Destinyโ eschews the typical talent competition format. โI donโt want reality stars; I want stars,โ Rowland declared in the pilot.
Halfway during the seriesโ run, Rowland unveiled the group. Two of the women are L.A. locals, with Carreiro growing up in Glendale and Williams, a former โX Factorโ contestant, hailing from Compton. Nearly all had previous industry experience. Lyndriette is the most familiar face as part of the promising but short-lived R&B group RichGirl, which once toured with Beyoncรฉ โ an experience that didnโt dissuade Lyndriette from trying out. (โNot one second,โ she says. โI loved my group, and I wanted the opportunity to do it again.โ)
There was no drama, no wretched auditions shown for laughs nor humiliating eliminations.
Instead, the series focused on the process: Rowland and Gatson combing through talent, rehearsing them endlessly, offering constructive criticism, introducing them to industry giants (New Edition and En Vogue made appearances) and preparing for their debut.
โIt was graceful to say the very least,โ Carreiro says of the experience. โThe cameras were just there. They didnโt tell us what to do. It wasnโt formulated in any kind of way. It kept us on our toes.โ
โIf [Kelly and Frank] felt like we needed an elimination because youโre not the right girl, there was an elimination,โ Williams adds. โIf they felt we needed to get our dancing together, we did that. It was very true and real to how the music industry is, but very fast.โ
Nurturing and uplifting the women, even if they didnโt progress, was paramount, Rowland says. One hopeful was eliminated because Rowland wanted to build a different group around her. And unlike many of these shows, the cameras werenโt continuously kept rolling.
โPeople had seen these shows. What could I do to make mine different? I wanted more spontaneity. I wanted it to be shot differently. I wanted it to feel authentic. I wanted it to be right in the thick of everything,โ Rowland says. โIt would be easy for me to tell girls โnoโ if Iโm sitting behind a desk and they are up there [onstage]. I wanted the experience to be different.โ
โChasing Destinyโ ranked No. 1 in its time period among black women in the 18-49 demo, and the still-unnamed groupโs first offering, a lush a cappella rendition of Drakeโs โHotline Bling,โ went viral when it was released online last month.
The real test, however, is the music.
Over a two-month period the group recorded more than 30 songs โ half of which were submitted to Epic head L.A. Reid.
Rowlandโs husband and manager Tim Weatherspoon, who also serves as an executive producer on the show, sighed with relief when discussing Reidโs reaction to the music. And Rowland herself gleefully danced around the studio as the groupโs A&R person played a batch of records that will most likely be included on its forthcoming debut. The ladies sang and riffed with one another as each song played.
The group worked with a slew of in-demand hitmakers (Harmony Samuels, Dem Jointz, Stereotypes and DJ Camper are among their collaborators) for the project, which feels like an updated take of the edgy pop-oriented R&B of Destinyโs Child and SWV with the bite of Total, TLC and the short-lived Electrik Red.
โHe might fool you from the way he talk below the waist,โ they advise on the fiery womenโs anthem โL.A.N.C.E.โ (two of the words are unprintable here, but its abbreviation describes an unfaithful man).
Between the sassy, bouncy โWrap Aroundโ; the sensual slink of โFactsโ; bass-rattling bangers โYou Know Why You Callingโ and โProblemโ; and โRatchet Life,โ a smartly written number that sees the women offering tough love to a friend, the group is intent on delivering on Rowlandโs promise.
They still need a name though.
Rowland says they came close with 1310, their first apartment together, but superstitions over the number 13 made them rethink it.
The group might not have settled on a name, but is anxious for its debut.
Its first single will arrive soon and the groupโs debut TV performance (as of now) is set for โGreatest Hits,โ ABCโs upcoming summer music series that has contemporary artists and heritage acts performing records that defined the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s (the group will pay homage to En Vogue while its label mates Fifth Harmony will perform a Destinyโs Child medley).
โI want them to see just as much or more than DC or En Vogue or TLC or any of us have,โ Rowland says. โI just think itโs that time again. I want them to see the world. And once they conquer it โ do it again.โ
www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-et-ms-chasing-destiny-20160607-snap-story.html