MTV Newsroom › destinys-child

Michelle Williams Opens Up About Blue Ivy At BET Event

Posted 1/17/12 11:36 am EST by in Beyonce, Music


Destiny's Child

Former Destiny's Child Michelle Williams already let us know that she does not need to congratulate her friend Beyonce on Twitter when she can do it in person, #thankyouverymuch!

So when Williams hit the red carpet for this weekend's BET Honors, reporters were curious if she'd met little Blue Ivy Carter. Well, she has and had nothing but glowing things to say. "She is absolutely gorgeous. We were all in love," Williams told USA Today on the red carpet. "They [Beyonce and Jay-Z] have already settled into their role of being parents, and it's just awesome to see. They might have inspired me a little bit, but this ring finger got to get a little more heavy first!"

Williams' happy words come on the heels of a Twitter tongue-lashing after she was criticized for not offering well-wishes on the social network following Blue Ivy's birth. "Let's get ONE thing straight....I do NOT have to say congrats to someone when they're NOT on twitter...ESPECIALLY when I talk or email them all the time....or when I'll be physically present as well," she wrote. "This is a beautiful, precious, private time between two people and excitement is to be expected but NOT disrespect! #churchdismissed"

Also on hand at the BET Honors was Kelly Rowland, who was a little more coy about B.I.C. Read More...

Tags , ,

Michelle Williams Does Not Need To Congratulate Beyonce On Twitter (She'll Do It In Person, Thanks)!

Posted 1/9/12 4:38 pm EST by in Beyonce, Tweet Beat, Twitter


Everybody is always running to Twitter to share their every thought and feeling. The same is true of celebrities, who share even the most banal details on the social-networking site. Recently, Twitter saw an influx of congratulations for a very famous singer and her hip-hop mogul husband on the birth of their new baby, but notably absent from the choir of congrats was Michelle Williams, former Destiny's Child and current gospel singer and Broadway star.

You see, Miz Williams didn't think it appropriate to hit the tweet button to congratulate Beyonce on the birth of little Blue Ivy. She apparently got a little ribbing from fans for not issuing a statement the way many of Bey and Jay's other friends, from Rihanna to Gwyneth Paltrow, did and finally took to Twitter to let us all know why.

"Let's get ONE thing straight....I do NOT have to say congrats to someone when they're NOT on twitter...ESPECIALLY when I talk or email them all the time....or when I'll be physically present as well," she replied to one irate fan.

"My friendship with people aren't always for twitter display," Williams continued. "Respect that and get a LIFE!!! Enjoy this FINE day!!! God bless!!!!"

But that's not all! Read More...

Tags , , ,

Are The Women of Destiny's Child Competing With Each Other This Summer?

Posted 7/7/11 4:40 pm EST by in Beyonce, Kelly-Rowland, Music


By Danielle Genet

It’s no surprise that the world still misses Destiny’s Child. After all, the post-Destiny’s Child career successes each lady has experienced are a testament to the fan favor the women created. Now, the women who used to work as a harmonious trio (and remain real-life friends) are about to battle it out on the charts.

This past week, Michelle Williams dropped the single “Love Gun,” which is said to be the first single off her forthcoming, still-untitled fourth studio album. Williams, according to her Broadway Playbill biography, was “the first member of the group to explore solo terrain,” focusing on focused on gospel music with Heart to Yours (2002) and Do You Know (2004).

Gospel music came naturally to Williams, who first started singing in church as a child. Williams moved in another direction with the release of her third studio album, 2008’s Unexpected, and its lead single “We Break the Dawn” had a nice run on the Hot Dance Airplays chart. Throughout her music career, Williams has also acted on both television and on stage in Broadway musicals like Aida, The Color Purple and Chicago and, most-recently, in the play What My Husband Doesn’t Know. Williams is also a minority owner of the WNBA team The Sky.

Read More...

Tags , , ,

Destiny's Child Make Their Debut: Wake-Up Video

Posted 2/17/11 9:30 am EST by in Wake-Up Video


As we get further away from their peak, doesn't it seem like Destiny's Child should be considered among the greatest R&B acts of all time? In less than a decade together, they produced four albums with four chart-topping hits, moved nearly 50 million units and — perhaps most importantly — influenced an entire generation of R&B stars. But before the solo albums, big-ticket videos, sold out tours and chart dominance, they had to start somewhere, and on this day in 1998, Destiny's Child dropped their self-titled debut album.

The group began when the members were just teenagers. Originally called Girls' Tyme, the group had as many as six members when they first started performing and attracting national attention from producers and record moguls. When the group finally got serious and focused on producing their first album, they changed their name to Destiny's Child (a reference to a passage in the Book of Isaiah) and cut their membership down to the four core members who made up the first true version of the group: Beyoncé Knowles, Kelly Rowland, LaTavia Roberson and LeToya Luckett. Under the leadership of manager Matthew Knowles (Beyoncé's father), the group scored a deal with Columbia Records and put together their debut album, which featured input from some of the biggest names in music at the time (including Wyclef Jean, Jermaine Dupri and Rob Fusari, who would later go on to aid the career of Lady Gaga).

Strangely, Destiny's Child was not much of a chart hit (it peaked at number 63 on the Billboard 200), but it did end up selling over a million copies and spawned the smash single "No No No," whose remix ended up near the top of the Billboard Hot 100. Lineup changes, solo albums and worldwide domination came later, but this was our first glimpse into the world of Destiny's Child.


Tags , , ,

Al Gore Concedes The 2000 Presidential Election: Wake-Up Video

Posted 12/13/10 8:00 am EST by in Wake-Up Video


One of the most contentious and embarrassing sequences of events in American political history came to a close on this day in 2000 when Al Gore conceded the presidential election to George W. Bush. Gore had been contesting the results of the vote because of the extremely narrow margin of victory his opponent possessed in the state of Florida (and because Gore had won the popular vote by half a million ballots). The legal struggle went all the way to the Supreme Court, who had also declared Bush the winner in its decision.

Along the way, the American electoral system was stretched to its limit. When the dust cleared on election day, Bush had nailed down the 270 electoral votes necessary for victory (he finished with 271). Gore even called to concede that night, though he called Bush a half hour later to retract that concession.

Why did he keep fighting? Gore was only five electoral votes behind, and there were reports of uncounted and discarded ballots in the state of Florida (which Bush carried by the narrowest of margins). All sorts of conspiracies began to crop up (the most damning of which was the fact that Bush's brother was the governor of Florida at the time). Partisan lines were drawn in the sand and public rancor was at a fever pitch in the month between election day and Gore's final concession.

Bush took office in January of 2001, while Gore seemed to go underground for a while. When he returned, he committed himself to helping the environment, specifically calling attention to global warming via the film "An Inconvenient Truth" (which won an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature in 2007). In honor of this strange moment in history, check out the clip for Destiny's Child's "Independent Women Part 1," which was the top song in the country on the day of Gore's concession.


Tags , , ,

Destiny's Child Declare Independence At #1: Wake-Up Video

Posted 11/12/10 9:00 am EST by in Wake-Up Video


Beyoncé Knowles has had an astoundingly full career, first as a member of Destiny's Child and also as a solo artist. Between those two outlets, she has racked up an astounding number of huge hits, big-time videos and gigantic sales. She has been to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 a total of nine times, but the biggest single she has ever been a part of has been "Independent Women Part I," Destiny's Child's contribution to the soundtrack from the hit 2000 movie "Charlie's Angels." On this day in 2000, "Independent Women Part I" ascended to the top of the Hot 100, where it would stay for an astounding 11 weeks.

"Independent Women Part I" was an important single in the evolution of Destiny's Child, as it not only provided the entry point for the group's third album Survivor (the album that elevated the group from merely great to undeniably dominant) but it also was the first Destiny's Child release to feature new group member Michelle Williams (the group had also scaled back from a quartet to a trio; though they only started recording together on the third album, most people consider the Survivor arrangement — featuring Williams, Knowles and Kelly Rowland — to be the "classic" lineup). They couldn't have picked a better track, as "Independent Women Part I" contains everything a great Destiny's Child track needs, including a hot beat, an infectious melody and a healthy dose of girl power.

The success of "Independent Women Part I" was undoubtedly helped out by the box office dominance of "Charlie's Angels," and the video — which was in ultra-heavy rotation on MTV — didn't hurt either, as it borrowed the movie's adrenaline junkie approach to sexiness quite well.


Tags , ,

Roy Halladay Opens Baseball Playoffs In Historic Fashion: Wake-Up Video

Posted 10/7/10 8:30 am EST by in Wake-Up Video


In case you weren't aware, Wednesday (October 6) marked the beginning of the 2010 version of the Major League Baseball playoffs. Don't worry if you were too distracted by your fantasy football roster to remember, as the end of the season was relatively drama-free (save for fans of the San Francisco Giants and the San Diego Padres, whose race came down to the final day). This year's crop of playoff teams is a mixture of the usual suspects (the New York Yankees, the Philadelphia Phillies, the Tampa Bay Rays) mixed with a load of surprising upstarts (the Cincinnati Reds, the Texas Rangers). After yesterday's action, the Yankees, Rangers and Phillies are each one step closer to playing in the World Series, but it was the Phillies' dismantling of the Reds that really caught the attention of the sports world, as pitcher Roy Halladay dismantled the best-hitting team in the National League on his way to only the second no-hitter in baseball postseason history.

Halladay, who signed on to the Phils during the off-season after putting up stellar numbers as a member of the Toronto Blue Jays, overcame a strong lineup and steady early-inning rain showers, had total command over his devastating fastball and his vicious curve. Through nine innings, Halladay threw only 104 pitches and struck out eight batters along the way. Though no-hitters are always tense affairs, Wednesday's game didn't feature any signature defensive plays to preserve the no-no. Halladay was steady, workmanlike and totally dominant.

In pulling off the feat, he became only the second pitcher to throw a no-hitter in the playoffs (the only other one on record is Don Larsen's legendary perfect game during the 1956 World Series) and the fifth pitcher in history to toss two no-hitters in the same season (Halladay turned in a perfect game back in May, adding him to a list that includes Nolan Ryan, Virgil Trucks, Allie Reynolds and Johnny Vander Meer). In honor of his stunning achievement (and in getting the playoffs started on the right foot), check out Destiny's Child's "No No No."


Tags , , , , ,

Destiny's Child Put Their Jelly On Top Of The Charts: Wake-Up Video

Posted 7/29/10 9:20 am EST by in Wake-Up Video


Sometimes all it takes for a song to become legendary is a single line of lyrics that becomes completely iconic. Remember when "Shake it like a Polaroid picture" (from Outkast's 2003 smash "Hey Ya") became a ubiquitous piece of pop culture slang? Or when "Drop it like it's hot" became the official catch phrase of 2004 after Snoop Dogg dropped a killer single of the same name? Destiny's Child joined those ranks when they injected the phrase "I don't think you're ready for this jelly" into the cultural lexicon with "Bootylicious," which topped the Billboard Hot 100 on this day in 2001.

"Bootylicious" was the third single to come from Destiny's Child's 2001 album Survivor (following "Independent Women Part 1" and the title track) and represented the fourth chart-topping track for the group. Written and produced by Rob Fusari, Falonte Moore and Beyoncé, the track includes a sample from Stevie Nicks' classic tune "Edge of Seventeen" (that's Nicks' guitar riff that opens the song). It's a fairly unique track in the Destiny's Child catalog because it is dominated by Kelly Rowland (she has two verses to Beyoncé's one). When it made its way to number one, it dispatched Usher's "U Remind Me" as the top song in the nation. It stayed there for two weeks before getting edged out by Alicia Keys (whose "Fallin'" lived on top for three weeks after).

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of "Bootylicious" is the fact that its video is a tribute to Michael Jackson. The three ladies replicate moves from various Jackson videos, including "Bad," "Beat It," "Billie Jean" and "Thriller." Check it out below, and watch out for cameos from both Stevie Nicks and Beyoncé's sister Solange.

Tags , ,

Destiny's Child Find Fulfillment In 'Popology'

Posted 6/16/10 1:45 pm EST by in Music


They say a well-rounded education is the key to success, and if that truly is the case, the my schooling is woefully incomplete when it comes to the subject of pop. That's why we bring you "Popology," the guide to modern radio-friendly stars as seen through the eyes of a guy who grew up on punk and metal. In case you missed previous installments, catch up with Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson, Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber and the Spice Girls here

This week, Destiny's Child say goodnight.

One of the big problems with performing in a group is that, inevitably, there will be one member who stands out above the others. Charisma tends to be an all-or-nothing kind of thing, and the one person who emerges as the alpha of the group will seemingly be destined to eclipse all the other members. In a band situation, that role usually falls to the lead singer, but in the case of a pop group — where multiple voices carry each tune — it becomes a little more complicated. Justin Timberlake was the clear breakout star of *NSYNC, and there was never any doubt that Beyoncé was the head honcho in Destiny's Child (even if you don't consider her dad was the group's manager). Even before she dropped her solo debut Dangerously in Love in 2003, everybody sort of knew that eventually she would stand above her cohorts.

But nobody knew just how big Dangerously in Love was going to be. Destiny's Child always performed well and sold millions of albums, but Dangerously in Love was a whole different type of phenomenon. It broke multiple singles (including the larger-than-life "Crazy in Love" and the twisty "Naughty Girl") and kept delivering hits well after its release. It was clear that Knowles was destined for better things on her own, but Destiny's Child had one piece of unfinished business, which is why the group got back together one last time for 2004's swan song Destiny Fulfilled.

Though it sold nearly four million copies, Destiny Fulfilled is largely forgotten, and when it is remembered, people recall it being a disappointment. Considering how well-put-together Beyoncé's solo album was, shouldn't the final album from the group that she essentially leads be killer as well?

Yes and no. Destiny Fulfilled certainly has some great 21st-century R&B, but it's also the weakest album of Beyoncé's career (either as a group member or on her own). Read More...

Tags ,

'Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2' Requires The Right Soundtrack

Posted 11/10/09 3:24 pm EST by in Music


If you're anything like me, you'll be spending the better part of the next four or five months of your life playing all the different variations available on the new watershed video game "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2." The sequel to the wildly successful "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare" (which pulled the military shooter series from historical skirmishes to the current day conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan), "Modern Warfare 2" has not only established itself as the best of a great set of titles but also immediately enters the discussion of the greatest video games of all time, right alongside "Super Mario Bros.," "Halo," "Grand Theft Auto III" and "Madden '95." (For the complete take on "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2," check out Multiplayer editor Russ Frushtick's in-depth review.)

The cinematic qualities of "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" are overwhelming, including a lush score by Academy Award winner Hans Zimmer ("Gladiator," "The Dark Knight," "Pirates of the Caribbean"). But though the score is great, it's also awesome to crank up your own tunes while working through warzones and taking out terror cells. That's why we've put together the "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" playlist, featuring battle-ready anthems from Slayer, Dropkick Murphys, 30 Seconds to Mars and Drowning Pool. But it's not all headbanging metal — there are also switch-ups from Eric B & Rakim, Nelly Furtado and the Specials. Check out the video playlist below, including a raucous classic from Destiny's Child. Because if your status ain't hood, you'll never survive "Call of Duty."

Tags , , , , , , , ,

Page 1 of 212
SPONSORS
AD:
©2012 Viacom International Inc. All Rights Reserved. MTV and all related titles and logos are trademarks of Viacom International Inc.