Kelly Rowland works to bring girl groups back in the spotlight with some new faces
When 11-year-old Kelly Rowland joined spunky Houston preteen group Girls Tyme, no one could have imagined it’d become one of the biggest girl groups in music history.
It happened after the group lost “Star Search” and emerged as the teenage R&B quartet Destiny’s Child in 1997. DC won Grammys, released eradefining hits and sold more than 60 million records.
When its members — Rowland, Michelle Williams and Beyoncé — disbanded in 2005 for solo pursuits, the era of girl groups faded. Rowland is hoping to change that with a new act she’s handpicked and mentored through her BET reality show “Chasing Destiny.”
“I’ve been feeling like there was a void in the marketplace in girl groups,” the 35-year-old says. “It was time.”
Rowland is perched on a table inside a Santa Monica, Calif., recording studio. She’s surrounded by Brienna DeVlugt, Ashly Williams, Kristal Lyndriette, Shyann Roberts and Gabrielle Carreiro, the five women she’s 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 quintet’s inception have 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 last week’s conclusion of the show’s first season, the new group will be launched into the ultimate reality showcase — the pop-music marketplace.
Created and executiveproduced by Rowland, the series has been driven by the singer’s desire to see women — particularly black women — showcase the sisterhood, female empowerment and talent that steered En Vogue, TLC, SWV, Xscape and her own group to the top of the charts.
“There’s something exciting about hearing different voices in one song,” Rowland says. “I just feel like there’s more to offer. ”
The groups she’s referencing, Fifth Harmony and Little Mix, are anomalies in a sea of short-lived, mostly forgettable collectives that have failed to make a splash in recent years.
Halfway during “Chasing Destiny’s” run, Rowland unveiled the group. 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 and preparing for their debut.
“It was graceful, to say the very least,” Carreiro says of the experience. “The cameras were just there. They didn’t tell us what to do. It wasn’t formulated in any kind of way. It kept us on our toes.”
Nurturing the women, even if they didn’t progress, was paramount, Rowland says. “People 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. It would be easy for me to tell girls ‘no’ if I’m sitting behind a desk and they are up there (onstage). I wanted the experience to be different.”
“Chasing Destiny” ranked No. 1 in its time slot among black women in the 18-49 demographic, and the still-unnamed group’s first offering, a lush a cappella rendition of Drake’s “Hotline Bling,” went viral online last month.
The real test, though, is the music. Over two months, the group recorded more than 30 songs — half of which were submitted to Epic head L.A. Reid.
Rowland’s husband and manager, Tim Witherspoon, who also serves as an executive producer on the show, sighed with relief over Reid’s reaction to the music, which feels like an updated take of the edgy pop-oriented R&B of Destiny’s Child and SWV with the bite of Total, TLC and the short-lived Electrik Red.
They still need a name, though.
“There was a void in the marketplace in girl groups,” Kelly Rowland says. “It was time.”