Drum: COVER FEATURE
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My heart belongs to Daddy
Behind every Academy Awards triple-threat, Grammywinning, advertiser’s wet dream is a man with a vision
setting the pace. Beyoncé Knowles has become the trendsetting female of our millennium but Drum finds out she owes
it all to daddy.
very era has its defining female personality;
a woman who manages to transcend race,
background and musical taste to become the
name on everybody’s lips. Fashionable yet feisty,
cool yet conservative enough to sell shampoo and
perfume to the masses, Beyoncé Giselle Knowles
was born to be a star. Why else would parents pass
on such a ridiculous moniker to a newborn if not to
see it up in lights over the city’s stadium one day?
E
The journey from Texan also-ran to the dominating
solo star of our age is one strewn with litigation,
rumor and good old fashioned luck but always
under the guidance of one man, Mathew Knowles.
Beyoncé’s charismatic and business-minded father
and a man about whom the word ‘perseverance’ was
practically invented. His single-minded determination
to get his little girl the recognition he felt she deserves
is the stuff good urban legends are made of.
Aged 10 Beyoncé was already comfortable in the
world of open auditions and it was at one of these
cattle calls for young entertainers that she met future
Destiny’s Child members LaTavia Roberson, LeToya
Luckett and Kelendria ‘Kelly’ Rowland. Before the
world would come to know the sassy quartet in all
their Wyclef Jean-aided glory they would know the
pain of public failure. Girls Tyme, as they were then
known, were put through their paces by Knowles
who organised after-school choreography sessions,
voice lessons and any other training that could
benefit the pre-teens in the quest to get a record deal.
Images of the youngsters jogging and singing to
build up their lung capacity and practising their
dance moves in stilettos might speak of Knowles’s
vision or something else but there is no one who
has ever seen Beyoncé move in killer heels who has
not appreciated her early efforts. When Girls Tyme »