Long before she was a global superstar and pop royalty, “Queen Bey” was just Beyoncé Knowles, the hardest-working child performer in Houston.
There’s no questioning her roots: Beyoncé is an H-Town artist through and through, born and raised in Space City, which served as a launch pad for the R&B group Destiny’s Child.
Still, Dallas played a pivotal role in the early days of Bey’s skyrocketing career. Ahead of the singer’s show Sept. 21 at AT&T Stadium, here are four fun facts about Beyoncé's early ties to D-FW.
The woman who discovered her is from Dallas
Longtime Dallas talent scout Teresa LaBarbera Whites was representing Sony Records when she first met 9-year-old Beyoncé and her future Destiny’s Child mate, Kelly Rowland. She was blown away by their potential but couldn’t convince anyone at Sony to give them a deal.
“Then, as soon as I joined Columbia, I got a call from Mathew Knowles (Beyoncé's dad), who wanted to know if I was still interested in the girls. So I started all over again trying to get the label to sign them, and finally they agreed,” she told Songwriter Universe in 2005.
“My first signing was Destiny’s Child. Not a bad start. … I literally watched them grow up.”
Whites worked with Beyoncé for more than 25 years, while also advising Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson and the Backstreet Boys. Based in Granbury, she’s still active in the music biz.
Beyoncé learned about resilience at a Dave & Buster’s in Dallas
In 1998, soon after the release of the first Destiny’s Child album, 16-year-old Beyoncé and her bandmates found themselves performing for 150 nonplussed music industry types at a Columbia Records showcase at a long-gone Dave & Buster’s on Harry Hines Boulevard. The group sang two versions of its single “No, No, No” — a fast take and a ballad version — but neither garnered more than polite applause.
“Industry people … they’re just hard to perform for,” Beyoncé told me that evening. “They’re around music all day, so they’re not gonna dance or scream for you.”
The Dallas Cowboys gave her their stamp of approval
On Thanksgiving in 2004, B and the ladies made a big splash on national TV as halftime performers in a game between the Bill Parcells-era Cowboys and the Bears at Texas Stadium. Flanked by dozens of military members, the trio sang “Soldier” and “Lose My Breath,” two brand-new songs about looking for strong men to love.
They weren’t the first (or last) Texas pop stars to bask in the Turkey Day spotlight: LeAnn Rimes, Kelly Clarkson, Selena Gomez and the Jonas Brothers have all landed the halftime gig.
Beyoncé is a character in the greatest novel ever to come out of Dallas
Inspired by the ‘04 halftime show, Dallas author Ben Fountain carved out a role for Beyoncé and Destiny’s Child in his satirical 2012 novel Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk. The title character and his Beyoncé-obsessed Army buddies — all Iraq War heroes — accompany Destiny’s Child during the Cowboys halftime extravaganza, which serves as a metaphor for American jingoism.
The novel was a critical smash, winning the National Book Critics Circle Award and becoming a finalist for the National Book Award. But director Ang Lee’s 2016 film version was a flop. Maybe if he’d hired the real Beyoncé instead of an actor, it would have done better at the box office.
Details
Beyoncé performs Sept. 21 at 8 p.m. at AT&T Stadium, 1 AT&T Way, Arlington. ticketmaster.com.
