A Date With Destiny

Destiny's Child have just begun their daily four-hour makeover, an event that's become as commonplace as breakfast for this R&B supergroup. Primped and polished, Beyonce Knowles, Michelle Williams and Kelly Rowland will scarcely resemble the young women who, earlier in the day, might have tried to upstage one another in burping contests. The Houston trio are marvels of self-transformation, looking as fabulous in animal-fur bikinis and Grammy gowns as they do in army fatigues. They are players in a seeming fairy tale: the story of a band that rose up from legions of faceless girl groups and "Star Search" contestants to amass a following of millions.

But the story is real, and continues to unfold. Destiny's Child's new album, "Survivor," debuted at the top of the charts last week, selling more copies in one week than any other album by a female group of the last decade. This amazing feat hardly produced a ripple in the music industry--such success has become a given for these young women. For the past month the group has been promoted with a daily two-hour band retrospective on MTV, heavy rotation of the "Survivor" video and ads for the first Total Request Live tour, which they will headline. "I just hope people don't get sick of us," says 19-year-old Knowles in a husky Texas drawl. "I'm sick of us, and I'm in Destiny's Child. There's such a thing as overexposure, but you just have to be selective in what you do. There has to be some mystery so people are excited when they see you."

The mystery of Destiny's Child is that it's nearly impossible to pin down who they are or what they really believe in. The new CD features a paean to "Independent Women," yet the girls' everyday actions seem to be controlled by manager Mathew Knowles, a.k.a. Beyonce's dad. They are, for example, forbidden to drink or cuss. And while they sing about "nasty girls" who should "put some clothes on," they never seem to be wearing more than a washcloth's worth of material between them. As a cultural riddle, Destiny's Child are intriguing. As a marketing phenomenon, they are as cynical as the record biz itself.

These contradictions didn't stop 7 million people from buying the group's second album, 1999's "The Writing's on the Wall," or discussing the girls' every move as if they were reality-show contestants. After all, there's plenty to dish. The group replaced three members between albums as stealthily as "Bewitched" switched Darrins. Then there's the Knowles family's hold on Destiny's Child: the manager father; his wife, Tina, the group's hairstylist, and Beyonce's younger sister Solange, the backup dancer. The band's only remaining original member, Kelly Rowland, might as well be a family member--she's lived with the Knowleses since she was 11, she explains, because "we were always rehearsing and doing shows. But I see my mom every day." It's a setup that former member Farrah Franklin likened to a cult.

This complicated game of musical chairs has fueled speculation that Destiny's Child is a mere springboard for Beyonce's leap to Diana Ross-like solo stardom. She is the one who (with a little help) wrote and produced "Survivor," struck out on her own to play the lead role in last week's MTV "hip-hopera" "Carmen," and is soon to be L'Oreal's newest hair-flipping spokesmodel. "People want to make me out as a big diva," says Knowles inside the Beverly Hills hotel suite that's doubling as today's makeover studio. Michelle Williams, 20, lounges on a nearby bed while Rowland, also 20, has her hair done in the bathroom. "I heard this story that I supposedly went to Whatta Burger and drove away without paying for my food," says Knowles. "I eat there all the time, so it's possible, but I don't think I should get my food for free. That's ridiculous! I thought of going there and giving them money. But then it would just be, like, 'Oh, she's a diva and she's crazy'."

Knowles answers the disses throughout the new album--on the retributional title track, inspired by a critic who compared the band's ever-changing lineup to the "Survivor" TV series, and on "Happy Face": "There's plenty of people who don't like me, but 10 times more who love me." She even encouraged Williams and Rowland to sing several lead parts. "Survivor" lacks the street-style bounce that earlier Destiny's Child producers Kevin (She'kspere) Briggs and Rodney Jerkins brought to the mix, but as with vintage Motown groups, it's the girls' voices that carry the CD.