Why it’s the right time for Beyoncé to reform Destiny’s Child




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With the confirmation of Beyoncé’s headline Coachella gig came a fresh wave of rumours that Destiny’s Child are on the cusp of re-formation. And not just the holy trinity of Bey, Kelly Rowland and Michelle “Not-the-one-from-Dawson’s-Creek” Williams: we’re talking original Writing’s on the Wall DC, with LeToya Luckett and LaTavia Robertson. The evidence?

Beyoncé recently posed on Instagram wearing an AC/DC T-shirt but only the DC was visible! LaTavia tweeted she was working on a big, secret project! And Kelly posted a picture of the outfit she wore when Destiny’s Child v2 reunited at Beyoncé’s 2013 Superbowl performance! See? Rock solid evidence and definitely not fan hysteria.

Although at the peak of her solo powers, now would be the perfect time for Queen B to reunite the group. She’s coming off the back of two career-best albums (where do you go after Lemonade?) and seems weirdly reluctant to make that joint Jay-Z album he keeps mentioning, instead recording features with everyone from J Balvin to Ed Sheeran, but not her own husband.

© Michael Crabtree/PA

Reuniting the band would also help overwrite a legacy caught up in the internet’s joke cycle. Who could forget the Poor Michelle meme of 2013, highlighting how Williams always got the short end of the stick when it came to the band’s Tina Knowles-created ropey outfits? Or that video of Beyoncé and Kelly watching as Poor Michelle stacks it on stage? Or the footage of Beyoncé looking aghast as Kelly describes herself as “second lead vocalist”? Or that meme of Beyoncé, pregnant with twins, that carried the caption “not the first time she’s carried two people?” A huge comeback could put all that in distant memory.

When the band last reunited in 2013 for the Superbowl half-time show, it was a clever way to distract from the fact Beyoncé had no new music to perform.

© HARVEY ANTHONY HARVEY/PA

It sparked rumours of a full reunion, ones mainly kept alive by Bey’s father and former manager Matthew Knowles, who in 2015 said he was “extremely hopeful that the ladies will come back with an album and a tour”. This was before that year’s self-titled, surprise-drop classic and 2016’s career-defining Lemonade. Back then a full reunion might have seemed desperate. Now it would make career sense.

So it’s decided, then: Destiny’s Child have to be the surprise guests during Beyoncé’s Coachella slot in April. They could bring on former Corrie star Matthew Marsden (who, in 1998, generously let the group provide backing vocals on his single She’s Gone) and undo 10 years of Solange’s attempts to escape her older sister’s shadow by reminding everyone about the time she was the group’s backup dancer. Miss Tina, get your sewing machine out. You’ve got work to do.