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CNN Live Event/Special
CNN SPECIAL: BEYONCE, FINDING HER DESTINY
Aired February 09, 2013 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(SCREAMING)
BEYONCE KNOWLES, HOLLYWOOD ARTIST/SINGER: One, two, three, four, five --
NISCHELE TURNER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): She wowed the world!
BEYONCE KNOWLES: Oh, oh, oh, -- All the single ladies --
TURNER (voice-over): An explosive performance that quieted controversy.
BEYONCE KNOWLES: Now put your hands up -
NE-YO, HOLLYWOOD ARTIST: There's nobody else that sings as nice as she is. There's nobody else who is giving the energy that she is giving on stage.
TURNER (voice-over): A path to superstardom that started with a shy little girl.
MATTHEW KNOWLES, BEYONCE'S FATHER AND MANAGER: Beyonce was really a quiet kid, kind of to herself.
TURNER (voice-over): Whose father launched her career.
D'WAYNE WIGGINS, AMERICAN MUSICIAN/PRODUCER: Beyonce automatically stood out. I mean everybody would say that.
TURNER (voice-over): R&B royalty, fashion icon, and now a new role - mother" Beyonce as you have never seen her from the people who know her best.
TURNER (on camera): I'm Nischelle Turner here at Staples Center in Los Angeles, home of this year's Grammy Awards. On the eve of music's biggest night, we're bringing you a half-hour special on one of the world's hottest music stars.
She has earned 16 Grammies and set a record for the female artist with the most wins in a single year. She has been breaking barriers and topping the charts since she first stepped on the stage as a 9-year- old little girl. Here's the story of "Beyonce, Finding her Destiny." (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear --
TURNER (voice-over): Inauguration day for Presiden Barack Obama --
OBAMA: So help me God.
TURNER (voice-over): With Beyonce singing the national anthem --
BEYONCE KNOWLES (singing): -- Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight --
TURNER (voice-over): It was a moving moment --
BEYONCE KNOWLES (singing): -- Over the ramparts we --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DARLETTE JOHNSON, BEYONCE'S DANCE TEACHER: Every time I look at her -- you know, singing for the president and performing worldwide and then I think, "Yes, that was my baby."
TURNER (voice-over): Darlette Johnson was Beyonce's childhood dance teacher.
JOHNSON: I know that she's Beyonce. I know that she's worldwide and everybody know her and everybody screaming, et cetera. But, even when I see her, she's still my Beyonce.
BEYONCE KNOWLES (singing): -- home of the brave --
TURNER (voice-over): A proud moment that didn't last long.
ZORAIDA SAMBOLIN, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Did Beyonce fake it at the inauguration?
JIM ACOSTA, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: This was a question on a lot of lips in Washington today.
A.J. HAMMER, HLN HOST, "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT": Beyonce and her lip sync stunner.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Did she or didn't she?
TURNER (voice-over): Did she? Didn't she? And does it even matter? This was Beyonce's response -- Posted to Instagram. Online and on air.
CHRIS CROCKER, AMERICAN INTERNET CELEBRITY: I'm saying leave Beyonce alone.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was it live or on tape.
TURNER (voice-over): She became a hot topic of conversation. JAWN MURRAY, TV COMMENTATOR: I'm not surprised that she did lip sync.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I still don't think she did, though.
GAIL MITCHELL, BILLBOARD SENIOR EDITOR: I just think people think there just has to be something else behind who she is --
TURNER (voice-over): Gail Mitchell writes for "Billboard" magazine.
MITCHELL: But, no one is really that nice. No one is really -- you know, that gracious. And, maybe that's why people attacked so hard with the whole inauguration lip syncing.
TURNER (voice-over): It turned out that Beyonce had used a pre- recorded track.
BEYONCE KNOWLES: Would you guys mind standing?
TURNER (voice-over): But at a press conference ten days later --
BEYONCE KNOWLES (singing): Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light --
TURNER (voice-over): Beyonce silenced her critics --
BEYONCE KNOWLES (singing): -- What so proudly --
TURNER (voice-over): The punchline?
BEYONCE KNOWLES: Any questions?
(LAUGHING)
TURNER (voice-over): Not likely.
MATTHEW KNOWLES: It's all on different countries.
TURNER (voice-over): Matthew Knowles is Beyonce's father. And, from decades managed her career.
MATTHEW KNOWLES: When you're 15 --16, years old, you don't quite yet have the maturity to quite understand or how to take criticisms.
BEYONCE KNOWLES: I'm sorry. I messed up (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, that's cool.
MATTHEW KNOWLES: She's gotten older. Now, she's grown as a woman. So, you know, she understands it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Beyonce!
TURNER (voice-over): Beyonce feels this is her time.
BEYONCE KNOWLES: I feel like 30 is the ideal age because you're mature enough to -- to know who you are and to have your boundaries and your standards and not be afraid of being too polite. But, you're young enough to be a young woman. I'm very aware of who I am and I feel great.
TURNER (voice-over): For Beyonce Knowles-Carter, lately it has been one hell of a run. Back in the summer of 2011, there was a tummy rub at the video music awards. By the next January, the singer, dancer, actor, filmmaker, entrepreneur, and fashion icon was also mom. And, with the birth of blue ivy came a new burst of creativity.
MITCHELL: I think as a new mom, you get a renewed sense of strength -- of purpose of whatever. And, I think that that's gelled with her and -- and having Blue Ivy --
BEYONCE KNOWLES (singing): Yes, baby it's you! --
MITCHELL: Next thing you know it is Super Bowl. It's just, you know, one, two, three, let's go.
TURNER (voice-over): Beyonce emerged from a four-month break ready for reinvention.
JUNE AMBROSE, CELEBRITY FASHION STYLIST: I think as an artist, you have to constantly reinvent yourself.
TURNER (voice-over): June Ambrose is a stylist to husband, Jay-Z, and a friend of the couple.
AMBROSE: It is a part of the job that you are constantly under construction. Always working to be relevant; always thinking of different ways to make a comeback and not compromising who you are as a woman, as a person.
TURNER (voice-over): And there could be no bigger stage for her next act --
BEYONCE KNOWLES: One, two, three, four!
TURNER (voice-over): Than the halftime show at the Super Bowl --
BEYONCE KNOWLES (singing): I look and stare so deep in your eyes. I touch on you more and more every time --
AMBROSE: The crowd's reaction when she stepped out on stage during halftime was, "now the real show is going to start." It was like -- I felt like the football team was her opening act. .
BEYONCE KNOWLES (singing): Oh -- Oh -- Oh -
TURNER (voice-over): Unmatched energy and an eye popping look.
AMBROSE: She was a superhero. It was scantily clad. It was tough. It was salacious.
NE-YO: Beyonce has evolved into this being that you just expect greatness from to the point where great isn't even good enough anymore. TURNER (voice-over): Pop star Ne-Yo collaborates with Beyonce.
NE-YO: There's nobody else that sing like she is. There's nobody else that is giving the energy that she is giving on stage. And, much less doing it at the same time and doing both well at the same time. There's nobody else doing it.
BEYONCE KNOWLES (singing): I'll be your baby. I promised not to let you go. Live you like crazy --
TURNER (voice-over): For 14 minutes, singing live and backed completely by female artists, Beyonce lived out one of her dreams --
BEYONCE KNOWLES (singing): Promised not to let you go --
BEYONCE KNOWLES: I definitely feel that it is my job to empower women, and I remember having this dream that my band was all females. And, I told my male band at the time, I'm sorry guys, you all are so talented, but you're not women.
TURNER (voice-over): A coincidental power failure provided the perfect metaphor for the lights out performance.
TURNER (on camera): How do you think she did?
MATTHEW KNOWLES: How about exceptional. It's difficult because she didn't have a long time to rehearse. You've got to be on in the world. I think 140 million people watched her.
TURNER: Does it get any better than that?
BEYONCE KNOWLES: I would be just as proud even if it was ten people.
TURNER (voice-over): A new album, a huge world tour. Beyonce is ready for the next big thing.
NE-YO: 2013, what's new anymore. Got to say it hats off to her as an artist, just really trying to thrive for whatever is next.
TURNER (voice-over): What's next for music's hottest star? And where did it all begin?
JUDY HASSINE, SINGER: The whole audience was rocking her name. Beyonce! Beyonce! Beyonce! And, that was back when she was like 7 -- 8 years old.
TURNER (voice-over): That story -- next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BEYONCE KNOWLES (singing): Eh -- Eh -- Eh -- Na, Nan, Na, diva is a female version of a hustla -- Of a hustla, of a, of a hustla --
TURNER (voice-over): Before she was the diva --
BEYONCE KNOWLES (singing): Divas getting money -- TURNER (voice-over): Before she was the queen bee, she was just Beyonce Giselle Knowles, a little girl in suburban Houston.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW KNOWLES: Beyonce was a really quiet kid, kind of to herself.
TURNER (voice-over): Hoping to get Beyonce to come out of their shell, Matthew and Tina Knowles sent their 7-year-old daughter to Darlette Johnson's dance studio.
JOHNSON: Harder, harder.
TURNER (on camera): When you first saw her and she first came in -- I mean, did you even notice her?
JOHNSON: What I did notice about her is that she was very shy. If you ask her, what's your name? "Beyonce Knowles." You could barely hear her speak.
TURNER (voice-over): But on the dance floor --
JOHNSON: Beyonce would dance so hard that she would lose her costume pieces. Sometimes her hat would come off, because she was fierce.
TURNER (voice-over): It was here that Beyonce created her now famous alter ego.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now, that's Sasha Fierce. That's who that is.
JOHNSON: When she got on the stage she became a different person.
TURNER (voice-over): But no one knew Beyonce had a secret.
JOHNSON: I hummed a song and she finished it. And, it blew me away. And, I stopped and I told her to sing it again. And, she wouldn't sing it again because she -- once, again, she was quiet, very shy. And, I promised her a $1 dollar. And, she sung it again -- I was floored. When her parents came to pick her up, I told her she can sing. She can really sing.
TURNER (voice-over): A multimillion dollar star was born.
JOHNSON: I remember she was sitting on the floor and I would tell her, you're going to be so big. And, she -- I remember she was looking up at me, and I said you watch.
TURNER (voice-over): At local talent pageants, the pint sized powerhouse quickly made a name for herself.
HASSINE: Before Beyonce's name was even called, the whole audience was rocking her name. Sounding her name, Beyonce! Beyonce! Beyonce!
BEYONCE KNOWLES (singing): Everybody -- TURNER (voice-over): Judith Hassine took Beyonce to many of these pageants.
HASSINE: She always won the competitions. We may have had 500-plus junior talents and she always stood out.
BEYONCE KNOWLES: Thank you!
TURNER (on camera): Adorable. Now, are these all the trophies she won from doing the talent shows and the pageants?
MATTHEW KNOWLES: These are from the pageants, yes.
TURNER: Wow!
TURNER (voice-over): Yet no one imagined that at this young age Beyonce would already face the ugly side of fame.
JOHNSON: In school, you know, there was some jealousy, because she was beginning to be a local star. So, there was some jealousy of girls and they said some mean things to her.
TURNER (voice-over): But the bullying didn't stop her. Fame came knocking at the door of her mother's salon.
MATTHEW KNOWLES: Some ladies came and said you know what? "En Vogue" was hot at the time. And, they said, "You know, we would like to form a version of En Vogue, but a younger version of En Vogue. And, we would like to have Beyonce be the lead singer of the group.
TURNER (voice-over): Girls Tyme was born. Beyonce teamed up with a group of six girls including her cousin Kelly Rowland.
JOHNSON: Beyonce was kind of the pilot of the group. If they got tired, she would encourage them. I call her "The Energizer Bunny" because Beyonce keep going and going and going.
BEYONCE KNOWLES (singing): I don't care everywhere you go --
TURNER (voice-over): From the local spotlight to the national stage.
MATTHEW KNOWLES: These "Girls Tyme" ended up going to star search, ended up competing against some 40-year-olds.
MALE ANNOUNCER: A perfect score, the challenger, "Girl's Tyme" receives --
MATTHEW KNOWLES: And, they lose, and they're crying their hearts out. And, I go over to Ed McMahon. And, I said Mr. McMahon, the kids are crying, I'm a dad. What would I do? And, he said is "Well, all I know is those who lose they go back and they rededicate, refocus.
TURNER (voice-over): And that's what Matthew Knowles had them do. In 1995, he resigned from his corporate job at Xerox to manage the girls full time.
MATTHEW KNOWLES: I couldn't look at them in the eyes and say give it your all if I wasn't doing it.
TURNER (on camera): So, that is the lesion that you taught Beyonce kind of an example to -- this is how you dedicate yourself to this craft.
MATTHEW KNOWLES: Yes. And, it was difficult.
TURNER (voice-over): All they wanted was a major record deal. And, that meant lots of hard work. Here's some rare footage of Beyonce working on some early recordings -- D'Wayne Wiggins was their producer.
WIGGINS: Beyonce automatically stood out. I mean everybody would say that because she simply was a very focused young lady.
TURNER (voice-over): That focus paid off with a big record contract. Michael Mauldin was an executive at Columbia Records.
MICHAEL MAULDIN, COLUMBIA RECORDS MUSIC PRODUCER: We could tell she had pipes and we could tell, you know, again, they were young pipes. That's what you want to do is try to find groups that you can incubate her and put in the incubator and just kind of develop.
TURNER (voice-over): The group settled on a name, "Destiny's Child" and the hits started coming, like "No, No, No."
"Destiny's Child" was on the express ride to the top, until --
JOHNSON: What happened was the girls wanted new management, so that was pretty tough for Beyonce because her father is manager.
TURNER (voice-over): The two members who wanted Beyonce's father out were quickly replaced.
MATTHEW KNOWLES: Beyonce was one of the one who got the black eye for it -- Very, very, very unjustly.
TURNER (voice-over): Beyonce became public enemy number one with fans and the press, even being called a bloodsucking diva. The criticism was nothing new for the girl who was bullied at age 9 for her talent. But, now 10 years older, Beyonce was stronger. Her song said it, she was a survivor.
BEYONCE KNOWLES (singing): I'm a survivor. I'm not going to give up. I'm not going to stop I'm going to work harder. I'm a survivor --
TURNER (voice-over): The publicity from the scandal was seemingly priceless. People couldn't get enough of "Destiny's Child." By the 2001 Grammy's, "Destiny's Child" seemed unstoppable or at least that's what everyone thought.
When we come back, Beyonce goes off on her own.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOHNSON: Give it here. Dance like a star. TURNER (voice-over): Listen carefully.
JOHNSON: Harder, harder.
TURNER (voice-over): Darlett Johnson's girls, the ones she calls the next generations of Beyonces are dancing to "Crazy in Love."
JOHNSON: Crazy in love, I love it.
(LAUGHING)
TURNER (on camera): Don't we all wish we were?
JOHNSON: Crazy in love.
TURNER (voice-over): It's the first single off Beyonce's very first solo album, "Dangerously in Love" and it's the song that launches Beyonce as a major solo superstar, and leads to the end of Destiny's Child.
JOHNSON: I knew that that was going to take her soaring.
TURNER (on camera): Yes, and it did.
BEYONCE KNOWLES (singing): Oh -- Oh -- Oh -- Oh -- I look and stare so deep in your eyes --
TURNER (voice-over): Beyonce's part two, the solo career begins with Jay-Z. He's in her first solo hit and he's in her personal life. From their dating, to their wedding, to Baby Blue, the public doesn't learn a single detail until Beyonce is ready to spill it.
MATTHEW KNOWLES: So, let me show you this.
TURNER (voice-over): An approach she learned from her father.
BEYONCE KNOWLES: I'm not going to talk about Beyonce, the mom and --
TURNER (on camera): What about Papa G, the granddad. What do you like to do with Blue?
MATTHEW KNOWLES: I'm not going to talk about that. You get nothing.
TURNER (on camera): I get nothing.
MATTHEW KNOWLES: This is Beyonce --
TURNER (voice-over): It is a philosophy that Beyonce would go on to apply to both her professional and private lives. No body learns anything about B, until she is ready to tell him.
TURNER (on camera): Let's talk about "Dangerously in Love". The album did really well.
MATTHEW KNOWLES: Yes!
TURNER (voice-over): That first solo album debut at number 1 and went on to sell more than 11 million copies.
MATTHEW KNOWLES: The album did really well and what am I thinking? Tour?
(LAUGHTER)
TURNER: Studio? Tour? More singles now.
MATTHEW KNOWLES: Normally when an album does very well, you do a tour.
TURNER: There's a small tour, Beyonce's first as a solo artist, followed by three more solo albums and a total of five solo number one hits, including 2008's "Single Ladies".
(MUSIC)
TURNER (voice-over): Movies.
BEYONCE KNOWLES: 'Cause I'm Foxy Cleopatra and I'm a whole lot of woman.
TURNER (voice-over): A fashion line.
BEYONCE KNOWLES: My mother would make all of these beautiful clothes and after so many years, my fans, they were like, we have to buy these clothes somewhere.
(MUSIC)
TURNER (voice-over): And numerous endorsements, including a new one with Pepsi that will pay Beyonce to advertise its products and fund some of her creative projects.
MITCHELL: I think it's a huge deal. I think it says a lot about her as a brand, about her music. And that Pepsi would do something like that for a black female music artist, that's tremendous.
TURNER (voice-over): It's a deal that demonstrates she is as good a businesswoman as she is a performer.
BEYONCE KNOWLES: My father was such an incredible entrepreneur and any and everything he said he would have, he worked until he had it. And he taught me there's no such thing as no.
MITCHELL: My personal opinion is she watched. She watched her dad. She watched her mom. I mean, her mom rain a hair salon. She's got this business savvy that a lot of people either - a lot of creative types, they're not - they're one side.
TURNER (voice-over): Those two sides of Beyonce are more important than ever. She's now on her own. Two years ago, she announced her father would no longer be her manager.
TURNER (on camera): I wonder where can she or where does she go from here? MATTHEW KNOWLES: I think that's a question you should ask Beyonce. I think she has the ability, the talent, passion, fans, that she can quite frankly go wherever she'd like to go.
TURNER (voice-over): Where she's going next is the documentary world. She is the director of the story of her life that airs this month on HBO.
BEYONCE KNOWLES (voice-over): I was not given to you. You have to take it. You're playing a part in a much bigger show and that's what life is.
TURNER (voice-over): Word is we'll learn more about the personal details she usually withholds, such as the miscarriage she suffered prior to Blue Ivy. But even before the documentary airs, she's become a little freer with personal information thanks to a large and active Tumblr site.
AMBROSE: So if they're posting it, you're supposed to know it. If they're not posting it, you ain't supposed to know it.
TURNER (voice-over): What the online and documentary projects have in common is that Beyonce controls the content. After the doc, there's a world tour.
Mrs. Carter? That's Beyonce confirming four years later that she's married to Jay-Z, whose given name is Sean Carter. And details on the next album? Writer-producer Ne-Yo promises whatever music she produces in the future will push the edges creatively.
NE-YO: She's not afraid to take a risk. She's not afraid to take a shot. She's not afraid to do this. And if you hit it, you hit it. And if you don't, you don't.
TURNER (voice-over): But aside from admitting to some recording sessions with Beyonce, he won't say anymore.
NE-YO: And I'm not going to be the one to let the cat out of the bag. Y'all ain't going to get me in trouble, no sir.
Nobody has the patience to wait for the greatness. They just want everything quick, quick, quick and it's like, if you actually take the time to wait for it, it just makes it that much better when you actually get it.
TURNER (voice-over): Wait for it, world. The tour is coming. Her Web site is promoting it.
The rest? She'll tell you when she's good and ready.
BEYONCE KNOWLES: Thank you all so much.
(CHEERING)
BEYONCE KNOWLES: Thank you so much. God bless you all.
(CHEERING)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TURNER (on camera): Beyonce is nominated for Best Traditional R&B Performance at this year's Grammy Awards. Last year's awards were shadowed by tragedy. Pop icon Whitney Houston was found dead the day before the show.
Next, Whitney. Her life, her music.
