22 • THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
ENTERTAINMENT
WEDNESDAY,JULY 2,2003
Diva of Destiny releases solo album, tries acting
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — With millions of album sales, Grammys, more than a half-dozen hit singles, a blockbuster movie and A-list endorsements, it's hard to imagine how Beyonce Knowles' star could get much brighter.
"It's getting worse," says Knowles in her husky, Southern-accented voice.
Yet with the release of Dangerously in Love — Knowles' first solo disc apart from the megagroup Destiny's Child — the 21-year-old is moving into a celebrity stratosphere so luminous even she's a bit nervous about it.
"It takes getting used to, everywhere you go somewhere, you have to sign autographs or look a certain way to get pictures."
She'll have to make the adjustment given the early success enveloping the project.
She's got a Top 10 hit on the Billboard charts with the album's first single, "Crazy
in Love," and the album, on Columbia Records, is on pace to debut on the top of the album charts next week.
She's also starring with Cuba Gooding Jr. in The Fighting Temptations, due out in September.
She's even becoming a one-named wonder: she simply uses the name Beyonce (pronounced BEE-yon-SAY) on the new album.
Knowles' stardom has long eclipsed that of her two groupmates, Michelle Williams and Kelly Rowland.
Still, she insists that her solo career is just a brief diversion in the juggernaut that has become Destiny's Child, one of the most successful girl groups of all time.
"I'm going to do another Destiny's Child album, regardless if I sell no-million, one million, five million or however million," she says. "The only way I won't do it unless Destiny's Child is no longer friends — no other reason, but because I love them and I love being in the group."