In an airy mall in suburban Southern Maryland, a mutiny almost breaks out Saturday afternoon.
As teen-age girls everywhere tend to do, the three young and sexy members of the R&B group Destiny's Child are late. It's 2:30 p.m., the scheduled time for an autograph session with fans at St. Charles Town Center in Waldorf. Almost 3,000 people have converged upon the mall, and the crowd is jostling, pushing aside small children to get better views and chanting, "We want Destiny's Child! We want Destiny's Child!"
But pandemonium doesn't fully occur until three tall, lithe beauties with large radiant eyes and dazzling smiles confidently stride onto a small stage an hour late, gathering deep-red roses from fans along the way. For a moment, Beyonce (rhymes with fiance) Knowles, Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams seem a tad overwhelmed, looking at the thousands of screaming, adoring fans all around them.
Fame and the fans that come with it sometimes still surprise the girls who are the current darlings of up-tempo R&B with such infectious hits as "Jumpin, Jumpin," which is No. 1 on the dance charts. Their sass-filled songs laying down the law for errant boyfriends "Bills, Bills, Bills" and "Say My Name," both of which have hit #1 within the past year, have become anthems for female empowerment. They just released their latest single, "Independent Woman," which will be the theme song of the upcoming "Charlie's Angels" movie and the name of their next album. Their sophomore album, "The Writing's on the Wall," has sold more than 6 million records in the United States and 2 million more worldwide since its July 1999 release. And the group currently is on a whirlwind U.S. tour with pop princess Christina Aguilera that stopped in at Merriweather Post Pavilion Saturday night.
Not bad for some teen-agers from Houston who just 10 years ago were pony-tailed 9-year-old girlfriends watching videos of the Supremes.
"You dream of this," says Rowland, 19, nibbling on a butter cookie after the almost two-hour autograph session ends. "But you never dream that you'll have this mall right here sold out and another mall in Ohio sold out. I was talking to my best friend and she was like, `Do you know how big you guys are?' and I'm like, `No, I don't wanna know. I just wanna keep a level head.'"
In the past year, Rowland and lead singer Knowles, 19, have had to work especially hard to keep level-headed. Destiny's Child has struggled with the disputes and departures that have ruined other successful groups, and its members have had a harsh lesson - Real Life 101.
