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The Destiny Fulfilled and Lovin' It Concert was the place to be this past Friday night. Destiny's Child performed one of their last performances in New York City for their farewell concert. There were no special guest, no TI, no Lil' Wayne, no Jigga which was sort of a disappointment.
The group who came out with hits like "Survivor" and "Independent Women" officially announced their split on June 13 th in Barcelona. Michelle Williams, Beyonce Knowles and Kelly Rowland thanked their fans for their love and support at the concert. They explained that they wanted to move forward and pursue personal goals and individual careers in music, theater, television and film.
Destiny's Child explained, "As a group, we've been blessed with success and the greatest fans in the world. We have been working together as Destiny's Child since we were nine, and touring together since we were fourteen. After a lot of discussion and some deep soul searching, we realized that our current tour has given us the opportunity to leave Destiny's Child on a high note, united in our friendship and filled with an overwhelming gratitude for our music, our fans, and each other. After all these wonderful years working together, we realized that now is the time to pursue our personal goals and solo efforts in earnest. This is a time of natural growth for all of us. No matter what happens, we will always love each other as friends and sisters and will always support each other as artists. We want to thank all of our fans for their incredible love and support and hope to see you all again as we continue fulfilling our destinies."
The Madison Square Garden concert was sold out with Amerie and Mario as the opening acts. Amerie was great; she's not just a singer she can be also added to the list of entertainers. Her dancing and vocal routines were very intriguing and exciting. The drummers and dancers were off the meter- everything were perfect. Doing her performance of her hit single "One Thing" she pulled out rapper Fabulous to perform.
Mario performed his hit songs "Let Me Love You", "How Could You" and "Just a Friend." It seemed as if Mario's dancers took more of a shine than he did. Mario tried to regain his shine by taking his shirt off which had the female majority of the crowd go crazy. He performed for about a half and hour with two wardrobe changes. During Mario's performance, I saw lack of originality, He ripped off his shirt and grinded on a female in her lingerie- something that we see during Usher's performances.
There were a half and hour delay before the start of Destiny's Child performance. The group was introduced by a video documenting all of the CD's and magazines they were in, it was a nice intro. What some people call "the greatest R&B Groups of all time" represent women empowerment and what a woman should be, sexy and strong. From the way they strut the stage- you can tell the ladies owned the stage and demand respect. The first set of songs were classic hits, where they talked about men paying their bills in "Bills, Bills, Bills" and they also told their men to say their name in the hit "Say My Name."
Choreographer, Frank Gatson who choreographies Beyonce's dance routines for her tours and videos like "Naughty Girl", "Baby Boy" and "Crazy in Love" worked with the group for this tour and his work was amazing. Destiny's Child's dance moves for every song were just right. Beyonce did some "J.Lo" style moves and she even danced out her 5 inches pumps. Michelle who had a little incident back in November where she fell while strutting herself on countdown show, "106 and Park" proved to the audience that she was something to look at.
Each of the girls had a solo performance where they performed their own songs from their solo CD's. Kelly sung, "Dilemma"- her hit song with rapper Nelly. She came out with a purple dress and feathers. She hit every note in the song with passion causing the crowd stand up and sung every word with her.
Michelle was next to perform, she appeared on a circular stage in which turned into steps. In her flowing gown she performed her gospel song "Do You Know?" It was very different to listen to a gospel song at a pop concert. Many people seemed unfamiliar with the song but by the end it had people standing and clapping with approval. In a BET interview, her band mate Beyonce stated, "She can make the worst sinner, a believer in God and not want to sin."
Beyonce performed "Baby Boy" in which she came out wearing a white outfit as if was in an African Tribe. The small group made their way up a revolving staircase in which she performed "Baby Boy" and later "Naughty Girl."
In their song "Soldier" they wore skintight leather garments from Beyonce's new Clothing Line, "House of Dereon set to launch in the fall. Before the concert it was expected that Beyonce would have been the shinning star at the concert, but I have to say all of them were stars. Beyonce wowed the audience during her verse when she made the diamond sign with her hands in reference to Jay-Z in which she is romantically linked with.
During the Cater 2 U segment of the show, the three pulled up three guys on stage to be serenade. They all seemed stiff and nervous (wouldn't you be.) The guy Kelly picked went straight to Beyonce's chair, Beyonce quickly said, "UnHuh, Brother- She picked you, keep moving." This serenade wasn't as jaw- dropping as the BET Awards early this summer.
Beyonce came out again to perform Dangerously in Love in a long gown. She really didn't change her dance routines from what she did on the MTV Video Music Awards or her other tours. After performing Dangerously in Love she ripped off the bottom part of the gown exposing booty shorts to perform "Crazy in Love."
At the end of the concert was a show of harmony; in breakup songs like "Free", "Bad Habit" and "Through With Love" showed how a woman alone could still rely on her girlfriends. During the "Loose My Breath" the girls hit the stage with white T-Shirts and blue jeans under a cascading waterfall.
Photo Diary....
 
 
 
 
KeiseanM@aol.com
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