Beyonce – Destined for Stardom (2011)

Directed by: Tara Pirnia-Mehran | 86 minutes | music, documentary

Singer Beyoncé Knowles became a mother of daughter Blue Ivy in early 2012 and we will know that too. Her husband, rapper and producer Jay-Z, had rented out the entire maternity ward at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, meaning countless other new dads, whose newborn babies were in the same ward as little Blue Ivy, had access to their own. child was refused. It earned the star couple the necessary criticism. Beyoncé and Jay-Z are used to something. Tall trees catch a lot of wind. Beyoncé in particular has become one of the most successful artists in the world in ten years. Born in 1981, the Texan is not only working as a singer and songwriter, but also as an actress and businesswoman. What that immense fame does to a young woman is an interesting question. Just like there are more questions you would like to ask Beyoncé. Unfortunately, the fleeting documentary ‘Beyoncé – Destined for Stardom’ (2011) does not provide any answers. From an early age, Beyoncé dreams of a career in the entertainment world. Supported by her parents, she and her girl group Girls Tyme go through all the talent shows to force a breakthrough. That only comes in the late nineties, when Wyclef Jean starts to interfere with the girls.

Beyoncé’s group has since been renamed Destiny’s Child and consists of childhood friends Kelly Rowland, LaTavia Roberson and LeToya Luckett. Mathew Knowles, Beyoncé’s father, has left his good job at Xerox to manage the girls. The single ‘No, No, No’ means an international breakthrough for Destiny’s Child and the group has been ‘hot’ since 1999. Beyoncé is the big eye-catcher and that leads to more and more annoyances with Roberson and Luckett, who feel that their manager is favoring his daughter. In 2000 they leave the group. They file a lawsuit and Beyoncé is accused in the press of diva behavior. It is a black page in the life of Knowles, who is left with a depression. A serious documentary would go deeper into this, but ‘Destined for Stardom’ only touches on this episode and continues on the success story of Beyoncé. How she picks up the thread with Rowland and new singer Michelle Williams (no mention is made of temporary band member Farrah Franklin) and rises to great heights with hit singles like ‘Independent Women part I’ and ‘Survivor’. How she throws just as high as a solo artist. And how she takes her first steps on the silver screen and especially for ‘Dreamgirls’ (2006) receives good reviews. The film flies at high speed through Beyoncé’s life and is larded with short, meaningless interview fragments, archive footage and music. Especially a lot of music. You could say that ‘Destined for Stardom’ is a concert registration with some information trickling through every now and then.

It’s nice to see how professionally Beyoncé moves on stage, how clean she sings live and how vibrant and exciting her shows are. But we do know those images. We are curious about the person behind the star. The woman who appears so confident to the outside world, but claims to be shy offstage. We would like to hear from her own mouth how she experienced that difficult period around the break with friends Roberson and Luckett, how far her ambitions go. We want to get to know her, but with this superficial collection of images and music clips edited for the MTV generation, we don’t get around to that. Instead of extensive interviews with those involved, we get sound bites that are quickly talked together by a narrator. Fans can marvel at the music, which is covered extensively, but they will not learn anything new about their favorite star through this glorified concert film.