
Solange, 2016.
Solange Knowles (1986- ) is an American R&B singer best known as the little sister of picture-perfect Beyonce. She has had three number one hits on the American dance charts:
2008: I Decided
2008: Sandcastle Disco
2009: T.O.N.Y.
The last two she wrote with Cee-Lo of Gnarls Barkley. All three songs are from her second album, “Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams” (2008). Like Raphael Saadiq, her music sounds like it is from the 1960s but made now – neo-Motown sort of stuff. Partly because she loves old soul music and partly, no doubt, because she is desperately trying not to sound like her sister! Her first album, “Solo Star” (2003), was all over the place in terms of musical style. Hadley Street is the street in Houston, Texas where her father’s record company stands and where she recorded the album.
She was never one of the main members of Destiny’s Child, though she has been a dancer and backing singer for them and one time did fill in for Kelly Rowland. When she was 15 she travelled the world with them as a dancer. After that her father thought she was old enough to handle a recording contract. Out of that came “Solo Star”.
“Solo Star” did not do well. She went into acting and landed parts in two films: she played the daughter of Vanessa Williams and Cedric the Entertainer in “Johnson Family Vacation” (2004) and then the head black cheerleader in “Bring It On: All or Nothing” (2006), the third film in that series.
In 2004 she married a football player, Daniel Smith. They had a son later that year, Daniel Julez J. Smith, and moved to the mountains of Idaho. In 2007 they divorced. Solange moved to Hollywood with her son.
Up to this point she had taken whatever opportunities came her way. They were great opportunities but she lacked inner direction. In Idaho it seems she got her head together and made up her mind to become a singer and songwriter, singing the kind of music she liked, not whatever producers like the Neptunes or Timbaland were pushing at her, making her sound like every other singer out there. She knew she liked Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye, the Supremes and so on, and she started from there, writing songs. That was the beginning of what became “Hadley St. Dreams”.
In August 2009 she cut off her hair. It was a brave move but it seems to have worked out well: she looks better in short hair. It brings out the beauty of her face much more.
She made my list of women with the most beautiful lips, just ahead of Molly Ringwald.
As someone who hates how Beyonce is pushed so hard at us and as someone who is a second son, it is hard for me not to like Solange. But even apart from that I do like her music more (featured here twice so far).
I know someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows her! Yes, we are that tight.
– Abagond, 2010.
See also:
- songs
- 2008: Solange: F*ck The Industry
- 2008: Solange: Sandcastle Disco
- 2008: Solange: I Decided
- 2012: Solange Knowles: Losing You
- 2016: Solange ft Sampha: Don’t Touch My Hair
- Beyonce Knowles
- Creoles – she is Creole on her mother’s side
- women with the most beautiful lips
- natural black beauty #2
- Kelis
“I know someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows her! Yes, we are that tight.”
wow…maybe you’ll get to meet her someday. I have to admit I didn’t know who she was until she cut off her hair and I came across her in the natural hair blogosphere. She seems cool though. Yes, beyonce is pushed to the limits…
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I like since her first album came out.
She doesn’t have a big voice but i do think she has a
better singing than Bey and her songs are a bit more
mature, I can relate more to her songs.
I love her with short hair, that reminds me some nasty
comments I’ve read on some blogs about her new do.
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“I know someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows her! Yes, we are that tight.”
That is such a classic lol
I always preferred Solange to Beyonce too, been following her career ever since her first album I like her second albulm more though TONY and I decided and Sandcastle Disco are my favourite
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solange does look better without all that hair but i don’t think she’s all that attractive. she just wants to break away from her sister and do her own thing, which i don’t blame her. i couldn’t stand beyonce at one point because how all over the place she is but i guess that’s what being a star is huh? but i prefer beyonce’s voice over solange, in my opinion.
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Yes, she is one of God’s SPIRITED children.
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I’m surprised that so many people who claim to be so staunchly anti domestic violence make jokes about her incident with Jay-Z, if they make a peep about it at all.
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A,
but you have to admit that it was almost comical how they all stepped off the elevator like nothing happened.
Both Beyonce and Solange looked pretty and pristine as they walked to the car, and Jay-Zs look of bewilderment didn’t even register at the time.
I commend Jay-Z for being a real man (unlike that punk Ray Rice) and not knocking her out.
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