Little sis Solange emerges from 'bootylicious' Beyoncé's shadow

By Adrian Thrills for MailOnline
Updated: 18:59 EDT, 7 August 2008

While growing up in Houston, Texas, Solange Knowles found it very hard to avoid being compared with older sister Beyoncé.

A talented singer and versatile dancer, she was 11 when her big sis  -  five years her senior  -  chalked up her first hit as the frontwoman of Destiny's Child.

The intervening ten years have seen Beyoncé transform herself into a funky force of nature while becoming the world's most famous R&B star. But the younger of the two Knowles girls is catching up fast.

The young pretender: Solange Knowles

'When Destiny's Child released their first record, I don't think I even noticed,' says Solange, in a soft southern drawl. 'I was still at school and I had my own life in Houston.

'People think there should be this great rivalry between us, but there's never been any competition. There's a big age gap and we are two very different characters.

'I try to stand on my own two feet and not talk too much about my sister. But the two of us are still close.'

One thing that the Texan siblings do have in common is their prodigious work ethic.

When I meet Solange in her London hotel, she is feeling the effects of an arduous working day that began with a 5am alarm call, a breakfast TV appearance and a radio interview.

By the time she comes offstage after a live showcase in London's Notting Hill later that evening, she will have completed an 18-hour shift.

Solange owns houses in Houston and Los Angeles, but admits that her real home at the moment 'is my Louis Vuitton suitcase'.

The hectic activity is all in aid of a forthcoming album, Sol-Angel & The Hadley Street Dreams, a Sixties-inspired collection that positions the reflective Solange away from the 'bootylicious' R&B pioneered by Beyoncé.

Heavily influenced by Motown girl-groups such as The Supremes and The Marvelettes,
it is her idea of a 'sweet, soulful record' that harks back to an era when pop was less provocative.

But it also embraces more modern sounds (the ambient electronics of Zero 7 are a reference point) to reiterate that the 22-year-old is more than just a chip off the old Beyoncé.

'I have more to offer than music that is automatically dance,' she insists. 'My new record is a concept album, and that concept is based around the Sixties and Seventies.

'When I started recording three years ago, those records weren't popular. Now they are cool again.'

Her greatest musical influence was her mother, Tina Knowles, a one-time member of Sixties harmony group The Veltones. 'My mom used to play me all those old songs,' says Solange. 'I've always loved Dusty Springfield and Martha Reeves.'

Alongside A-List collaborators Mark Ronson, Pharrell Williams and soul veteran Lamont Dozier, her new album features fellow singer Cee-Lo Green, a member of chart-topping duo Gnarls Barkley.

Classically trained in ballet, Solange had an unexpected start to her performing career when she stepped in after one of Destiny's Child's dancers had to leave during a world tour.

But while she also appeared as a vocalist on the trio's 2001 Christmas CD, a solo career was always her goal. Her debut album, Solo Star, arrived in 2002.

A brief detour into acting (she starred in the film Johnson Family Vacation) was followed by a career break in which she married childhood sweetheart Daniel Smith, an American footballer, gave birth to a son, Daniel Julez, and moved from Houston to Idaho.

Although they later divorced, both parents are still involved in raising their son, now three.

'We do a good job of co-parenting,' says Solange. 'My son spends as much time with his dad as he does with me.

'He also stays with my sister when I'm on tour. Even if I sell millions and hit No 1  -  which isn't my aim anyway  -  the most important thing is to be a good mother.'

It was while she was in Idaho that Solange began writing again. She penned Get Me Bodied and Upgrade You for Beyoncé, while also supplying material for the other two members of Destiny's Child, Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams.

On returning to Houston, she began work on Sol-Angel & The Hadley Street Dreams, the album's unusual title inspired by the aspirations of her father (and manager) Mathew Knowles.

'Hadley Street is a plot of land in downtown Houston,' she says. 'My father took me there one day and told me he was going to build a studio.

'It was a rough part of town, full of desolate housing lots and drug problems, but it's now one of the most developed parts of the city.

'The title is a tribute to his vision. He had a plan and he saw it through. That was a real eye-opener for me. It inspired me to dig out my old Marvin Gaye albums and start writing songs.'

With her new album seen as just the start  -  'It feels like another debut,' she says  -  Solange is keen to follow the Knowles family tradition and make her own dreams come true.

'I'm going to be doing this for years to come. I put my heart, soul and emotions into this record.'

• Solange's single I Decided is out on August 11 on Polydor. Her album Sol-Angel & The Hadley Street Dreams is out on August 18.