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Tenitra Michelle Williams (born July 23, 1979)[1] is an American singer, songwriter and actress. She rose to fame in the 2000s as a member of R&B girl group Destiny’s Child, one of the best-selling female groups of all time with over 60 million records, of which more than 35 million copies sold with the trio lineup that included Williams.
During the group’s two-year hiatus, 2001–2003, Williams released her debut solo album Heart to Yours (2002) which topped the US gospel album chart and became the best-selling gospel release of the year. Also in 2002, Billboard named Williams the fifth-best gospel artist of the year and she received a MOBO Award for “Best Gospel Act” Following this, she released Do You Know (2004) which gained her a nomination for “Best Gospel Act” at the 2004 MOBO Awards.
After Destiny’s Child’s disbanded in 2006, Williams released her first pop album, Unexpected (2008),[5] which spawned the internationally charting single “We Break the Dawn” and the US Dance number-one “The Greatest”. Her fourth studio album, Journey to Freedom (2014), received positive reviews and became her highest-charting album in the US; it was preceded by lead single “If We Had Your Eyes” which reached the US Adult R&B top 20 and the Soul Train-nominated “Say Yes”, which charted internationally and topped the US Hot Gospel Songs chart for seven weeks. Journey to Freedom was nominated for “Outstanding Gospel Album (Traditional or Contemporary)” at the 46th NAACP Image Awards and earned Williams four nominations at the 30th annual Stellar Awards, winning Music Video of the Year for “Say Yes”.
Williams has found success as a television, Broadway and West End theatre actress, gaining a nomination for “Best Lead Female – Equity” in 2008 at the 18th Annual NAACP Theatre Awards Making her acting debut on Broadway in Aida (2003), she has since starred in the sitcom series Half & Half (2006) and the musical productions The Color Purple (2007), Chicago (2009–10), What My Husband Doesn’t Know (2011) and Fela! (2013). She was a featured judge on MTV’s Top Pop Group, a contestant in season 8 of Strictly Come Dancing in the United Kingdom and co-starred alongside gospel musician Deitrick Haddon in the Oxygen reality television series Fix My Choir. She has also appeared on both the American and British versions of The Masked Singer as “Butterfly” and “Rockhopper” respectively. She has earned several awards and accolades including a Grammy Award and star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as part of Destiny’s Child, as well as a solo MOBO Award and Stellar Award.
Tenitra Michelle Williams was born in Rockford, Illinois, on July 23, 1979,[10] to Anita Williams (née Washington) and Dennis Williams III (1952–2020).[11][12] She has three siblings: elder brother Erron, who is also a musician, elder sister Cameron, and younger sister Danielle. Williams made her musical debut at the age of seven, performing a rendition of the hymn “Blessed Assurance” at the St. Paul Church of God in Christ. She later sang in the gospel groups United Harmony and Chosen Expression.
Williams graduated from Rockford Auburn High School in 1997 Shortly after graduating, she pursued a degree in criminal justice at Illinois State University, doubtful of her ability to make a career as a professional singer. However, after two years of college, she left to pursue a music career, as a backing vocalist for other artists such as Monica. In late 1999, 20-year-old Williams met Destiny’s Child band members Beyoncé Knowles and Kelly Rowland in the lobby of an Atlanta hotel.[16] Several months later, a choreographer acquaintance of Williams who knew the group connected Williams to the Knowles family and Rowland, as they were vetting potential new group members.
2000–2003: Breakthrough with Destiny’s Child, Heart to Yours and Aida
Main articles: Destiny’s Child and Heart to Yours
After the much-publicized turmoil, Williams, alongside Farrah Franklin, officially joined the group in early 2000, replacing LeToya Luckett and LaTavia Roberson without notice. Buoyed by the group’s breakout success, Luckett and Roberson had both attempted to split with the group’s manager Mathew Knowles in the late 1990s, claiming that he kept a disproportionate share of the band’s profits and unfairly favored Knowles and Rowland.[18] The issue was heightened after Williams and Franklin appeared in the video of “Say My Name”, implying that the original band members were already replaced.Franklin, however, faded from the group after five months, as evidenced by her absences during promotional appearances and concerts. Franklin attributed her departure to negative vibes in the group resulting from the strife. After settling on this final lineup, the trio released “Independent Women Part I”, which appeared on the soundtrack to the 2000 film Charlie’s Angels. It became their best-charting single yet, topping the official US singles chart for eleven consecutive weeks;[18] the success cemented the new lineup and skyrocketed them to fame.
In May 2001, Destiny’s Child released the group’s third studio album Survivor. It debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 with sales of 663,000 copies. Survivor has sold over twelve million copies worldwide, 4.1 million of which were sold in the US alone. The album’s other number-one hits are “Bootylicious” and the title track “Survivor”, the latter earning the group a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. In October 2001, Destiny’s Child released their holiday album, 8 Days of Christmas. Before releasing the 2002 compilation album, This Is the Remix, the group announced their temporary break-up to pursue solo projects.
While Williams was still with Destiny’s Child, she intensified work on her debut solo album Heart to Yours. The album material included collaborations with singers Carl Thomas, Shirley Caesar and the Mary Mary duo, taking the singer’s work further into urban contemporary gospel and Christian music. “Some people will do gospel when their career fails, but I chose to do it at the height of the popularity of Destiny’s Child”, Williams explained during the album’s release. “And I didn’t want to do it because it was a fad. I wanted to do it because it’s in me. It’s in my heart.” Released on April 16, 2002, in North America to much critical acclaim, Williams became the first member of Destiny’s Child to release solo material with Heart to Yours. The album sold 20,000 copies in its first week, placing it at number fifty-seven on the Billboard 200 and number two on the Billboard Gospel Albums chart, where it later rose to number one. It became the year’s best-selling gospel album, selling more than 200,000 units stateside. A music video for the album’s first and only single, “Heard a Word”, was produced by film director Sylvain White. Heart to Yours won Williams a MOBO Award for “Best Gospel Act” along with a raft of nominations including a Stellar Award nomination for “New Artist of the Year”, a GMWA Excellence Award nomination for “Female Vocalist of the Year Urban Contemporary” and a GMA Dove Award nomination for “Traditional Gospel Recorded Song of the Year” for her collaboration with Shirley Caesar on “Steal Away To Jesus” which was first featured on Caesar’s Hymns album.
