Bootylicious

Album: Survivor (2001)
Charted: 2 1
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Songfacts®:

  • Group leader Beyoncé Knowles came up with the title and helped write this song. She got the idea when she heard the media's sometimes unpleasant comments about her weight and physique. She wanted to write a song that celebrated a curvy, voluptuous figure.
  • The group says that despite the title, this is a tasteful song. It is about having confidence and knowing you are beautiful.
  • This samples the guitar riff from "Edge of Seventeen" by Stevie Nicks, and Nicks appears in the video. There's not much crossover between their fans, but the Fleetwood Mac singer and the girls of Destiny's Child share a mutual admiration. They met through a chance encounter: Nicks was at 30 Rock (NBC Studios) promoting her Trouble In Shangri-La album on The Rosie O'Donnell Show when she ran into Destiny's Child, who were rehearsing for their appearance on Saturday Night Live. After a chat, they asked Stevie to appear in the video, which she did.

    Nicks has never been accused of bootyliciousness, but she is a visionary songwriter/performer and an independent woman who embodies the confidence Destiny's Child projects in this song. Having Stevie in the video implied her endorsement, which helped appease any of Stevie's fans who objected to the sample.
  • Beyoncé came up with the line "I don't think you're ready for this jelly" when the group was on a plane trip to Japan. She sang it to the other Destiny's Children as a joke, but they loved it and insisted she use it in the song.

    She claims that on this same flight she heard "Edge of Seventeen," and thought the guitar riff sounded like a voluptuous woman.
  • This was not the first time the word "bootylicious" was used in the lyrics of a recorded song. Snoop Dogg rapped on "F--k Wit Dre Day," a track on Dr. Dre's debut 1992 album The Chronic: "Your bark was loud, but your bite wasn't vicious, and them rhymes you were kickin' were quite bootylicious."
  • The team of Rob Fusari and Falonte Moore produced this track and also received songwriting credits along with Beyoncé and Stevie Nicks.

    They put a drum track together using an Akai MPC 2000 sequencer, and decided to loop in the guitar riff from the Survivor hit "Eye of the Tiger." Just one problem: they didn't have that song handy. Fusari had a Stevie Nicks greatest hits album in his CD collection, so they used the riff from "Edge of Seventeen" instead, figuring they'd replace it with "Eye of the Tiger" later.

    The track sat on the shelf for about six months before Fusari submitted it, along with a bunch of other songs, to Destiny's Child when they were looking for material for Survivor. "I didn't think it was appropriate, but it was different from the rest of the stuff I was sending, and I know Beyoncé likes different stuff," he said in The Billboard Book of #1 Hits. "I never thought somebody would want to sing over it, but that's the one that turned out to be 'Bootylicious.'"
  • The "Edge of Seventeen" sample cost half of the song's profits, according to co-producer Rob Fusari. He knew it would be expensive and lobbied to replace it, but the Destiny's Child team insisted it stay.
  • Destiny's Child performed this at halftime of Game 4 of the 2001 NBA Finals between the Lakers and Sixers. They were booed after the performance by the crowd in Philadelphia, who were also upset because their team was losing.

    The trio got a much better reception when they performed it at the Super Bowl halftime show in 2013. After Beyoncé opened the show with a few of her hits, Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams blasted out from under the sage and joined her for this song, "Independent Women Part I," and "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)." it was the group's first appearance since their split in 2006.
  • Kelly Rowland told the Daily Mail January 4th 2008, "I'm so proud of everything that we did in Destiny's Child. In Destiny's Child, we showed that we could carry ourselves as powerful women, and there was more to us than just our bodies. Some people thought a song like 'Bootylicious' was about being sexy, but it was more about having confidence in your own skin."
  • The song reached #1 US in August 2001 and stayed for two weeks. It was the second single from the Survivor album, following the title track ("Independent Women Part I" was also included on the album, but first appeared on the Charlie's Angels soundtrack).

    Another Fusari/Moore production, "Happy Face," was slated to be the next single, but then September 11 happened. In the wake of the tragedy, their cover of the ballad "Emotion" was issued instead and reached #10 in the US.
  • Destiny's Child performed this at two Michael Jackson tribute concerts at Madison Square Garden in September 2001.
  • The first use of the word "bootylicious" in TV or film was on the US TV show A Different World in 1993 when a male character uses it to describe two lovely ladies in the episode "Homie, Don't Ya Know Me?"

    "Bootylicious" was added to the revised, third edition of the Oxford English Dictionary Online in 2004. It defines the word as: "bootylicious adjective orig US 1. A term of commendation of rap lyrics. 1992-. 2. Very sexually attractive. 1994-. (Blend of booty buttocks and delicious.)" >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Bertrand - Paris, France
  • Beyoncé told the February 2013 edition of GQ magazine: "Even the silliest little thing that you hear on the radio, it comes from something deeper. 'Bootylicious' was funny, but it came from people saying that I had gained weight and me being like, 'I'm a southern woman, and this is how southern women are.' My motivation is always to express something or to heal from something or to laugh and rejoice about something."
  • Rockwilder and Missy Elliott remixed this as a slower version that was used on the soundtrack to the movie Carmen.
  • In 2003, Soulwax created a comical mashup of this with Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" called "Smells Like Booty." >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Ekristheh - Halath

Comments: 14

  • Cheryl Stevens from SaltfordOne of my favourite destiny's child songs.
  • Chi Girl from NigeriaRob Fusari in an interview complained about not getting writing or production credit for the song. He said Beyonce did not write the song and that he did. He was listening to Stevie Nick's album and he decided to use the word bootylicious as used by Snoop in a rap along with Stevie's guitar riff. He told Beyonce and she agreed. He wrote the song and the girls liked it and recorded it. Next thing, Beyonce was everywhere claiming to have written the song. When Beyonce claimed once again that she wrote the song on the Barbra Walter's show, Rob Fusari met Matthew, Beyonce's father and manager to complain. Matthew said:The people want to hear that she wrote it. Let's tell them what they want to hear.Rob lamented that production jobs were not pouring in for him because he was not credited. Luckily, for him he later worked with Lady Gaga, he even gave her that name.
  • Luke from Manchester, EnglandYes, Stevie Nicks appears in one of the first scenes of this video as her song "Edge Of Seventeen" is sampled (well, the guitar is anyway) and she's "playing" it.
  • Tony from Topeka, KsMore proof that 00s songs blow.
  • Lucy from Da, Txthis is a pointless song
  • Kelli from Cedar Rapids, IaI think this song samples a Fleetwood Mac song...and doesn't Stevie Nicks show up in the video?
  • Sharon from Aucklandthis song is quite good but the whole jelly thing is kinda wierd.......................
  • Melanie from Milwaukee, WiThis is my fav song of their's. I like it because it is how I feel about my body. If people talk about how I look I give them a look that says 'I know u ain't ready for this jelly.'
  • Kelli from Cedar Rapids, IaThat would be "vain"- veins are blood vessels.
  • Aristotle from Toronto, CanadaSo the Sixers fans may not be immature, and may know what good music is, but they sure can't spell if their lives depended on it.
  • Maria from Philadelphia, PaHey people back of the 76ers fans we are not immature we just now what good music is!!... anways this song is very vein in concited but in a good way it supposed to make you feel better about yourself. Like in the video how they have all different shaped women its a song about inpowerment you could say. Make you feel a hell of a lot better then you did before you heard it.....And i the the 76ers people so back down!!!

    PHILADELPHIA HAS THE BEST FANS AND WE SHOW IT LIKE IT IS WE WILL BOO ARE OWN TEAM IF IT GETS THERE ASS IN GEAR!!! BACK OFF YOU JUST JEALOUS!!

    (and there music doesn't suck to bad)
  • Jessica from Nelson, New Zealandi think that this song is quite vein in the line of 'my bodies to bootylicious for you'
  • Nora from Richfield, MnThe Philadelphia 76ers fans crowd is very immature.
  • Steph from Citrusheights, Cai think that is wrong how people booed them. just cause they are laker haters doesn't mean they can do that since there team couldn't stand a chance against the lakers!!!!!!!!!!
see more comments

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