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Steve Grayson/WireImageAs Beyonce marches on her Formation tour, this week marks the 15th anniversary of the release of Destiny’s Child’s iconic number-one hit in 2001, “Bootylicious.”
Rob Fusari, who co-wrote and co-produced the track with Beyonce, told Entertainment Weekly that her father and group manager Mathew Knowles tried to stop him from recording the song.
“I remember Mathew calling me that day asking what we did and I said, ‘Well we did a song called “Bootylicious” and the phone was just silent on the other end. He was like “Bootylicious”?! Oh no no no!’ I was like, ‘No you don’t understand. It’s this great female empowerment song. It’s going to be fantastic.
Fusari remembers Beyonce initiated the concept.
“That was totally her,” he recalls. “She knew what she wanted to say. It was very urban pop angle that they were taking on the record.”
“Bootylicious” was recorded at SugarHill Studios in Houston, Texas, and engineer Dan Workman has fond memories of the 14 hour session.
“Beyoncé was sitting sideways on the effects rack behind me in the studio and we’d play her the track over and over while she wrote. We wrote the song in one sitting right there in the studio, and she and Kelly [Rowland] would tap each other in singing the parts and figure it all out.”
According to Nielsen Soundscan,“Bootylicious” has been streamed more than 36 million times, and has been heard by 974 million people on the radio.
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