Survivor (Destiny's Child album)

''Survivor'' is the third studio album by American girl group Destiny's Child. It was released in Japan on April 25, 2001, and in the US on May 1, 2001, by Columbia Records. The album features production by lead singer Beyoncé Knowles and J.R. Rotem, with additional production from Poke & Tone, Cory Rooney and Mark J. Feist. Four singles were released from the album: " Survivor", " Bootylicious", a cover of Samantha Sang's "Emotion", and " Nasty Girl".

The album was a massive commercial success, debuting at number one in over fifteen countries across Europe, North America and other continents. In the United States, the album debuted at number one on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart with first-week sales of 663,000 copies, the highest first-week sales figures of any female group in the SoundScan era, and stayed at number one for two consecutive weeks. It earned Destiny's Child two Grammy Award nominations for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals, and Best R&B Album. ''Survivor'' was certified quadruple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on January 7, 2002. ''Billboard'' ranked ''Survivor'' at number 70 on the magazine's Top 200 Albums of the Decade.
The album has sold over 4.7 million copies in the United States and over 10 million copies worldwide.

Background and development

In December 1999, LeToya Luckett and LaTavia Roberson tried to split with their manager, Mathew Knowles, claiming that he was keeping too much of the group's profits and that he favored Beyoncé Knowles and Kelly Rowland. When the music video for " Say My Name" debuted in February 2000, Roberson and Luckett found out that they were being replaced with Michelle Williams, a former backup singer for Monica, and Farrah Franklin, an aspiring singer-actress. In July 2000, just five and a half months after joining, it was announced that Franklin would be leaving the group. According to the group, Franklin missed a handful of promotional appearances and concerts and was asked to leave the group. Franklin stated that she quit because of negative vibes in the group and her inability to assert any control in decision making.

Recording and production

After emerging as the group's focal point, Knowles assumed more control taking a greater hand in writing the material and even producing some of the record herself. Knowles' intention was not to monopolize the spotlight, however, she did co-write and produce all of the album's 18 cuts. She explained, "I only wanted to do like three songs... The label kept saying "Do another song, do another song, do another song". It wasn't planned. It wasn't like I said, OK, I'm going to take charge." The album was originally planned to be called ''Independent Women'', but was later changed to ''Survivor'' because of the turmoil that has coincided with the group.

The song " Survivor" was inspired by a pun that a radio station had made about the fact that three members had already left the group, comparing the band to the reality game show '' Survivor''. Knowles was inspired to take the negative comment and turn it into a positive thing by writing a song out of it. Knowles wrote the song " Bootylicious" on a plane flight to London while listening to the track "Edge of Seventeen" by Stevie Nicks when the word "Bootylicious" just popped in to her head. This claim has been highly disputed as Rob Fusari said in a 2010 interview that he alone had the idea for the song and had wanted to use a guitar riff from the song "Eye of the Tiger" but after not being able to find it used a similar riff from Stevie Nicks' song "Edge of Seventeen". After hearing Beyoncé claim credit for the song in an interview with Barbara Walters, he telephoned Mathew Knowles,

While recording sessions were going on, Rowland recorded the song "Angel" which appeared on the soundtrack of '' Down to Earth'' (2001).

Critical reception

The album received generally positive reviews. ''Survivor'' received a score of 63 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on 17 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". ''Entertainment Weekly'' praised the album, calling it "the divas' premature, but inevitable growing pains album." ''Spin'' commented that "''Survivor'' is relentlessly inventive in its recombinations." ''New York'' was less impressed, saying: "All fifteen tracks are one-dimensional disses and dismissals of scantily clad women, vengeful boyfriends, and the group's assorted doubters." AllMusic commented that the album is "as contrived and calculated as a Mariah Carey record, only without the joy."

Rob Sheffield by ''Rolling Stone'' remained fascinated by the group's journey, claiming: "Destiny's Child aren't just a pop group, they're pure drama, each hit single another chapter in their ongoing saga of the-tribe-has-spoken lineup changes, controversies and all-round fabulousness. Beyonce Knowles, Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams, debut as a trio, are the great pop group of the moment, ruling the radio with fluid R&B, and they are shouting it." Sheffield at the end wrote that "the only real weakness on ''Survivor'' is the self-righteous tone creeping into the songs. These gals are on a roll, no doubt about it, and if there's no telling where Destiny's Child will go from here, that's part of the drama that keeps us glued to the pop spectacle they've set in motion - and Survivor is packed with enough hits to keep the show rolling."

Accolades

The album won the Soul Train Lady of Soul Award for Best R&B/Soul Album of the Year, the Teen Choice Award for R&B/Soul Album of the Year – Group, Band, or Duo, and the American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Album. Destiny's Child won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Vocal by Duo or Group for the song "Survivor". ''Survivor'' itself was nominated for Best R&B Album.

Commercial performance

''Survivor'' debuted at number one on the US ''Billboard'' 200 with first-week sales of 663,275 copies, the highest first-week sales figures of any female group in the SoundScan era and the highest first-week sales figures of any album in Columbia Records' history. It remained atop the chart in its second week with a 49% decline to 358,959, pushing the albums sales past the one million mark after only 2 weeks in stores and remains the longest run atop the chart for Destiny's Child. In its third week ''Survivor'' slipped to number 3 scanning 221,884 and held the same position in its fourth frame with 175,237 copies sold. In its fifth week the album climbed one spot to No.2 with 169,487 scans. ''Survivor'' spent its first thirteen weeks in the top 10 of the ''Billboard'' 200 (2 more than ''The Writing's on the Wall'') and by the end of 2001 had sold 3,718,446 copies in the US and ranked as the seventh best-selling album of the year, the second year in a row that the group had made the top ten best-sellers list.

''Survivor'' debuted at number one in over fifteen countries, including the United Kingdom where it was certified 3× Platinum by BPI for sales of over 900,000 and went on to sell over a million copies. It also reached number one in Canada, selling over 31,000 copies in its first week (and was eventually certified 4× Platinum, for sales of 400,000 copies), as well as debuting or peaking in the top ten in Australia, Sweden, Japan, Hungary, France, Italy, Finland, Denmark and Poland. With ''Survivor'', Destiny's Child became the first US female group to have a number one album on the UK charts since Diana Ross and the Supremes hit the position 24 years ago with a greatest hits package. ''Survivor'' is the first album of original studio material (i.e., not a greatest hits collection) by a female American group to hit number one in the 43-year history of the UK chart.

"Survivor", the album's title track, spent six weeks at the number-two position on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, being barred from the number one position by Janet Jackson's " All for You." "Independent Women Part I" (also featured in the remake film ''Charlie's Angels'' and on its soundtrack) occupied the number one slot on ''Billboards Hot 100 (for 11 weeks), R&B and dance charts. "Bootylicious" served as the album's third single and topped the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 for 2 weeks. "Emotion" was issued as the album's fourth single and continued the group's streak of top-ten hits in the United States, peaking at number ten on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. "Nasty Girl" served as the album's fifth and final single and only charted internationally, reaching the top ten in Australia, as well as the top 30 in Denmark, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

In Europe the album was certified 2× Platinum in recognition of two million albums sold across the continent; its sales have since surpassed the three million mark. The album was certified 2× Platinum in Australia. The IFPI reported that ''Survivor'' was the third best-selling album worldwide of 2001, with 7.8 million copies sold during the year. As of November 2004, the album has sold 10 million copies worldwide.

Legacy

The album was included in the book ''1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die''. This and other notable rankings appear in the table below. The information regarding accolades attributed to "Survivor" is adapted from Acclaimed Music, except where otherwise noted.

Track listing

Credits adapted from the album's liner notes

Notes
* signifies a co-producer
* signifies a vocal producer

Sample Credits
* " Independent Women Part II" contains elements from "Peabody's Improbable History", performed and written by Frank Comstock.
*"Bootylicious" contains elements from "Edge of Seventeen", performed and written by Stevie Nicks.
*"Nasty Girl" contains replayed elements from "Tarzan Boy", performed by Baltimora, written by Maurizio Bassi and Naimy Hackett.
*"The Story of Beauty" samples the 1986 Israeli children's television program theme "Hopa Hey" ("הופה היי"), featuring Israeli singers Yigal Bashan, Uzi Hitman, Gidi Gov, Avi Dor and Aharon Ferrara.

Personnel

* Mark J. Feist – producer, arranger, programming
*Tony Maserati – mixing
*Vladimir Meller – mastering
*Dave Pensado – mixing
*Nunzio Signore – guitar
*Richard Travali – mixing
*D'Wayne Wiggins – guitar, producer
*Richard J. Davis – production coordination
*James Hoover – engineer, vocal engineer
*Walter Afanasieff – bass, programming, drum programming, arranger, producer, keyboards
*Tom Coyne – mastering
*Poke – producer
*Corey Rooney – producer
*Jim Caruana – engineer
*J.R. Rotem - additional instruments, keyboards, drum programming
*Dexter Simmons – mixing
*Poke & Tone – producer
*Brian Springer – engineer, vocal engineer
*Flip Osman – assistant engineer, assistant
*Jill Topol – stylist
*Destiny's Child – main performer
*Nick Thomas – mixing
*Dan Workman – guitar, mixing, vocal engineer, engineer
*Damon Elliott – producer, engineer
*Troy Gonzalez – engineer
*Anthony Dent – producer, engineer, keyboards, drum programming
*Rob Fusari – producer
*Beyoncé Knowles – vocals, songwriter, producer, vocal arrangement
*Kelly Rowland – vocals, songwriter, vocal arrangement
*Michelle Williams – vocals, songwriter
*Farrah Franklin – vocals (tracks 1 & 11 on international edition)
*Kim Wood Sandusky. - vocal producer
*Michael McCoy – assistant engineer
*Wassim Zreik – assistant
*Mathew Knowles – producer, executive producer
*Tina Knowles – hair stylist, stylist
*Orlando Calzada – engineer
*Michael Conrader – engineer
* Dave Way – mixing
*Marla Weinhoff – prop stylist
*Greg Bieck – keyboards, digital programming, drum programming, engineer, programming
*Pete Krawiec – assistant engineer
*Kent Huffnagle – engineer
*Ramon Morales – engineer
*Falonte Moore – producer
*K-Fam – producer
*Errol McCalla – programming, producer
*Bill Lee – producer
*Woody Pornpitaksuk – author
*Eric Seats – multi instruments
*Robert Conley – programming
*Terry T. – engineer
*Thom Cadley – mixing
*David Donaldson – keyboards, vocal engineer
*Calvin Gaines – producer
*David Gleeson – engineer

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

All-time charts

Certifications

Release history

See also

*List of best-selling girl groups
* List of best-selling girl group albums

Notes

* * As of December 2009, the album has sold 4,300,000 copies in the U.S. according to Nielsen SoundScan, which does not count albums sold through clubs like the BMG Music.Billboard.co
Destiny's '#1's' Bows At The Top
quote: "Survivor has sold 4.3 million to date.". Retrieved on January 13, 2009. Combined, it has sold over 4,739,000 copies in the U.S. with additional 439,000 copies sold at BMG Music Clubs. Nielsen SoundScan does not count albums sold through clubs like the BMG Music Service, which were significantly popular in the 1990s.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Survivor (Destiny's Child Album)
2001 albums
Columbia Records albums
Destiny's Child albums
Albums produced by J. R. Rotem
Albums produced by Cory Rooney
Albums produced by Beyoncé