The singer told Billboard that Beyoncé called Kelly Rowland and herself about the guest spot. Beyoncé left the choice of material up in the air. “We talk all the time so when she called I just thought she was gonna say, ‘Hey I wanna go to lunch, I wanna come to dinner’ or something,” Williams explained. “So it literally was the phone call, like yay. ‘Y’all know I’m doing Coachella, I would love for y’all to come out and we’ll figure out what we’re going to do.’ And I’m like, of course. I love performing with the girls.”
Williams said preparations for Beychella began months ahead of time, with rehearsals for the show beginning in January and February. Talking to Los Angeles Times, she discussed the nature of the rehearsal process, and her bemused reaction to the epic scale of the show:
Initially I was like, ‘Bey, just go out there and have fun. People are gonna be so excited to see you.’ And then I walked into rehearsal for the first time and saw this big old pyramid and that it was gonna be filled to the brim with humans. I said, ‘What in the bejesus is this? I told you just to go have fun!’ But she can never do anything that we would think is normal. And this is what’s fun for her.
Williams also wondered, logically, what was going to happen to the giant pyramid set around which the two-night show was based: “I said…’Are the twins gonna play on it one day? Is it gonna be their swing set?'”
To Billboard, she detailed how the trio went about deciding on their “medley,” specifically the somewhat unusual choice to perform the Timbaland remix of “Say My Name” instead of the original version. Said Williams:
You know the coolest thing is that sometimes we’ll just sit together and we’ll kind of sing songs together and then it would be a chord or note that somebody hits that reminds you of a song. And you’re like, “Wait a minute. This would go good here.” Like, I’m a medley queen. It’s one of the best things in the world. It’s because of a chord that musician hit where you’re like, “Wait a minute. That sounds similar to ‘Say My Name’” or whether it was the foot stomps the fraternities were doing. “Say My Name” had those stomps, the remix.
When asked about the potential for new music by the group, Williams was optimistic but suggested nothing was in the works:
Anything is possible…We just haven’t talked about it and it’s like one of us is thinking it and especially after this last performance coming up with a few new arrangements and harmonies for some of those songs, it’s kind of like we still can sing. I’m like, ‘c’mon let’s do this. I’m here for it!’ There’s nothing better than singing with Beyoncé and Kelly…they know that I’m down to perform, sign, tour, record.
Destiny’s Child has continued to reunite and collaborate on various project since the announcement of their hiatus in 2006, famously performing at Beyonce’s Super Bowl halftime performance in 2013 and collaborating on Kelly Rowland’s single “Say Yes” in 2014. They performed the song at the 2015 Gospel Music Awards.
