The Secret Aussie History Of Solange Knowles

Solange is just about to kick off her four show run at the Sydney Opera House as part of Vivid LIVE. Cyclone recalls when Solange quietly slipped into Australia nearly a decade ago to record with local indietronic luminaries.

Melbourne was seized by an unusual form of Beyonce mania when in 2013, during the Mrs Carter Show world tour, the fur-coated superstar was snapped posing in hipster Brunswick outside an old weatherboard house. Needless to say, it inspired many memes.

That scene later appeared in the film-clip accompanying No Angel from Beyonce's eponymous "visual album" - ironically intended as a homage to her Houston, Texas hometown. But Queen Bey wasn't the first Knowles to discover subcultural Melbourne. Her younger sister Solange paved the way, spending the summer of 2009/2010 working with Aussie cosmic disco goth band the Midnight Juggernauts.

Solange has generated much buzz ahead of her exclusive Vivid LIVE concerts at the Sydney Opera House - tickets sold by ballot. The soul auteur attracted a new fanbase with 2016's album A Seat At The Table - a powerful testimonial about black womanhood. In fact, Solange presaged the avant'n'B movement.

Today Solange emanates as an elusive figure who, rarely granting interviews, communicates through her music, videos and social media. As a teen, she served as a standby dancer for Destiny's Child - Beyonce the leader. Solange debuted with 2002's endearing urban-pop Solo Star, expressing a fragile pathos on The Neptunes-helmed Crush. Notably, the singer had writing credits. At 17, Solange married and became a mother. By 2007, she had amicably divorced.

Perhaps inevitably, a reductive mainstream media set Solange against her famous sibling. However, Solange decided that, as an artist, this freed her from industry dictates. She claimed her creative autonomy with 2008's trailblazing, if slept-on, opus Sol-Angel And The Hadley St Dreams. Though revelling in Motown influences (writing with the legendary Lamont Dozier), Solange also explored psychedelic R&B and electro-soul influences (she curated samples of Thievery Corporation and Boards Of Canada). In the prelude God Given Name, Solange alluded to Beyonce: "I'm not becoming expectations/I'm not her and never will be/Two girls going in different directions/Striving towards the same galaxy/Let my star light shine on its own/No, I'm no sister/I'm just my God-given name". She reiterated this in interviews. Sol-Angel And The Hadley St Dreams was a manifesto.

In late 2009 Solange slipped into Melbourne to collaborate with Midnight Juggernauts on what was then reportedly her third album. The city already had a secret R&B history. Solange's idol Aaliyah tracked some vocals for her 2001 self-titled album at Sing Sing Studios while shooting the vampire movie Queen Of The Damned. At any rate, Solange joined the Juggernauts at Falls Festival as a surprise vocal guest - triple j's tweeter, clearly not familiar with God Given Name, referring to her as "Beyonce's little sister". Solange DJ'd at Summadayze on New Year's Day, replacing Kele Okereke. She hung out when the Juggernauts DJ'd at New Guernica that night.

This writer quizzed Midnight Juggernauts' Andrew Szekeres about Solange in 2013. "We met her in Paris one time," he said. "She was writing about how she's into our band. We met her and she was like, 'Oh, yeah, you guys...' It was like this weird kinda thing - ok, this is cool. She was really awesome - and really into interesting music. She brought up this idea of coming to Australia to write with us and we were totally into it. She came by herself; had never been here - and then was here for a few weeks, just hanging out. We did some session stuff in Melbourne and then Vinnie [frontman Vincent Heimann] went to Los Angeles for a bit and recorded some extra stuff there." Alas, the music is yet to materialise, The Juggernauts were soon distracted by their own album roll-out.

Solange would be dubbed 'Indie Knowles'. In 2009 she covered Dirty Projectors' throwback R&B jam Stillness Is The Move and, the next year, cameoed on projects from Of Montreal and Chromeo. Teaming with Dev "Blood Orange" Hynes, Solange cut True, an EP of diaspora pop led by the viral hit Losing You. (It surfaced on Chris "Grizzly Bear" Taylor's Terrible Records.)

In December 2013 Solange triumphantly returned to Australia, headlining Falls in her own right. There were sold-out side-shows with the Juggernauts supporting as DJs. Solange's odyssey culminated in the critically acclaimed A Seat At The Table, released via her Saint Records. It topped the US charts - and Solange won the Grammy for "Best R&B Performance" with the single Cranes In The Sky. However, another song has particular geographic, and cultural, symbolism. Borderline (An Ode To Self Care) samples Aaliyah's More Than A Woman - the last single the R&B icon issued from Aaliyah before her tragic passing.