Bootylicious treat from chart-toppers

By DITA DE BONI

Superstar singers landing within 24 hours of each other promise an exciting weekend for fans and complete madness for their record company's local reps.

But the payoff will be huge for Sony Music, the label of both acts, which has spent "months and months" preparing for the double headliner, according to promotions manager Kim Boshier.

The world's most popular all-girl group, Destiny's Child, will arrive this afternoon and play an almost sold-out Mt Smart Supertop tonight for up to 13,000 fans.

The group have sold 90,000 albums in New Zealand.

Local radio station Mai FM has arranged for 18 winners of a competition that drew "hundreds of entries" to join the group on stage for their last song, expected to be Bootylicious, a station spokeswoman said.

Birgette McCarthy of Mt Albert will be a "Destiny's Child for a day", riding in a limo to the gig and going backstage.

Hot on Destiny's heels, Colombian sensation Shakira arrives tomorrow.

She will give interviews on Monday and finish her flying visit with a promotion at Sounds' Queen St store that afternoon.

Ms Boshier says it is rare to have artists of this magnitude in New Zealand at the same time.

Destiny's Child will have no time for sightseeing, but Sony Music hopes to show Shakira a bit of Auckland.

Destiny Child's Beyonce Knowles, Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams will bring with them a 58-member crew, which includes Knowles' father, Mathew, the group's manager, and her mother, Tina, the costume designer.

The group will return to the US tomorrow morning, having completed a six-show Australasian tour.

Destiny's Child have had a slew of top-10 hits in New Zealand, including Say My Name, which tackles infidelity, Independent Women and Survivor.

They are now in the charts with Nasty Girl, which exhorts women who wear skimpy outfits to dress more demurely, although in their Survivor video, the girls appeared on a desert island in rags that may have made Robinson Crusoe look overdressed.

Shakira, who has been described as the female Ricky Martin and the Latina Alanis Morissette, is on a promotional visit after her first English hit, Whenever, Wherever.

The song has been at Number 1 here for eight weeks.

A local clubber says the song's video has sparked a dance move in which girls with bare midriffs raise their arms, palms heavenwards, and roll their hips to resemble a top-loading washing Machine.