Twenty-five years ago, an act that Ed McMahon awkwardly called a “hip-hop rappin’” group called Girl’s Tyme competed on Star Search, and lost out to hairy rock band Skeleton Crew’s flawless four-star score. Skeleton Crew didn’t actually go on to become stars, but they recently graciously told People, “Skeleton Crew will remain a footnote in the career of Beyoncé. … This is Beyoncé’s story, and obviously our ‘destiny’ was to play a part in it.”

Why? Because Girl’s Tyme went on to become one of the most successful girl groups of all time, Destiny’s Child.

“Oh my gosh. I remember the song [Skeleton Crew] sang. Some things are just polarizing!” Destiny’s Child alumnus Kelly Rowland laughingly tells Yahoo Entertainment, recalling the humbling experience. “Shout-out to Skeleton Crew. … Their lead singer was just really dynamic.”

In 2013, Beyoncé used a snippet of audio from Girl’s Tyme’s Star Search performance, including the traumatic announcement that they had lost. In a video interview titled “Perfection” accompanying the release of her surprise self-album, Beyoncé actually described the defeat as “a defining moment of my childhood.”

Rowland, sitting with Yahoo at a Boys & Girls Club in Long Beach, Calif. (where she is partnering with the organization and Lowe’s for “Renovation Across the Nation,” an initiative that awards grants to renovate a club in each of the 50 states), also recalls the incident as one of the most traumatic of her own girlhood. She was only 12 years old at the time, but she was already convinced that her career was ruined.

“I was standing there, waiting for our score, and when they’re like, ‘Three stars,’ and they’re like, ‘Skeleton Crew gets four stars,’ we were like, ‘This is over,’” she laughs. “I think that’s what we were thinking: ‘This is over!’ And then the curtain came in front of us, and we cried. Cried, cried so hard. We were so heartbroken! We thought that was the end of it all.”

Girl’s Tyme were actually in good company: Other future pop stars who competed on the show and lost include Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, Usher, Aaliyah, Christina Aguilera, Alanis Morissette, and LeAnn Rimes. Now, Rowland says the Star Search experience was a “really great learning curve.” And obviously her fears were totally unfounded. She went on to a long career — with Destiny’s Child, as a solo artist, and, ironically, as a judge/coach on two Star Search-like TV talent shows, The X Factor and The Voice Australia.

Now Rowland is about to release a new solo album, which she says will be “the most authentic I’ve been on a record,” after taking a five-year break to focus on her son Titan, who was born in November 2014. “I just wanted to be a mom in a moment. And then I was back in the studio, and falling in love with music all over again,” she says. “And now I’m ready, because I know exactly what I want to say.”

However, over the years, Rowland has reunited with Destiny’s Child — most recently this past April at Beyoncé’s historic Coachella performance. The Empire Polo Field positively erupted when Rowland and her bandmate Michelle Williams showed up to sing “Lose My Breath,” “Say My Name,” and “Soldier,” but Rowland admits the entire experience was a blur. “Do you know, I didn’t hear anything, because my ear monitors were in!” she chuckles. “And I remember coming off the stage, and I asked Tasha, my assistant, I said, ‘Did they like it?’ She goes, ‘What? What? Did they like it? Do you know what just happened?’ But I was so happy [when I realized later] that people loved it.”

Michelle Williams, Beyoncé, and Kelly Rowland at the 2018 Coachella festival. (Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Coachella)

The Coachella cameo of course had fans wondering if Destiny’s Child might reunite in a bigger way down the road — perhaps they could stage a Girl’s Tyme reunion to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Star Search? But Rowland no such plans are currently in the works. “We haven’t really talked about it. Michelle’s gearing up for a show with her and her fiancé, and B’s still on tour and gearing up for a project.” However, she says she, Beyoncé, and Williams “very much keep close in contact, and love on each other from afar, and close by too.”

Sitting at the Boys & Girls Club, Rowland gets nostalgic, stressing that it was the support of her family and social network that helped her overcome the Star Search setback and persevere. And there was another old-school TV show, Amen, that inspired her. “Every time the show would come on, my mom would make me sing [the theme song] so loud, because she wanted me to be aware of my voice, and to be confident in that as well, and to be able to sing on the spot. She just really believed. So you have to have people around you like that,” laughs Rowland, adding: “The common thread is the fact that we all have dreams. We all have things that we picture ourselves doing when we’re older. But we also need people around us who sow into our lives and tell us, ‘You can do this. Let’s try this.’ Sowing into your greatness. I think that’s important. And that’s what we do [at the Boys & Girls Club].”

This article originally ran on Yahoo Music.

But truth be told, no talent show, not even “Idol,” ever spawned as many superstars as “Star Search” did. Many hugely successful singers got their start on the charmingly cheesy show (including future Idols David Archuleta, Diana DeGarmo, and Kimberly Caldwell; current “Voice” contestant Josh Kaufman; and two “Voice” coaches, Christina Aguilera and Usher). Interestingly, many of these singers didn’t win. But that obviously didn’t slow them down.

Thanks to the magic of old-school VHS technology and advances in new-school digitization, the Internet is awesomely awash in grainy, incriminating “Star Search” footage. Here are the best clips from the series’ most notable losers and/or future stars:

Justin Timberlake (aka Justin Randall)

In 1992, long before he was wearing a suit and tie, 11-year-old Justin opted for a cowboy look (and sound). He wasn’t exactly bringing sexy back, but he sure was a cute kid. Justin lost out to a precocious baby diva named Anna Nardona, who later went back to having a normal childhood; Anna didn’t even realize that she’d won over the Justin Timberlake until VH1 contacted her years later for a “Star Search” flashback special.

Beyoncé once told Yahoo Music that this 1993 incarnation of what Ed McMahon awkwardly called her “hip-hop rappin’” group was going for a TLC vibe, although there were shades of Kris Kross and the “Living Single” theme song here, too. Surprisingly, the hype girl in this group actually managed to outshine baby Bey onstage… but when Girls Tyme lost out to hairy rock band Skeleton Crew’s perfect score, that might have been a sign that it was time to change direction, and soon she was gone. An audio clip of this “Star Search” performance amusingly opens Beyoncé’s recent hit, “Flawless.” Skeleton Crew, who were shocked that they won, recently told People, “[We've] always said that Skeleton Crew will remain a footnote in the career of Beyoncé… This is Beyoncé’s story, and obviously our ‘destiny’ was to play a part in it. If that experience helped to shape her and make her into what she is now, then what more can we ask?”

Britney gets a lot of flak for lip-synching these days, but she sounded surprisingly strong when she sang live on “Star Search” at age 11, back in ’92. However, the judges thought her round two opponent, Marty Thomas, was slightly stronger, giving him a perfect four stars (Britney got a score of 3.75). “I remember walking offstage thinking, ‘She’s going to beat me,’” Marty told ABC News years later, admitting that he was “shocked out of [his] mind” when he actually won.

Nine-year-old Xtina slayed some Etta James on a 1990 “Star Search” episode, but still lost to a 12-year-old named Christopher Eason. Adding insult to injury, Ed McMahon didn’t even pronounce her name properly. But Christina got her revenge, obviously, and as a coach on “The Voice,” she has often recounted the tale of her “Star Search” setback to encourage eliminated contestants to keep following their own dreams. As for Christopher, he grew up to be an Oklahoma City barista, although he is still pursuing music. “Sometimes things just don’t work out the way that you planned,” he recently told “Inside Edition.”

Isn’t it ironic? Before she was winning Grammys, the 14-year-old Alanis was losing on “Star Search.” Maybe she tapped into some rage stemming from that humiliating 1990 incident when she went into the studio to record her angst-ridden future hit, “You Oughta Know,” five years later.

In 1989, a 10-year-old Aaliyah competed in “Star Search’s” Junior Vocalist division, bravely taking on the mature standard “My Funny Valentine” and actually doing it justice. She lost to 11-year-old Katrina Abrams, who went on to have a respectable pop/dance career — but it was Aaliyah, who signed with Jive Records just two years after her “Star Search” loss, who became a superstar.

In 1991, at the age of 8, country prodigy LeAnn won her first “Star Search” round against Levi Garrett — but she didn’t make it all the way to the finale. Six years later, she did make it all the way to the Grammy Awards, when she became the youngest person to ever win a Grammy, for Best New Artist and Best Female Country Vocal Performance.

Thirteen-year-old Usher lost on “Star Search,” but his appearance — which featured the longest sustained note ever held by a child on the show, at 12 seconds — caught the attention of an A&R representative for LaFace Records. The rep introduced Usher to LaFace’s L.A. Reid, and the rest was history. So, like Christina Aguilera, this “Voice” coach knows that winning a singing competition isn’t the end-all and be-all. While Usher’s actual “Star Search” performance seems to be lost forever (at least on the Web), other adorable local talent show footage from the era, along with L.A. Reid’s commentary, surfaced in Usher’s “Behind the Music” special for VH1.

Tiffany (aka Tiffany Renee)

Tiffany made it to second place on “Star Search” in 1985, eventually losing to Melissa Moultrie’s perfect score. Two years later, Tiffany dropped the “Renee,” released her debut album, became a shopping-mall sensation, and went quadruple-platinum.

Bobbie wasn’t a singer — she competed in the show’s “Spokesmodel” category (and, unlike the contestants listed above, actually won multiple times). But she forever has a place in rock ‘n’ roll history as the star of Warrant’s iconic “Cherry Pie” video, ex-wife of Warrant’s Jani Lane, ex-fiancée of Mötley Crüe’s Tommy Lee, author of the memoir “Dirty Rocker Boys: Love and Lust on the Sunset Strip,” and current cast member of Fuse’s “Ex-Wives of Rock.” And to think, it all started with “Star Search!”

Follow Lyndsey on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Google+, Amazon, Tumblr, Vine, Spotify

This article originally ran on Yahoo Music.