Giving The Cheetah Girls their leopard-print flowers
A 20-year celebration of the film series that changed Disney Channel forever.
On January 17, 20031, Disney Channel debuted That’s So Raven, a sitcom about a Black teenage psychic and her desperate, usually failed attempts to change the future. It starred Raven-Symone, a child star previously known as precocious toddler Olivia on The Cosby Show in its later years (ya know, after Rudy grew up and they needed a replacement dose of cuteness), and Nebula in Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century. With a cast that complimented her whip-smart humor, iconic fashion for its titular star, and genuinely funny storylines, That’s So Raven was an instant hit. And yours truly was its #1 fan.
I didn’t have a room plastered with Raven posters or a closet full of brightly-colored pieces to wear in tribute to Miss Baxter. But, I did have a knack for impressions, and my parents can attest that I was a parrot with Raven’s signature catchphrases and inflections. I modeled my own wit and comedic timing after hers because she was so entrancing to watch. Even if Raven Baxter was less-than-popular, to me, she was the It girl. While white girls had Hilary Duff — and make no mistake, I still adored Lizzie McGuire! — Raven represented for the Black girls. She was a triple-threat actress, singer, and dancer, and I wanted to be her.
Around the same time Raven was defining her star on Disney, a girl group was serving pop R&B bops and decrying some broken promithes promithes. 3LW (short for 3 Lil Women), comprised of Adrienne Bailon, Kiely Williams, and Naturi Naughton2, were one of the last stands of late 90s/early 00s girl group-driven pop. They were able to thrive briefly in an era when R&B and hip hop were heavily laced into pop sound, as well as a time when pop was obsessed with teens 16 and under singing like they were grown. (I also have to take an aside to say that Adrienne absolutely CARRIED both 3LW and the Cheetah Girls vocally. She deserved so much more than what the music industry gave her.)
I was familiar enough with 3LW when Disney Channel started running trailers for a new movie called The Cheetah Girls, starring my girl Raven alongside Adrienne and Kiely, in the summer of 2003. They said that it was going to be a musical and, being a songbird and Raven stan, I was stoked for the premiere.
Then, on August 15, 20033, my childhood and the Disney Channel landscape changed forever.
The songs! The choreo! The outfits!!!! The playful teasing and tough love accountability! Hell, I’m still looking for my amigas cheetahs and I’m 30! To this day, my voice wraps around each song’s notes like muscle memory. I modeled my vocal range as I was hitting puberty after Cheetah Girls and Christina Aguilera songs. I recorded the movie on VHS tape to watch whenever I wanted, and wore the tape out rewinding and slowing down the choreography so I could mimic each move precisely. I’d even bring this tireless practice to my 4th grade talent show in 2004, singing and doing the exact choreo4 to “Cinderella” to raucous applause from my peers.
Turning the dial down on my stannage, the film’s success was undeniable. At the time of its release, it was the second-highest rated DCOM premiere ever with 6.1 million viewers. The Cheetah Girls 2 is presently tied with Cadet Kelly for the 8th highest-rated DCOM of all time with 7.8 million viewers. The first film’s soundtrack was certified Double Platinum5, and the sequel’s soundtrack was certified Platinum. For those not versed in RIAA music certifications, Platinum is basically the highest honor a record can receive in terms of copies sold; the only certification higher is Diamond6 (10 million units sold), which is typically earned by albums that have been around for eons. For a kids’ movie to receive such a high ranking amongst mainstream albums of the time is bonkers.
Based on the first film’s success, it’s an objective truth to say that Disney Channel entered a new era in its wake. The Cheetah Girls started a shift toward the DCOM movie-musical — for the remainder of the decade, Disney Channel would try to replicate (if not outdo) the success of TCG. And largely, they succeeded. High School Musical AND Hannah Montana premiered in 2006 and were pretty much the be-all-end-all of tween phenomena. Camp Rock followed in 2008, which saw the acting debuts of the Jonas Brothers and a breakout role for Demi Lovato. Alyson Michalka, star of short-lived series Phil of the Future, had her first musical successes with her sister, AJ, under Disney’s Hollywood Records label. Their songs were played in heavy rotation on Disney Channel, and they even got their own DCOM to boot, Cow Belles (decidedly not a musical).
As the years went on, Disney Channel was creating a new standard, particularly for its young female stars. The Cheetah Girls. Ashley Tisdale and Vanessa Hudgens. Miley, Demi, and Selena. It was not enough to simply act — they needed to sing, dance, perform, and tour the the hits of the media they starred in. They needed to smile and be role models for the girls like me who idolized them. They needed to be their characters on and off screen. The Cheetah Girls filled a void in marketing for prepubescent girls that Disney Channel would continue filling in the years after. It turns out that music created just for tweens could not only be popular, but hugely profitable. (And dare I say….good? Some solid bops came from this era, okay???) The hits from the Disney Channel girls of the 2000s created a genre of pop that bridged the gap between singsong-y tunes made for elementary-age kids and angsty pop made for teens and older. Although the pressure of the Disney machine would eventually cause turmoil for many of the child stars involved, for better or worse, nearly all of the aforementioned actors/singers went on to have varying degrees of success in their careers post-Disney. But ironically, not The Cheetah Girls.
This is why they need their flowers. Yes, Hilary Duff was the original Disney Channel queen and the first to act then sing. But Hilary’s transition to pop star was organic rather than forced; it was more of a happy accident that Disney Channel cast a likable girl that realized very quickly she wanted a singing career, and they capitalized on this luck with The Lizzie McGuire Movie. The same happened with Raven-Symone, but with The Cheetah Girls and the casting of two actual successful singers to join the film/group, Disney Channel clearly wanted TCG to have enough talent to mimic a mainstream singing group and everything that came with that. The distinction is also clear when you consider the looser trajectory of Duff’s career versus TCG’s; the latter was on a shorter leash as far as artistic liberties and media appearances. This type of rigid management within the Disney machine began with The Cheetah Girls.
The movie resonated with girls of all races, but especially girls of color, showing them that talent, ambition, even a lil’ attitude were nothing to apologize for. It showed a generation of girls that conflict between friends was not only normal, but repairable. In a media climate that regularly showed teen girls as catty, The Cheetah Girls reassured us that lasting friendship with multiple girls was possible.
Not only this, but each character had their own strong sense of identity that was easy to latch onto. They each had a sass that made them distinct but still cohesive. Not surprising, given that the film was produced by perhaps the biggest diva of them all, Whitney Houston. Yes, THEE Whitney Houston, y’all.
The fact that the second film remains one of the most-watched DCOMs of all time is a testament to how dedicated fans were to The Cheetah Girls at the time. I vividly recall continually re-watching the first movie in the interim years before the sequel; I simply could not let the power I felt dancing to those songs go. Looking at the success of TCG2, I clearly wasn’t alone. Though the final movie in the trilogy performed terribly — largely due to Raven-Symone’s exit — fans seem to exclude it from the canon of the series to preserve the magic of the first two. The Cheetah Girls, the film and the group, began a golden age at Disney Channel that provided a soundtrack to so many of our youths. But, behind the towering success of franchises like High School Musical and Hannah Montana, the foundation that TCG laid for their popularity is often overlooked.
But I remember. My vocal chords remember. My body remembers. My inner tween remembers. The Cheetah Girls may have been temporarily eclipsed by the Zac Efrons and Miley Cyruses of the world, but their impact should never be forgotten.
I remembered this date from memory. Yes, I am a freak.
The next time we’d see Naturi Naughton in a mainstream capacity would be as Lil’ Kim in Notorious. You could say this was her taking the classic, edgy “I’m all grown up now” role.
See footnote 1. Still a freak.
I still know the choreo to each main song from the first movie by heart. If I’m drunk enough, I will show you!!
A Platinum RIAA certification equates to 1 million “units” sold, and each additional million adds another Platinum certification on top. Double Platinum = 2 million units, Triple Platinum = 3 million, etc. The “units” in question used to only be physical records sold, but the streaming boom of the 2010s caused RIAA to incorporate an equivalent calculation for streams as they translate to “units” sold.
It is much easier for singles to go Diamond versus albums because of streaming. Artists that have achieved Diamond singles include Post Malone, Drake, Justin Bieber, Cardi B, and Ed Sheeran.
Such an iconic and cherished movie of my childhood. I can't wait to show it to Lyanna. Also now that I was just in Barcelona, I have to go back and watch Cheetah Girls 2 😂
If you want more love and discussion of DCOMs, you should check out the podcast This Ends at Prom. One of the hosts is a big fan of DCOMs and they recently covered Zenon
The Cheetah Girls is such a core childhood media memory for me. I have such nostalgia for early 2000s Disney Channel and DCOMs and the way they shaped my growing up. I feel so full of joy after reading this and will certainly be spending the rest of my afternoon down the early 2000s Disney Channel rabbit hole! I'm also so delighted to learn that Whitney Houston produced TCG?!