Beyoncé Knowles: Hometown Girl

While controversial halftime performances have been the topic of conversation since Sunday's Super Bowl, the singing of the national anthem by six-time Grammy nominee Beyoncé Knowles, is worth a replay all its own.

The Early Show co-anchor Hannah Storm sat down with the former member of Destiny's Child just after her pre-game performance to talk about her success as solo artist and the thrill of singing before the Super Bowl in her hometown of Houston.

"I was so nervous before I sang the song," Knowles says. "My heart, I could see it beating out of my chest, because this has been a dream. And I have been telling my mother since I was, I don't know 8, 9, 'I'm going to do that.' Every year I saw someone singing, 'I'm going to do that.' And she was like, 'OK, baby. All right.'"

Whitney Houston was the person who mostly inspired her to sing the national anthem. Knowles says, "I just thought that was so cool. She did such a great job. You could feel her emotions and it was just so huge. I said, 'One day, I'm going to do that.'"

And just like Houston, Knowles decided to wear a white suit. Knowles says, "I wanted to be a little more glamorous. My mom said, 'Let's do a suit.' She designed it. I wanted to do something sophisticated and elegant. I loved it. It turned out great."

It certainly turned out great in every respect; Knowles says, "I could hardly fight back the tears," while singing those powerful words. Next for her is the Grammys, the All-Star game.

She says, "This month has been really crazy. Crazy! I never expected that I would be nominated for six Grammys for my first solo album. And all of these talented artists that I admire are nominated. I'm just proud of every one of them. And I'm really proud of myself, because I worked so hard on my album and I worked for eight months on it, writing and producing it. It's a big acknowledgement at the Grammys because that's a wonderful honor. I hope my performance is unbelievable. I'm going to work on it."

Knowles already has three Grammys with Destiny's Child, and the group is going to get back together and start on a new album.

Knowles says, "I have a tour coming up next month in March. In May, we'll start recording in the studio again."

Going back to Destiny's Child after achieving so much success on her own is going to be a different experience, she says, "We've all grown so much. We were 19 and now we're 22, 23. We're adults. So a lot of our opinions are different. So it's going to be interesting to see what's going to happen. But I'm so looking forward to it and so are the other ladies. We just had a meeting about what the video will look like and whom we're going to work with. It's exciting because sometimes it's lonely being by yourself. We're looking forward to reuniting."

Asked what she wants young girls to see in her, Knowles says, "Someone who works really hard, someone who is still human, and someone who is talented and wants to give good messages to other young people. Basically, my message is for kids and young girls to love themselves and not listen to all the negativity in the world and work on themselves and their character as opposed to concentrating so much on the outer beauty, because that fades."

Knowles told Storm what song she's going to be singing at the Grammys, but she swore her to secrecy. You can find out by watching the 46th annual Grammy awards this Sunday at 8 p.m., ET/PT on CBS.