Michelle Williams is establishing a new career path after her years with Destiny's Child and as a gospel performer.

Like the bird depicted in a tattoo just beneath her shoulder, Michelle Williams is spreading her wings and flying solo these days.

It's hard to imagine what could be left for the 28-year-old to accomplish. She's been a member of Destiny's Child, the best-selling female group of all time. She's dabbled in TV, on UPN's Half & Half and Fox's Celebrity Duets.

And she's earned accolades on the theater stage, succeeding Toni Braxton in the Broadway version of Aida in 2003 and portraying blues singer Shug Avery in the Chicago stint of The Color Purple in 2007. It was that role that emboldened Ms. Williams to leave the gospel realm and create her edgier, dance-pop collective, Unexpected, which hit stores last week.

"Playing Shug Avery put a little fire in my soul," she says during a phone chat from her home base in Chicago. "I even told myself in the beginning that I couldn't do it, but I carried some of her boldness with me."

Unexpected uses an intriguing mix of songwriters and producers (Jim Jonsin, Jackpot, Rico Love and Stargate) to create its airy, dance-club-ready tracks. Its first single, "We Break the Dawn," hit No. 1 on the Hot Dance Airplay chart in July. The fact that Solange Knowles was co-writer almost kept Ms. Williams from adding it.

"I had tried to make it a point not to work with Beyoncé or Solange because of all the comparisons, but when I heard the demo, I had to put all that aside. I was very, very, very hands-on with this project. Every producer, each song that is on the album, I chose, so that was some pressure. Rico Love ended up writing the bulk of my album, and I had always prayed that I could have chemistry with someone who could bring out the best in me, and I've found that in him."

With songs that sound more hip than holy, Unexpected might turn off some fans, but she refuses to focus on that.

"I love gospel because it was my foundation, but at the same time, I just wasn't ready to be committed to the genre," she explains. "When I was doing gospel (2002's Heart to Yours and 2004's Do You Know ), I still had to answer these type of 'why' questions, and I can't please everybody."

Not that she has much time to try, with her promotional schedule, script-reading and minority shareholder ownership in the WNBA team Chicago Sky. As far as her career is concerned, "I want fans to feel that I was a risk-taker, somebody who came from Rockford, Ill., and just made it happen."

And about those pesky haters? Ms. Williams shrugs them off. "If my skin ain't tough by now," she laughs, "then I'm in the wrong business."

Lorrie Irby Jackson is a Dallas freelance writer.