While pop divas have been scarce the past five years, they’re readying for their close-up. Again.
Multiple veteran divas are releasing big records in the next month — anticipated full-length discs from Mariah Carey and Barbra Streisand, a comeback project from Whitney Houston and a hyped, multiformat best-of compilation from Madonna.
And the torch will be passed. This season, a new batch of divas is likely to be christened.
Miley Cyrus will be one of the five marquee performers on VH1 Divas, the landmark, and popular, special series that returns to the small screen Sept. 17 after a five-year hiatus.
Does that make the 16-year-old millionaire a diva? Many would laugh at the idea. But others will take it and run with it, inducting Cyrus into an elite, ladies-only club of performers who define our times.
We’re well past the days of defining diva in a Maria Callas sense. Pop culture has adopted the word from the opera world to represent its standout leading ladies — the brash and the brassy, the silky and the sassy.
Divas are still larger than life, but the word is less pejorative and more majority-rules these days.
And these are diva days. This year could be the comeback of the diva. Not since Mariah Carey sold 6-million-plus copies of The Emancipation of Mimi (a pop-
R ’n’ B record) in 2005 have the ladies had such a presence in mainstream music culture.
It helps that there’s a new generation of divas upping the profile.
“There’s an amazing crop of hardworking young women out there,” said Rick Krim, executive vice president of music and talent relations at VH1. “They are the reason why we’re able to bring [VH1 Divas] back, because we’re focusing on the new, emerging artists. And we’re thrilled with the lineup that we have.”
“VH1 Divas” went away for five years “because it needed to,” according to Krim, who said the franchise needed a break to allow the talent to replenish itself. As it turns out, “emerging” is the perfect word to describe the lineup for this year’s show.
Kelly Clarkson is the most legitimate of the entire group — a pop star who has four big records under her belt. Miley Cyrus is the head-scratcher of the class, given her age, demographic appeal and relative inexperience.
Adele and Leona Lewis each have only one full-length to their names, but their zingy, unfiltered voices are fitting of the title. And Jordin Sparks has the marketing machine that positions her opening for the Jonas Brothers and Britney Spears. It makes sense that they found her a spot at this table.
Compare this list with past Divas performers — Diana Ross, Tina Turner, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Aretha Franklin, Mary J. Blige, Whitney Houston, Beyonce Knowles and others — and you’ll notice the industry shifting and settling.
Four of the five new divas are products of television shows: two Idols, one Disney star and a winner (Lewis) of British talent reality series The X Factor.
“It sort of points to the new world we live in,” said Krim. “They all certainly worked hard to get there. They just got there in a different way.”
It’s a far cry from Whitney Houston’s rise to fame, which came immediately upon the release of her eponymous 1985 debut. Houston’s new I Look to You, out tomorrow on Arista, is one of the year’s most anticipated comeback albums. It’s Houston’s first full-length since 2002’s Just Whitney, and it will likely be her best-received record since 1998’s My Love Is Your Love.
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