The Nice Girls' Club: Vh1 Divas 2009

Diva (noun) a distinguished female singer; prima donna.

We assumed that this decade’s “Vh1 Divas” special would bring us diva female singers who demand the best. However, the producers took it upon themselves to change the formal definition of a diva. The result was a safe, concert special to bring in the ratings. When we hear the word “diva,” singers like Madonna, Diana Ross, and maybe even Beyoncé, come to mind. Instead, Vh1 chose to include current pop stars like Miley Cyrus, Jordin Sparks, and Leona Lewis.

Could the channel that has classy reality shows like “Rock of Love” and “Flavor of Love” not get the recognizable divas to perform on their stage? Either way, the show wasn’t helped by the hosting abilities of American Idol’s former judge Paula Abdul…maybe there was a reason that she always worked with two other people and was never the host. She opened the show singing and dancing in true diva fashion, decked out in gold and sequence and getting lifted into the air by muscular men during her performance of her hit “Straight Up.” The good news is that her lip synching abilities have improved since her performance on American Idol last season, in which she attempted to promote her new single. The light technicians helped with this, by keeping the lights off of her face when she wasn’t holding the microphone to her lips.

The show didn’t include any awards, but simply consisted of performance after performance, followed by the explanations by the singers of what the word “diva” means to them. Their messages were very touching, and gave new meaning to the word. Some performances were unnecessarily long, but all of the divas proved themselves worthy of being there. Jennifer Hudson said that the women present that evening represented a new generation of divas. 

Singers like Jordin Sparks, Adele and Kelly Clarkson proved her point by singing beautifully, but the show was simply too long to stand all of Paula Abdul. She took away from the night by being an uncomfortable and unnatural host. One especially painful moment was that in which “My Life on the D-List” star Kathy Griffin and Abdul tried to exchange sexual jokes that just made both of them look like they have never delivered a joke before. However, they went along with Abdul’s revealing outfits. She wore her most modest outfit when she danced around the stage a la DeGeneres on her daily talk show. Abdul then went onto congratulate Ellen on becoming the latest member of the American Idol judges’ panel.

The whole show wasn’t dedicated to new or wannabe divas. Toni Braxton, Melissa Etheridge, Cyndi Lauper and Liza Minnelli, real divas from earlier generations, brought down the house. However, the evening’s best performance was by Jennifer Hudson and Stevie Wonder, who sang Wonder’s hit “All in Love is Fair.”

So what is a diva? According to Vh1, it’s the nice girls of the music industry. Are the divas of the old days that trash hotel rooms and demand all of the finest services a thing of the past? Hopefully, but people always found the wreckless divas to be a form of entertainment. Abdul probably should have stuck with American Idol, but beyond the awkward hosting, it was a show that made being a diva a good thing. Nonetheless, news of a vicious catfight backstage wouldn’t have been a terrible occurrence.