WHAT elevates a star to diva status?
Diana Ross would know. The superstar practically embodies the word.
Ross, this year’s subject of VH1’s highly rated annual “Divas” series, will be serenaded by other notable members of the club, including Donna Summer and Mariah Carey, during a performance of “Divas 2000” next Sunday at Madison Square Garden.
“She was the original diva and for some of today’s stars like Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey, she is the role model for some of the things they do,” Ross biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli has said.
Houston reminded everyone about diva behavior last week at the Oscars, where the sultry singer was a no-show at the telecast.
“For better or for worse, she has earned the title,” says Spin Editor Alan Light. “You can’t be a squeaky clean Ivory girl and legitimately be labeled a diva.”
Houston, who’s scheduled to star in the remake of the 1981 French thriller “Diva,” blamed a sore throat for her Oscar pullout, though songwriter Burt Bacharach reportedly said she flubbed her numbers during rehearsal.
Country star Faith Hill, who’s also set to appear in Ross’ diva lineup, took over for Houston.
Music fans are clearly fascinated by their divas — they can’t seem to get enough dishy gossip on bad-girl antics of the singing world’s top talent. “VH1 Diva Live ’99” was the cable network’s highest rated show ever.
Appropriately enough, last year’s show featured a dress-rehearsal snit fit between Elton John and Tina Turner, who blasted his piano playing, prompting John to storm off the stage.
This year’s show is being taped for the first time (it will air two days later, April 11). The show’s creators say Ross’ reputation has nothing to with eliminating the live format, which they attribute to scheduling conflicts.
“Diana is driven and is truly a perfectionist, but it’s not the reason we’re taping,” says Wayne Isaak, an executive vice president at VH1. “We would have preferred live.”
Isaak said Ross, who had been wooed for the show for some time, admitted to him, “‘Sometimes I have a reputation of being difficult but I’m really not,'” he says, adding, “she hasn’t been.”
The diva label has become ubiquitous recently, but a real diva earns her stripes.
While Houston, Ross, Carey, Shania Twain and even Courtney Love may deserve the label, overuse of the term has watered down its meaning.
“Not every female vocalist is a diva,” says Light. “Being diva should be about being larger than life and having some drama and intrigue around you.”
Brandy doesn’t qualify, he says.
“I like Brandy, but I don’t see what makes her a diva,” says Spin’s Light. He also crosses off from his list Faith Hill and Britney Spears.
So who does make it?
Of the under-30 set, he would deem Mary J. Blige diva material. Though only 29, Blige has reached that “iconic” status, Light says.
“She stands for something beyond herself,” he says. “She has the wigs, the fingernails.”
Divas have their own style and own vision of how to do things, says Mitch Slater, a vp at SFX Entertainment.
“That vision makes them, at times, very demanding,” he says. “But their talents are so extraordinary that they are immediately forgiven.”
