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| night falls on DIVAS |
| Cher Cherilynn Sarkisian began her ascent in1965 when she & husband Sonny Bono hit #1 with I Got You Babe. Even after divorcing Sonny, Cher went on to have a wildly successful television variety show and no shortage of hit records. But it was in 1998 that Cher pulled off the musical comeback of the decade with the Believe CD, which went on to become the number one record of the year as well as the biggest hit of her career. If there was ever a solid testament to Cher's resilience and versatility (as well as the buying power of gay men, who hadn't enjoyed being courted by her until then), Believe it--this was it. Cher carried sex-symbol/diva status as far back as the 70's when ethnic was NOT in and divorce made you taboo. |
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| kd lang The last time I was really, really moved by a live vocal performance on TV was on Saturday Night Live over a decade ago when I saw Canadian anti-diva, kd sing live for the first time. The audience was noticeably in sheer awe of her vocal power, punctuated by a revival-esque fainting episode during her song! And why not? kd's arrival on the music scene had critics hailing her as the reincarnation of Patsy Cline herself. Even so, American country music fans shunned kd because of her sexual preference and mannish wardrobe. She made fresh country music that had nothing to do with pick-up tucks, scootin' boots and cheatin' hearts and wasn't crammed with musical cliches. Well evolved from her country roots now, kd has churned out brilliant albums all over the musical map. |
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| These aren't the watered-down, second-string has-beens and never-weres VH-1 was trying to pass off as "divas" with their "soulful" (yeah, RIGHT) voices. These are my personal top 10 divas who earned the title the right way. Several of these women write and produce their own music. Others have had to overcome tremendous personal struggles like poverty, abuse, betrayal and condemnation on their way to stardom. Nearly all of them have publicly championed some type of social cause or plight, demonstrating they care about the society for which they practice their art. Click on each goddess and her name for cool links. |
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| Yma Sumac Mariah, who?!? If you really wanna talk range, listen to a little Yma. She can chirp as high as Minnie Ripperton and growl as low as Louis Armstrong, often in the same breath. Whether you believe the story about her secretly being a New Jersey housewife whose real name was Amy Camus or, an Inca princess from high in the Andes, Yma's vocal ability was simply a force of nature! She was introduced to American audiences in 1942 and began recording in 1950. Although her main focus was singing...not even words, really, so much as just ambiguous sounds sometimes, she did some acting, most-notably onstage in the short-lived Flahooley! and co-starring with Charlton Heston in Secret of the Incas. Who really cares anyway of course. With Yma, its all about the range. |
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| Celia Cruz Celia is to Cuban music what Billie Holliday is to American music. No other artist has been as influential, as popular or as enduring as Celia . |
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| Bjork (her name rhymes with clerk, not pork) began her musical career at the age of 2, when she reportedly learned the entire song collection from The Sound of Music. After rigorous musical training on piano, vocals and flute, she recorded her first album in 1977 at the age of 12 (!) which went platinum (!!) and prompted numerous offers from several record companies. Bjork branched out in many musical directions in the 80's, most notably, with the Sugarcubes up until her first solo effort Debut in 1993. This CD was the first in a string of unique musical offerings that combined electronica, with primal vocals and provocative lyrics. Each album has received more critical acclaim than the last and has proven a gradual musical maturation in this artists life. Even though America may never fully embrace her singular style, Bjork Gudmundsdottir remains a tremendous musical talent who was also robbed of the Oscar for her breathtaking lead in Dancer In The Dark in 2000. |
| Sinead O'Connor My love for the music of Sinead O'Connor began at a very basic human level. It was before I knew anything of the history of Ireland and her people. It was before she bravely destroyed the image of a leader of a repressive religion on national TV. It was before she came out of the closet or covered Cole Porter songs. It was even before the huge worldwide success of her commercial breakthrough, Prince's Nothing Compares 2 U, whose haunting strains and melancholy vocals will forever remind me of my first college romance. It was 1987, I was still in high school and Sinead's first record, The Lion and the Cobra was the angriest, most passionnate, disjointed, beautiful thing I'd ever heard. My love affair with all things Irish began then. Musically and culturally, Sinead did more than rock the boat. She commanded the waves. |
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