VH1 Divas Live
by Michael Simon
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Bill Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Jennifer Aniston, Mariah Carey, Patricia ArquetteDirector: Michael Simon
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled)
Format: Color, Compilation, Dolby, DVD-Video, Live, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 80 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1998-11-24
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Sony
Movie Reviews of VH1 Divas Live
Movie Review: There Are Divas, and There Are Divas
Summary: 5 Stars
Five singers were on the bill for ''Divas Live,'' a concert at the Beacon Theater that was telecast by VH1 on Tuesday night, and six women performed. Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Gloria Estefan, Aretha Franklin and Shania Twain were joined by Carole King as an unannounced guest. But there was only one real diva onstage: Ms. Franklin, who presented the true diva's combination of a remarkable voice, a commanding presence and a whimsical, imperious assumption of power. With Ms. Franklin around, the rest were only troupers.
Like the other women on the bill, Ms. Franklin was there to plug her latest album. Each star sang a current song or two and an older hit, in music segments surrounded by awards show hoopla: video-montage biographies and laudatory introductions from actresses (Susan Sarandon, Jennifer Aniston, Sarah Jessica Parker, Teri Hatcher and Patricia Arquette). The songs illustrated the paradox of the diva repertory; some insisted on female strength, others promised to give up everything for a man. And much of the concert was routine; with television cameras around, most of the singers concentrated on avoiding mistakes rather than taking chances.
Where the divas of yore lived for the stage, VH1's younger divas were tied to the recording studio. Ms. Carey sang a breathy, submissive ballad, ''My All,'' and suddenly switched to an uptempo dance beat, mimicking a dance-floor remix. Ms. Estefan worked through a medley of her hits like someone scanning across a CD. Ms. Twain swaggered across the stage in stiletto heels, a halter top and skin-tight pants, alternately flirting and asserting herself in standard video gestures. And Ms. Dion, wearing a long coat that made her look like a ringmaster, mugged through her songs, including the inevitable hit from the ''Titanic'' soundtrack, with self-congratulatory smirks and frantic gesticulations, suggesting a social director at a failing Catskills resort.
It took Ms. Franklin to loosen things up. She, too, sang her current songs, adding new swoops and arabesques to ''A Rose Is Still a Rose'' and ''Here We Go Again.'' And in a duet with Ms. Carey on ''Chain of Fools,'' her competitive side came out. When Ms. Carey zoomed upward, Ms. Franklin soared higher; when Ms. Carey delved downward, Ms. Franklin went lower. Ms. Carey has a big voice, but Ms. Franklin's was bigger, warmer and sultrier, still champion.
Later, all five of the headliners joined Ms. King to perform ''(You Make Me Feel Like) a Natural Woman,'' which Ms. King wrote with Gerry Goffin. Each of the women took their turn; Ms. Franklin outmaneuvered all of them, though Ms. King bravely engaged Ms. Franklin in belting, ''You make me feel.'' As the song was winding down, Ms. Franklin seized the coda and, in a diva moment, ignored the women by her side to introduce her band's backup singers.
Ms. Franklin then led the finale, a gospel testimonial that relegated the other singers to ineffectual clapping and dancing; only Ms. Carey knew enough gospel to join the chorus in singing, ''Jesus!'' Ms. Estefan hung back like a student trying not to be seen by a teacher; Ms. Dion tried to trade high notes with Ms. Franklin, but soon retreated to dancing. And Ms. Franklin's voice stormed the heavens, snaked through elaborate melismas and offered tremulous praise, continuing long after the credits rolled on the telecast. The stage was hers, and everyone knew it.
''Divas Live'' was a benefit for VH1's Save the Music campaign, which donates musical instruments to schools and promotes music education. Ms. Carey dutifully recited that music education is tied to improvements in students' basic mathematics and reading ability. Then she giggled and added, ''I don't know what happened to me.''
Summary of VH1 Divas Live
Once an appellation reserved for high-flying operatic stars, the diva has gone mainstream in recent decades, mirroring pop music's post-rock recovery of glitz, glamour, and theatrical hyperbole. Where once there was but a handful of pop divas, fans can now find a growing legion of contenders, a trend underscored by this 1998 cable special originally produced for VH1. The show's producers start with the title's high concept (five divas, one stage!), add an admirable if shrewd charity hook (the better to recruit platinum stars without prohibitive fees), and provide fans with an otherwise straightforward revue, interspersed with introductory cameos from film and television actresses.For the starring quintet's fans, VH1 Divas Live is hard to disparage: Celine Dion, Gloria Estefan, Shania Twain, and Mariah Carey provide the requisite combination of beauty, high-ticket sartorial glamour, and stage drama, and their brief sets hew to their biggest hits. Beyond that common formula, these four do diverge somewhat, Dion and Carey most closely following the mannered tradition of the prima donna, Estefan (who, between songs, admits her bemusement at inclusion) offering an earthier and less calculated variant, and the nominally country-oriented Twain rounding out the headliners as a diva-in-the-making, perfectly packaged if vocally more modest.
Still, it's the show's "old timers" who remind us of what's too often missing from today's diva--the emotional largesse that fans crave, and an underlying sense of true worldliness. The fifth featured diva, Aretha Franklin, has never achieved conventional glamour, but what she offers in vocal power and career prestige enables Lady Soul to cast a long shadow across the entire show, even when her actual performances are duets or ensembles. And Carole King, also along for duets and ensemble spots, is even less to the diva manor born, a quintessential singer-songwriter even when draped in an elegant black suit, but her longstanding credibility likewise translates to pole position here. --Sam Sutherland
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