Last night, Divas returned to VH1 for the first time in five years. Hallelujah! And while it wasn’t quite the Mariah-Whitney-Christina finger-waving, rafter-shaking smorgasbord of the special’s heyday, I’d still give it a big ol’ thumbs up. ‘Twas a ton o’ fun. VH1 had pimped it as a show all about Miley Cyrus, Jordin Sparks, Kelly Clarkson, Leona Lewis, Jennifer Hudson, and Adele, but lots of older, less-usually-considered-divas divas showed up, like Martina McBride, Sheryl Crow, and Melissa Etheridge. Oh, and Stevie Wonder was there, too. And no disrespect to the younger ladies, but thank goodness the old-timers were there — the night turned into a great old-divas-meet-new-divas extravaganza.
To be truthful though, at two hours long, the show was bloated and stuffed with tons of filler like constant gags from host Paula Abdul, who poked fun at her recent exit from American Idol by launching the show by saying, “I’m Paula Abdul, and this is not American Idol!” She continued by dressing up as new Idol judge Ellen DeGeneres, fawning over Liza Minelli, and supposedly Tweeting from the stage while MTV stars Whitney Port and Lauren Conrad were on stage.
But the most egregious act from Abdul? Her opening-show performance. She lip-synched her way through a medely of her hits, which included “Straight Up” and “Forever Your Girl.” And during a snippet of “Opposites Attract,” she danced next to a screen featuring MC Skat Cat. That is, until a huge photo of Simon Cowell popped up. So…not expected! But, I suppose I’d rather have seen her “sing” her hits rather than recent messes like “Dance Like There’s No Tomorrow” or cover something contemporary and equally as awful.
As for the good, in my opinion, the show-stopper went to the collab between Miley Cyrus and Sheryl Crow (pictured), who teamed up to sing a rockin’ version Crow’s hit “If It Makes You Happy.” (Don’t they look related? Mother and daughter?) Even though I trumpeted the old-timers (like Crow) above, here it was Miley who stole the moment (after kind of screwing up her current hit “Party in the U.S.A.”), with a nice assist from Crow. I mean, who knew that Miley could tear through the wailing “if it makes you happy!” line in that song with such control? Crow just let her take the lead. I’d give runner-up accolades to the Melissa Etheridge-Kelly Clarkson collab of “Bring Me Some Water” and the Jordin Sparks-Martina McBride collab of “A Broken Wing.”
Needless to say, the night was all about the cross-generational duets. Do you agree? What was your favorite performance of the night? Favorite moment? (Maybe when the Real Housewives showed up on stage?) What performance did you hate the most?
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Glad to see Miley stick it to Disney parents and not care about singing lyrics like “I still get stoned” in “If it Makes You Happy.” Would’ve been nice if the women had been allowed to sing at least one other song from their own catalogs though.
Miley and Cheryl were far, far from the highlight. Neither needs to be filed under the professional singer category. Adele is simply amazing, her voice is a pure gift. Kelly & Melissa E., I’m waiting for your duet album…and please hurry! (Jordin, you don’t have to try so hard, and we already have a Beyonce)
Agree with all this. Miley was so painful both times she went on stage–don’t know WHAT this reviewer was watching. Kelly & Melissa were second to no one that night.
Jordin was lame, Leona was off, and Jennifer was uncharacteristically dull. Thank you, Adele, for the best solo performance of the night!
Truer words have never been spoken. Adele was BY FAR the highlight of the whole freakin’ night. And yes, Jordin tries way too hard.
I love Sheryl Crow, but I didn’t like the duet with Miley. While the other duets showcased both the singers (they fed off of each other), Miley seemed to sing over Sheryl. It felt like Miley was treating Sheryl like a back-up singer, not a duet partner. Personally, I loved Kelly and Melissa. Their show closer was awesome. I’d pay to see them on tour together.
Paula Abdul was the worst host of all time. I hope whoever hired her regrets it terribly. I couldn’t sit through her tv time. The beginning was beyond awful, the whole Liza thing just was not funny, the Ellen gag ran too long, her voice was screechy and she seemed drunk- again. I blame the writers in part for letting her attempt to be funny. OMG…and the whole thing about talking too long…ugh.
i think you have a serious hate problem against paula, but i think that you’re deaf, blind and don’t have any sence of humour sooooo get a life and stop hating people and say aweful things about them that aren’t true
Paula Abdul was a disaster. The best thing to happen for America was her hosting this show, hopefully no one will hire her again and we will NEVER have to hear/see from her again. Jordin Sparks did a horrible impression of Beyonce and Miley sounds like a man.
kelly and Melissa had the best duet!! and Kelly by herself was amazing. Sorry Miley but you’re NO Diva compared to these ladies! Adele was amazing too!!
Are you serious EW? Miley Cyrus sounded HORRIBLE! (as usual) Maybe I just don’t get her voice, but I can’t stand it. Last night was no exception.
agreed
Sorry, but the “young divas” are either too young or too unknown to be really called divas. Miley is just Hannah Montana to me. Adele only has one US hit. Jordin and Kelly don’t have enough hits yet to be called a diva.
Sorry, but the real divas are Aretha, Celine, Diana, Whitney, Tina, and Mariah.
that was the theme of the show. Upcoming divas. Ones who show potential to be just as big. They did a great job selectin the American Idol Trio. All wonderful
Are you deaf? Miley screamed her way through both of her songs. They were awful. Poor Sheryl Crow.
Maserda, I am with you. This new group aren’t divas. They are more like “divettes.”
i think people need to give miley a break they forgot the girl is on tour and came all the way from seattle for this. i love her she works hard and the audience enjoyed it anyway
Kelly was also in tour, with way more vocally demanding songs and she sounded awesome. no excuses for miley.
miley did say on twitter that she had a sore throat and didnt feel well
I thought Adele and India.Arie was one of the great highlights of the show – such a fun duet! They were so cute with their dancing. The other duet I loved was Kelly Clarkson and Melissa Etheridge. Don’t think Miley deserves the shout out in this article – she was the least impressive of the bunch.
I’d pay to see a Kelly Clarkson/Melissa E. concert – awesome! The rest were pretty “meh.”
Kelly and Melissa duet runner up what, that was the best performance of the night. And Maserda Kelly has plenty of hits and hello broke the billboard hot 100 record twice for a songs biggest leap to #1, All of them are great vocalists not so Miley though but Kelly is the only who deserved to be there mainly because she has been in the business the longest and sorry apparently you haven’t heard of the new definition of diva.
Other than “Since U Been Gone” how many of Kelly’s hits will last for more than a few years? Kelly has produced some good tunes, don’t get me wrong, but a sense of longevity needs to be included in there. But if longevity is now defined as being in pop for three years or more, then we should add in Britney and Christina.
Maserda…I agree.
We can’t say that Kelly has longevity…YET. Especially, since she’s had some lengthy breaks in between albums.
Britney and Christina, on the other hand, have both been around for a decade and have had great success. As much as anyone hates to admit it, they’ll both be around for a while.
Kelly: we’ll see, but she’s not really making as big of a splash as she used to.
I liked the “Upcoming Divas” theme. Take out Miley and it would have been near perfect. Adele was the highlight of the show with her solo and duet with India.Arie.
Did any of you hear Martina Mcbride sing? She clearly has the control and voice to show these other ladies how its done…and she is country??? Divalicious!!!
You are 100% right! Martina is a legend in country music for her big voice. Considered the Celine Dion of Country Music(without the chest pounding). She is a true entertainer.
Great, what is with EW and always leaving Cyndi Lauper out of your discussions!