The night of the Divas (VH1 Divas 2004)

Member Name: yummy87

Product:	VH1 Divas 2004
Date:	26/05/04 (730 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great night out

Disadvantages: A few too many egos

The VH1 Divas is hailed as one of the biggest musical concerts of the year and is advertised on television, radio and the internet for months before its transmission. Broadcast live in America and a few days later on Sky television here in the UK the event raises money for charities across the US, and this year its good cause was to bring music back to schools, a subject close to the heart of many of the performers appearing in the show. We were lucky enough to win tickets for the musical extravaganza this year and were flown over to Vegas by VH1 for five days with the concert being part of our wonderful few days away. Tickets were selling like hotcakes via the net and ranged in price from $75 to $150 so we counted ourselves lucky that we had the top priced ones clutched in our sweaty little hands on the night of the performance.

Held in the rear of the MGM Grand Hotel in the MGM Grand Garden Arena, the event promised some huge names from the world of music and was hyped all over the media before it was transmitted. Beyonce Knowles and Kylie Minogue were scheduled to appear, so it was with some excitement that we, along with 24 other competition winners were chauffer driven to the hotel on Sunday 18th April. The place was buzzing as we arrived and as there was no smoking in the arena, all of the nicotine stick puffers waited outside the main doors until shortly before the 6pm start when we made our way to our seats.

As the performance was broadcast live in the States the timing of the show was spot on. At 6pm precisely a podium arose on the circular stage and the vocals of Patti Labella rang out through the arena as she sang the first few bars from ?Lady Marmalade? her most popular hit from the Seventies. She was joined on stage by Jessica Simpson (more of her later
), who looked absolutely gorgeous in a floor length designer gown and who positively dripped with the most amazing jewellery, and the wild and wacky Cyndi Lauper who doesn?t seem to have changed a bit since she first burst onto the music scene in the late Seventies. The Americans are wild about Patty and are not afraid to show it. Cries of ?We love you Patty? rang out from the crowd and she revelled in it, strutting her stuff while teetering around on her too-high heels.

Satellite screens surrounded the main arena and the presenters promised that we would be seeing Pharrell Williams, Britney Spears and Alicia Keys amongst other artists during the course of the show. We soon realised as the show progressed that we weren?t going to be seeing any of these big names apart from them being interviewed on the screens and giving their opinion on what makes a Diva. Pah what a con, I was really looking forward to seeing Usher do his thing. Sigh.

Debbie Harry performed a couple of her old hits ?Rapture? and ?One Way or Another? but it was kind of sad to see her so close up. A shadow of her former self Debbie really looks her age now and unlike a lot of the older performers there she has decided to grow old gracefully and appears to have had little plastic surgery if any done. Maybe it was because the other old biddies had perfect skin due to their huge amount of face lifts, but poor old Debbie looked tired and jaded, and her choice of funky clothing such as a lime green ensemble and combat wear did little to help her cause as they only made her skin look tired and old. Her voice was fabulous though and when the rest of the Blondie band came on to promote their new album the audience went wild.

Joss Stone is only seventeen years old but already has stamped her mark on the American public and has also ma
de her way across the water to grave our radio stations. With the voice of an angel Joss sings a mixture of R&B and funk and certainly gave the other Divas a run for their money. Singing her recent hit ?Fell in love with a Boy? she had the audience clapping along and sent tingles down my spine. Joss duetted with Debbie Harry on ?One Way or Another? and wowed us all with her fabulous voice and her down to earth personality.

Anyone here heard of Jessica Simpson? Probably not if you haven?t got Sky TV. Jessica stars in her own reality show ?The Newlyweds? on MTV along with her husband. Not only is she a beautiful girl, I admit I was bowled over by her absolutely unbelievable voice, which made some of the veteran performers there just fade into the background. Jessica stole the show especially for the men who simply stared goggle eyed at her throughout and most were struck dumb at the same time. With a voluptuous bosom that threatened to spill out of the amazing designer gowns she wore throughout the show she looked beautiful and moved with grace and style, apart from once when she arose on a circular podium from the stage and then promptly caught her dress in it as she moved off. Funny how all of the women were trying to stifle giggles, but the men gave an audible gasp when it happened although I?m not sure whether they were hoping to see spilling mammaries or actually felt sorry for her faux pas. In true Diva style though she carried on regardless, scarcely missing a beat and managed to keep her footing damn her! Jessica really has a fantastic voice though and when she sang ?Take my breath away? I?m sure some of the audience had to be resuscitated as they held theirs in awe of the powerful voice that came from that small little person. One word of warning though, close your eyes if you ever see her as
she has a really aggravating habit of tapping her microphone continually with her fingers and pulling the most bizarre faces as she sings. Most offputting.

The mad and wacky world of Cyndi Lauper has always been a mystery to me, but she has the ability to make me laugh with her screwed up facial expressions, wacky style of dressing and her mad hair. I?d read an article just the day before about her demanding diva personality, and she proved during the course of the concert that if she wants to do things her way she will. Leaping into the crowd on two occasions she was a total nightmare for security and they all scurried around trying to cajole her back on to the stage. When Patti (yawn) again took the stage to sing a duet with Cyndi her microphone gave up. Yippee I thought, maybe Cyndi will do it on her own, but no, they fixed it so we had to put up with more eardrum splitting noise and Patti totally ruined the song, a combination of ?True Colours? and ?Time after Time?. Cyndi however lost herself in the music and despite the floor manager telling her to wind it up for an ad break, she just kept on doing her thang and wouldn?t shut up! I have to say at this point I realised that Patti Labelle?s voice is very screechy and the only reason the American public seem to love her so much is because she screams a lot rather than holding her notes for what seems like minutes at a time. Yes I know I sound cynical but anyone who watches the show when it airs on VH1 this Friday will undoubtedly see what I mean. Patti was the ?star? of the show in the eyes of her adoring American public though and everyone bowed down to her presence. She took over the whole shebang really, scarcely coming up for breath and seemed to be on the stage more than she was off until it became quite painful on the ears. With costume changes aplenty Patti
squealed her heart out and had to be helped from the stage after each song as she couldn?t make it down the steps in her ridiculous variety of shoes. If she wasn?t singing on her own she was duetting with one of the other performers and I began to wonder if the whole concert was a pilot for the Patti Labelle Show.

Enter some sanity into the proceedings in the form of Gladys Knight. Aww good old Gladys. She still has an amazing voice and sang with Joss Stone and Jessica Simpson as well as doing a couple of numbers on her own, one of which was ?The Way we Were? which was quite simply stunning. Almost staidly dressed compared to the others Gladys at least wore clothes suited to her age ? a gold and white brocade jacket and a pair of white trousers as she belted out some of her old stuff as well as some new numbers. Gladys is a star and was much more worthy of the Diva status than the likes of Miss Labelle. No airs and graces with her either, she was just fabulous and seemed really honoured to have been asked to appear. She sang with Jessica Simpson and Joss Stone and young Joss seemed completely overawed by the whole thing and was heard muttering ?Wow, I?ve just sang with Gladys Knight, how cool was that? as she was escorted off the stage.

So we?ve covered the main performers but what of the ones who had smaller parts to play? Eve was there but disappointingly only sang one song and that was a duet with Debbie Harry that hardly taxed her and didn?t release the full potential of her brilliant rapping. The most striking thing about Eve was the fact the she has dyed her hair copper and brown so you can?t miss her in the crowd, and she wore some wicked long stockings with a short black and white dress. Ashanti came on stage too but she hardly set the place alight and relied on old songs r
ather than her own stuff although she looked gorgeous and made us lesser mortals feel quite inadequate. Sheila E who played with Prince during the Eighties took the stage twice to accompany artists with her almost frenzied drumming and reminded me of Keith Moon in drag such was the almost manic look in her eye as she leapt around like a dog on heat.

There were a lot of amusing things throughout the evening, like Patti Labelle?s difficulty in walking in her shoes, Jessica?s trip, Ronnie Wood in the audience who was determined to get noticed but never really succeeding, but the funniest thing about the whole shebang was the fact that an auto cue was running all the time, something that I?m sure won?t be aired on the TV. Worryingly enough not only were there cues for the guest presenters to introduce the acts, but there were also the lyrics of the songs for the performers in case they forgot and when a duet was taking place even the names of the performers were written in different colours so they knew who had to sing what part. Hilarious but that?s America for you I expect!

So what made my night at the Divas? Surprisingly enough it was the appearance of Tom Jones that knocked my socks off. The man is a legend pure and simple and love him or loathe him, after seeing him you would have to admit he is a consummate entertainer and professional. Despite sporting a bit of a dodgy goatee beard, Tom played two numbers in the show, the first of which was ?You can leave your Hat on? on which he was accompanied by Carmen Electra?s band The Pussycat Dolls ? no I?d never heard of them either, and they are most bizarre really as they rely more on their risqué clothing than their singing but hey they entertained us albeit only fleetingly! Tom came back later on to sing ?Kiss? and the place just erupted with hardly a p
erson in the arena not singing along. He completely upstaged everyone else there and wore his trademark open necked shirt complete with gold medallion and proved to me why he is probably more popular now than he?s ever been.

I sound as if I hated it don?t I? Compared with the rest of the trip the concert was a bit of a disappointment with not many big names there, plus it was all over in just over two hours. The hype for the concert had been immense and the failure of modern artists to show up was a real let down. There was hardly any merchandise for sale so we bought nothing back to show the kids and cameras weren?t allowed in the arena either. There was little room for anyone apart from Patti, Jessica and Cyndi who monopolised the whole night, and by the end of the evening I could have cheerfully gagged Miss Labelle and locked her in Avid Merrion?s cupboard. There?s only so much screeching I can take and she went way beyond the boundaries. But and yes there is a but??..I?m really glad we had the opportunity to go and see all the artists in one place and the fleeting performances of Ashanti and Eve, as well as Joss Stone and Tom made it a night to remember and one that I will replay in my mind for a long time. Oh and the DJ played some damn good music during the ad breaks!

Pictures from the concert can be seen at http://www.vh1.com/shows/events/divas/2004/flipboo ks/show_photos/

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