VH1 is going through a painful identity crisis.
Back in 1998 when the Divas franchise premiered, the channel was dominated by the likes of Natalie Imbruglia and Matchbox Twenty. They were still playing music videos (remember that)!
There was no VH1 Soul, No Centric. BET was still black owned and operated.
Pop music ruled and the Divas brand was a great way to showcase soul music on a channel that severely lacked black folk.
Fast forward to 2011, and a lot has changed.
Viacom now has more “black” channels than it knows what to do with (including all the ones mentioned above) and I would even argue it’s safe to say the average VH1 viewer today is African American. This demographic shift is largely due to the success of reality shows with Black stars including Flavor of Love, Basketball Wives and La La’s Full Court Life.
So when they rebooted the Divas franchise in 2009, over ten years later, the task was simple: get the White Non-Black viewers back to the channel. Subsequently they tried to reframe the franchise away from a particular type of music and simply focus on female musicians. This also involved including random stars that had no business being there (eg. Miley Cyrus in 2009, Katy Perry in 2010, etc.)
VH1 Divas Celebrates Soul is an attempt to return the franchise to it’s former glory without turning it into BET for the night (they definitely don’t want that). While I can’t say they succeeded, we’re definitely heading back in the right direction.
Indeed the winner of the night was my girl Kelly Clarkson. One of my ambassadors of White girl R&B, she holds her own in the company of all these R&B legends. Mary J. Blige singing and dancing to Since You Been Gone is worth the price of admission alone.
And Chaka Khan runs circles around all these kids (enough said).
My personal highlight was a moving rendition of Jill Scott’s Hear My Call. It’s a beautiful song that got me through a rough time this year and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.
Everyone had to do their current single (Mary – Mr. Wrong, Kelly – (What Doesn’t Kill You) Stronger…Jennifer Hudson did Night Of Your Life which completely didn’t fit with the Soul theme of the night, but it sounds great live!
And it wouldn’t be Divas without some drama. I was very disappointed to see my Anita Baker not perform especially considering they just added her to the bill a week ago (SMH). But Marsha Ambrosius and Ledisi did Sweet Love more justice than the Anita Baker tribute on the Soul Train Awards last year.
Overall I can’t complain. This was a great show to end the year. It broke my heart most of the (White) kids around me only came to see Florence and her Machines and didn’t know who Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings were (nor cared), but such is the musical landscape we live in today.
P.S. In VH1′s defense, at least they’re still trying. A lot of the people that would be great for the show are indisposed:
Drugs have ruined Whitney Houston’s voice.
Adele just had surgery.
Jazmine Sullivan quit the industry.
Christina Aguilera (as much as I love her) doesn’t really play well with other females.
Fantasia can’t keep her legs closed is always pregnant.
etc. etc. etc.
P.P.S. The (obligatory) Amy Winehouse tribute was alright, I guess.
Oh one more thing: I love how they incorporated the men this year. Common, it’s always a pleasure to run into that man. And that Travis fella from Gym Class Heroes is sexy…reads much better in person. I’d swallow all his babies.
OK, that’s all I got.
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