BY MIKEY MIGO
"POP DIVA"
Just by typing those two words, I'm sure you already have a few female vocalists in your head. Even if you despise the genre of music, you know who the pop divas are. You know Aretha, Whitney, Christina, Britney, and probably a dozen more without even having to try to put much thought into it.
Sadly, there are discouraging odds that about half of the world's most renowned pop divas is going through or at least has had a huge public meltdown. A train wreck, if you will.
Is it the pressure of being under the limelight? The hounding press? The depression of not living up to one's own hype? Drugs? Alcohol? Bad crowds? There's plenty of reasons and excuses for diva's to just go off their rocker. While the media basically glamorizes a celebrity's downfall, it's still pretty depressing.
Any woman could be a pop singer. You don't need a good voice anymore. You just need an image and one or two catchy tracks to become a "celebrity". Lady GaGa proves just that. But the REAL pop divas are what we're talking about here. The talented or at least once talented vocalists who have sold millions of albums and have proven their lasting power one way or another are what we're discussing today.
Whitney Houston
Everyone knows her cover of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You" from The Bodyguard soundtrack. Whitney Houston was an 80's pioneer for serious female pop singers. She didn't wear any gimmicks like Madonna and was just a great singer to represent real people. As you may know, "real people" have "real problems". Miss Houston is no different. The duo of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown was a mobile trainwreck. With his own series of problems that probably makes him our generation's "Rick James", his mess still pales in comparison to Whitney's. In the midst of her breakdown, Houston fled to Israel to claim her "honorary Jewishness", denied heroin and cocaine rumors, no showed to a lot of important gigs, and a was featured on a really bad reality show. There's no proof of the drug rumors, but you couldn't help but wander/be concerned when she lost all that weight and just seemed to be completely nuts whenever she appeared on camera. With her husband's history, what were people supposed to assume? The silver lining is that she's still capable of putting out quality music. Her latest album, "I Look To You" has garnered a lot of positive reviews and things seem to be on an upswing for Whitney. I'm all for her to have a huge comeback, but I'm hoping she doesn't fall into the same problems again.
Madonna
I remember when the sassy pop singer was first on MTV. During my childhood, her popularity was a huge heights. I remember the gloves, the hair spray, the wedding dresses, and all the gimmicks that rose to "80's fad icon" levels. It seems once the 80's faded, so did Madonna's sanity. She always had controversy around her due to her risqué image, controversial musical videos, and sexual legends. It seems like it was the mid to late 90's when she went all adoption crazy on the world. I mean, she adopted, adopted, and adopted. First she adopted an English accent, then a new religion, then some third world children. Her levels of pretention grew leaps and bounds. Her personal life easily overshadows her music career these days. When Madonna is mentioned, it's normally in reference to her being involved with a baseball player or her falling out with her former director beau. I try to keep up to date on current music and I couldn't tell you the last Madonna single other than "Music". Before that, who knows.
Janet Jackson
It's probably true that some people wouldn't put Janet on the same level as the others on this list. She's talented and has a lot of success in her career, but that is overshadowed by her last name. We know the history of her family and everyone is probably tired of hearing about it by now. That doesn't mean that Janet's problems are purely because of it. We can jump around on her personal timeline from the Super Bowl nipple slip, to the rumors of her having a secret child, and just the overall mystique of her personality. She never really had a public display that would be a "meltdown", but the rumors and gossip about her has tarnished her career.
Mariah Carrey
This lady can SING. I'm not a huge pop fan, but Mariah's voice is an amazing tool that she utilizes very well. Back when jokes about "Glitter" being a horrible movie were fresh. The scary thing was when she showed up on TRL and was completely off her rocker. She was incoherent and gave out popsicles to the crowd. I'm not sure what happened to the crowd after consumption, but the claims were that she was having these issues due to "lack of sleep". If she was THAT tired, maybe she should have taken a nap instead of making an impromptu TRL appearance. From there things just sorta snowballed with the casual consensus becoming "Mariah is craaaazy!" Things like having MTV staff pretend to be diehard fans on camera, the "dishes accident" where she "accidentally cut her wrist", and her label buying out her contract didn't help the cause. That stuff still sticks out in most people's mind, but I think its past for the most part. She's had like a billion number one singles and albums and apparently enjoys the company of Nick Cannon for some reason. No, the Nick Cannon thing, as odd as it is, isn't her meltdown. If anything, she's been a lot more in control and tamer since hooking up with the Nickelodeon golden child. I'm talking about the stuff from a few years ago. Despite random eccentric claims, she seems to of bounced back fairly well and has become more reclusive. Probably for the best.
Britney Spears
Britney Spears is an obvious one. She went from being that "underdressed school girl" from "that Hit Me Baby One More Time" video to super celebrity. Sadly, most of her celebrity is from the girl just being bat shit crazy. She's sadly warped into some sort of sick and twisted version of a "Beverly Hillbillies" character. You know, the crazy cousin who shaved her head in haste, lost custody and visitation of her own children, had a Vegas wedding with a guy who shares his name with "George Castanza", provided casual panty shots, and have had more tabloid stories about her than pretty much any other celebrity alive AND dead. The stories are outrageous and have been built up to this odd obsession to nitpick more of her outlandish personal life to display. The media constantly in her face only seems to push her off more into the deep end. She seems to be putting in a lot into rejuvenating her career, but sadly the stories and her reputation ALWAYS stands out more than her efforts. Her bad decisions and the media's display of her faults are to blame. I know it's "the price of fame", but when is enough enough?
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