What’s a diva?

You hear the word diva bounced around all the time. We know what we mean by it, but what’s a good work­ing def­i­n­i­tion? I rather like this one, that Jon Par­e­les wrote in the New Times on 31 Aug 2009. Although this blog is not one for singers, I think with a lit­tle effort you can see how this applies to composition:

With­out adver­sity, a diva is just a singer. It‚Äôs the back story,¬†the tale of strug­gle and tenac­ity, that draws audi­ences to read¬†more than musi­cian­ship into her per­for­mances. The singer touches on¬†something per­sonal so the lis­tener can feel like a wit­ness, a¬†confidant, a judge, a voyeur, or per­haps all at once.

Inter­est­ingly, this was a review of a new Whit­ney Hous­ton album.