The diva - a central figure in the landscape of contemporary popular culture: gossip-generating, scandal-courting, paparazzi-stalked. And yet the diva is at the epicentre of creative endeavours that resonate with contemporary feminist ideas, kick back against diminished social expectations, boldly call-out casual sexism and industry misogyny and, in terms of hip-hop, explores intersectional oppressions and unapologetically celebrates non-white cultural heritages. Diva beats and grooves echo across culture and politics in the West: from the borough to the White House, from arena concerts to nightclubs, from social media to social activism, from #MeToo to Black Lives Matter. addresses the diva phenomenon and its origins: its identity politics and LGBTQ+ components; its creativity and interventions in areas of popular culture (music, and beyond); its saints and sinners and controversies old and new; and its oppositions to, and recuperations by, the establishment; and its shifts from third to fourth waves of feminism. This co-edited collection brings together an international array of writers - from new voices to established names. The collection scopes the rise to power of the diva (looking to Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Dolly Parton, Grace Jones, and Aaliyah), then turns to contemporary diva figures and their work (with Beyonce, Amuro Namie, Janelle Monae, Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion, Shakira, Jennifer Lopez, and Nicki Minaj), and concludes by considering the presence of the diva in wider cultures, in terms of gallery curation, theatre productions, and stand-up comedy.>

Vorwort
The first academic engagement with divas, including a discussion of their roots, evolutions, functions, and appropriations. Channelling the ideas and strategies of feminism, empowerment, intersectionality, identity politics, and more to create this key popular culture figure.

Autorentext
Benjamin Halligan is the Director of the Doctoral College of the University of Wolverhampton, UK. His publications include Hotbeds of Licentiousness: The British Glamour Film and the Permissive Society (2022), Desires for Reality: Radicalism and Revolution in Western European Film (2016) and Michael Reeves (2003), and the co-edited collections: Politics of the Many (2021); Stories We Could Tell (2018); The Arena Concert (2015); The Music Documentary (2013); Resonances (2013); Reverberations (2012); and Mark E. Smith and The Fall (2010). Shara Rambarran is Senior Lecturer in Music, Business and Media at the University of Brighton, UK. She is the musicologist for Spotify's award winning music podcast, Decode, co-runs the Art of Record Production conferences, and is an editor on the Journal on the Art of Record Production. Shara is the co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Music and Virtuality, The Routledge Research Companion to Popular Music Education, and Diva: Feminism and Fierceness from Pop to Hip-Hop (Bloomsbury, 2023). Shara is the author of Virtual Music: Sound, Music, and Image in the Digital Era (Bloomsbury, 2021).Nicole Hodges Persley is Professor of American Studies and African and African American Studies at the University of Kansas, USA. Her books include Sampling and Remixing Blackness in Hip-Hop Theater and Performance and Hip-Hop in Musical Theatre (Bloomsbury, 2023).Kirsty Fairclough is Professor of Screen Studies at the School of Digital Arts (SODA) at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. She is the co-editor of The Music Documentary: Acid Rock to Electropop (2013), The Arena Concert: Music, Media and Mass Entertainment (Bloomsbury, 2016), Music/Video: Forms, Aesthetics, Media (Bloomsbury, 2017), The Legacy of Mad Men: Cultural History, Intermediality and American Television (2020), Prince and Popular Culture (Bloomsbury, 2020), *and author of the forthcoming Beyoncé: Celebrity Feminism and Popular Culture* (Bloomsbury). She is the curator of Sound and Vision: Pop Stars on Film and In Her View: Women Documentary Filmmakers film seasons at HOME, Manchester and Chair of Manchester Jazz Festival.

Inhalt
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Contributors
Introduction: 'Y'All! The Diva and Us'
Kirsty Fairclough, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK, Benjamin Halligan, University of Wolverhampton, UK, Nicole Hodges Persley, University of Kansas, USA, and Shara Rambarran, University of Brighton, UK
Section One: The Rise to Power

1. "Proceed with Caution": Mariah Carey - the Ultimate Diva in Popular Music and Culture?
   Shara Rambarran, University of Brighton, UK
   2.Performing Creative Labour: Whitney Houston Metanarratives on MTV, 1985-1988
   Gwynne George, Independent Scholar, USA
2. A Girl of Many Colours: Dolly Parton's Image Evolution, 1967-2022
   James Reeves, Independent Scholar, UK
3. A Fondness for Shock: The Celebrated Outburst of Grace Jones
   Mark Duffett, University of Chester, UK
   Section Two: The Diva and Our Times
4. Aaliyah's Voice and After
   Benjamin Halligan, University of Wolverhampton, UK
5. "Suck On My Balls, Bitch!": #MeToo and Beyoncé - A Paradigm Shift
   Hannah Strong, Independent Scholar, USA
6. Amuro Namie: Japan's Diva in the Postmodern Era?
   Dorothy Finan, Independent Scholar, UK
7. Reconstructing the American Dream: Janelle Monáe's Afrofuturist Performances
   Timmia Hearn DeRoy, Independent Scholar, USA
8. "WAP": Erotic Revolutionary Hip-Hop by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion
   Shawna Shipley-Gates, Independent Scholar, USA
9. Putting the Divas Back in Their Place: Controversy and Backlash at the 2020 Super Bowl Halftime Show
   Gina Sandí Díaz, California State University, USA
10. Simultaneously Black: Drake and Nicki Minaj and the Performance of Hip-Hip Cosmopolitanisms
    Nicole Hodges Persley, University of Kansas, USA
    Section Three: Diva Cultures
11. Curating the Diva
    Harriet Reed, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK
12. A Diva on the Iranian Stage: Ali Akbar Alizad's Remix of Jean Genet's The Maids
    Rana Esfandiary, University of Kansas, USA
13. Recasting Diva Culture: Performative Strategies of Fourth Wave Black Feminist Stand-Up Comedy
    Rachel E. Blackburn, Independent Scholar, USA
14. Independent Women: The Impact of Pop Divas on Stand-Up Comedy
    Ellie Tomsett, Birmingham City University, UK, and Nathalie Weidhase, University of Surrey, UK
    Index