The other night, after the Madonna concert, my friends and I got into a discussion about Diana Ross and Beyoncé. Two of my buddies are younger, and aren't familiar with Diana, my very first, and probably the original, diva of the modern era. There is no doubt that the two singers carry many similarities between them: both started their careers in very successful girl groups and both left said groups to go on to highly successful solo artists, Both ladies were/are no doubt glamorous and both are divas.
That being said, of course Diana and Beyoncé come from entirely different eras, and so with progress that way it's been in music all around (charts, means of distribution, technology, etc.), it's kind of hard to make a true comparison, though it would be a good topic for a future post. Having followed Diana for years, listening and dancing to her music, and seeing her perform several times, my personal opinion is that Lady Di has had the more successful career and to me is the true queen diva. It is difficult to calculate, but from my quick research this morning, Diana's got so called Queen Bey beat by about 30 tunes (combined group and solo), give or take a couple.
Regardless, both ladies are legends of their own time, and I do enjoy the music of each. Today is Flashback Friday, so I'm going to share the first Diana record I really got into. Upside Down was the lead single off of Di's 1980 diana album and hit the top ten in no less than 15 countries around the world. It came right towards the end of the disco era and the song singlehandedly influenced me to switch my musical tastes from rock music to dance music. Oh, the memories...
No comments:
Post a Comment