Known for her short temper, love of gossip, and drive for perfection, many people have labelled her a diva. While these facts are likely very true – Davis might have very well been an insufferable person to be around – how much of this criticised behaviour was enacted by male stars, too? There were just as many hard-to-work-with men in the industry – and continue to be – who do not receive the diva label.

• The posthumous veneration of Callas might deflect from the media industry’s original malice, but it also reflects her inimitable force.
• Two mountaineering musicians are combining classical music with the stunning scenery of the Cascade Mountains.
• DIVA brings you the latest in lesbian and bi related celebrity interviews, news, politics, pop culture, style, travel, social issues, entertainment and more.
• Exploring the definition of diva-dom is the exhibition DIVA, just opened at the V&A, London.
• Zeinab Badawi heads to Athens to celebrate the centenary of the birth of opera soprano Maria Callas.
• Divas, says Fairclough, are “symbols of empowerment, self-acceptance and celebration of individuality, and challenging societal norms” and, as such, play an important role in LGBTQ+ culture.

Can you solve 4 words at once?

She was also beamed to prime-time TV audiences, such as her 1956 appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show,where she sang Vissi d’arte (I lived for art), an aria from Giacomo Puccini’s 1899 opera Tosca. The image of Callas as an archetypal diva, and the notion that the goddess-star should suffer for her art, is loaded; there is no equivalent that positions a male divo on quite the same pedestal, or exposes them to the same judgements. Yet Callas did arguably channel real-life trauma and conflict into her musical delivery, and seemed bound by the notion of “destiny”.
DIVA magazine is the world’s leading magazine for LGBTQIA women and non binary people. Get a comprehensive understanding of the gut microbiome, the many species, and the vital roles they play. Dame Kiri Te Kanawa has enjoyed one of the longest careers in operatic history. “Perhaps Maria Callas, beyond her genius as a musicienne assoluta, so timeless and perpetually modern in the sensory impact it has on the listener, continues to fascinate because she actually has no true descendants.”
BBC Click visits a simulator lab that allows musicians to practice performance in real-world conditions. Sir Paul McCartney’s childhood home in Liverpool offers a rare glimpse into the early life of a global icon. We tackle the tough topics, like racism in the LGBTQIA community, mental health and the challenges facing queer youth, and also profile inspirational women who are making a difference to the lives of lesbian, bi and trans women.
DIVA brings you the latest in lesbian and bi related celebrity interviews, news, politics, pop culture, style, travel, social issues, entertainment and more. First published in 1994, DIVA is the world’s best-selling magazine for LGBTQIA women, spotlighting all that is fresh, funny, exciting, controversial and cutting-edge in our community. The role leading the renovated Jersey Opera House is advertised with a salary of up to £90,000.

Diva

The musician explains a heavy moment thinking about the lyrics of a song from his forthcoming album. And if you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter, called The Essential List. A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Culture, Worklife and Travel, delivered to your inbox every Friday.

Basketball Stars

Above all, the V&A’s DIVA will be celebratory, says curator Kate Bailey, who is keen to redress an injustice served to these extraordinary performers. “If you look at the nature of the diva as an artist and how often they are looked at and scrutinised in a way which carries a lot of negativity, when actually, these solo artists are hard-working, ambitious, visionary, trail-blazing… and should be celebrated for that,” she says. Known as “America’s Sweetheart”, but uncompromising when it came to her career, she broke from the stranglehold of the studio system to co-found production company United Artists, blazing a trail for numerous savvy successors, who have set up their own production companies to tell stories with strong roles for women. A Hollywood star whose diva label has arguably more legs to stand on, at least from an outside perspective, is Bette Davis.

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Why labels like ‘high protein’ and ‘low fat’ and other ‘health halos’ can be misleading. Level up work, life, and creativity with world-class online courses from the world’s greatest teachers. Zeinab Badawi heads to Athens to celebrate the centenary of the birth of opera soprano Maria Callas. The “virtuosic” One Battle After Another is “horrifying yet ridiculously funny”.

While Garbo’s reclusiveness might have been perceived by many as snobbish, and her arguments with MGM executives deemed unprofessional, we cannot truly know the reasons behind her actions. Bass-baritone Sir Bryn Terfel is one of the most distinguished opera singers of our age. Her exacting standards underpinned Diva a high-maintenance reputation; she also made no secret of her impoverished upbringing or early career.

• There were just as many hard-to-work-with men in the industry – and continue to be – who do not receive the diva label.
• Bass-baritone Sir Bryn Terfel is one of the most distinguished opera singers of our age.
• If you’re not running to call a man a diva, then why are you calling a woman one for similar behaviours?
• In a world where women are routinely placed into categories, often with negative connotations, like ‘whore’, ‘virgin’, ‘slut’, ‘hormonal, ‘hysterical’, etc, ‘diva’ is just another example that only serves to lazily reduce a woman to nothing more than a mere concept of a person.
• “The exhibition will show that there are many definitions and interpretations of a diva,” lead curator Kate Bailey tells BBC Culture.
• Derided in her youth for being fat, Callas was later slated for being too thin; her weight loss was said to contribute to her vocal decline, although the intensity and range of her work was surely a factor.

Certainly, when men work hard – even if that means neglecting their families or lashing out at crew members for not understanding their creative visions, for example – they rarely get criticised in the same way. For a female star to lean into ‘hustle culture’ and creative perfection is to become selfish, arrogant, over-confident, and a diva. The posthumous veneration of Callas might deflect from the media industry’s original malice, but it also reflects her inimitable force. There is only one Callas, yet there are seemingly countless incarnations; as listeners, we project our personal desires, and distresses, onto her expressions – and we continue to bond with her music, in unpredictable ways. Tom Volf, the director of acclaimed documentary Maria by Callas (2017), has described first discovering Callas (in the “mad scene” from Gaetano Donizetti’s 1835 opera Lucia di Lammermoor) on YouTube in the early hours; “The only thing I could see or feel was something incredible, indescribable, passing through me when I was listening to her,” Volf told NPR. Callas maintained her poise in the face of astounding cruelty, and long before mainstream notions of artist wellbeing or body positivity; it’s hard to imagine people camping out for Beyoncé or Gaga shows solely to jeer or pelt the stars with vegetables.

Derivation and terminology

And even worse, many of these men committed acts far worse than arguing with directors or looking down on others – like sexual harassment or abuse. While this is certainly the case for many stars (of all genders) who let fame get to their heads and then lash out at those they consider beneath them, it can’t be denied that many women are called divas when, really, they just know what they want, won’t be bossed around by others, and have the courage to go after their goals. In other cases, anxiety and insecurity can be misconstrued as diva behaviour, such as turning down signing autographs or being reluctant to do interviews. Davis wrote in her memoir, The Lonely Life, “I have always been driven by some distant music — a battle hymn no doubt — for I have been at war from the beginning. I was going to conquer the world.” Her determination for cinematic excellence is outlined here, loud and clear. For many people, especially during this golden age, seeing a woman act determinedly to achieve success was startling and, quite frankly, enough to earn them the diva label.
We travel to La Scala in Milan, Italy the iconic stage where every opera singer dreams of performing. Exploring the definition of diva-dom is the exhibition DIVA, just opened at the V&A, London. “The exhibition will show that there are many definitions and interpretations of a diva,” lead curator Kate Bailey tells BBC Culture. But there’ll be no tabloid-style slating of Mariah Carey for allegedly demanding kittens and confetti at a Christmas lights launch, or of Jennifer Lopez for asking (UK TV show) Top of The Pops to redecorate her dressing room. At what point are people jumping to use the term diva in place of ‘a woman with boundaries’? Old Hollywood icons like Greta Garbo and Marilyn Monroe have been dubbed ‘divas’, but this term fails to harness any nuance.