Watch VH1 Divas
- 1998
- 11 Seasons
The VH1 Divas series of concerts and music releases are annual concerts headlined by female singers and broadcast on the VH1 music network. The show was first broadcast in 1998 as a one-off special VH1 live concert event; since the first broadcast the show has been become an annual event, although it was taken off air for five years before being relaunched. VH1 Divas is a charitable television show produced to provide donations for VH1's own Save the Music Foundation. Originally the special concerts were created to provide a mixture of established female vocalists and newer female singers to provide a well-rounded concert to attract all viewers; following the relaunch of the show in 2009 the singers chosen to appear were generally new artists featuring heavily in the U.S. charts. VH1 Divas Live was the first special in the series broadcast live on April 14th 1998 and was created from the VH1 Honors series that had featured collaborations between established female singers. The headlining singers for the 1998 broadcast were Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Aretha Franklin, Shania Twain and Gloria Estefan; the performers were chosen to provide a broad appeal for VH1 viewers and attract the largest audience possible. A live CD was released to accompany the series up to the relaunch of the show in 2009. The first two VH1 Divas shows were broadcast live, which changed in the year 2000 when the show was recorded two days before it aired on April 11th 2000. Some of the concerts have been themed as tributes to performers, such as the 2001 event that was a tribute to Aretha Franklin and the 2012 concert, which will honor recently deceased performers Whitney Houston and Donna Summer. Following the five-year hiatus taken by the show following the 2004 VH1 Divas event a move towards younger performers took place; the 2004 show had heavily featured older performers from the Motown period of music in the 60s and 70s. The relaunched show now features female stars who are currently active in the charts and popular music, such as Adele and Jessie J.
