Gerard Ramos Talk Today, 2001

DIVA THIS, DIVA THAT…DIVALE NA LANG!

Diva. Of Latin origins that means “goddess,” the feminine form of “divus,” or “god.” The noun was once strictly applied, particularly by Italians, to an “operatic prima donna” [as in Maria Callas], or to “a female operatic star” [Callas, Renata Tebaldi], but has since also taken to mean “a very successful singer of nonoperatic music,” as in “a jazz diva” [example: Ella Fitzgerald].

The synonym of “diva” is, of course, “prima donna”---another noun of Italian origins, the literal translation of which is “first lady.” It was once used to refer to “the leading woman soloist in an opera company,” “the first or chief female operatic star,” although the noun has also taken to mean “a temperamental, conceited person” [as in Callas or Kathleen Battle---whatever happened to “her,” by the way?].

Given these definitions of “diva,” obviously the entertainment press is correct in its clinically compulsive application to just about every woman singer who moves several thousand copies of an album off the shelves of music stores. Even Jessa Zaragoza has as much diva bragging rights as Regine Velasquez, Jaya and Lani Misalucha have because, after all, these days success is measured strictly in commercial terms. Hell, let’s throw in Mystica and Mae Rivera for good measure---they, too, have, at one time or another, dominated the aural landscape with their musical double entendres.

Of course, there have been hugely famous woman singers who have publicly expressed discomfort about the diva label because of its negative definition [as in “temperamental, conceited person”] but even used in that context, the entertainment press is equally spot on. Unless, of course, you buy into all these celebrity pronouncements about not caring much for such labels or titles and being incredibly supportive of one another. This is about as truthful as, say, two popular young actors publicly maintaining they are simply friends---“friends lang kami tito”---before the young lady (?) disappears from the public radar to either have the love child by her “friend” in America or get an abortion.

Consider this aging diva who, during the hype phase of a recent concert, had publicly cooed her admiration for this talented newcomer---well, at least compared to the time she’s done in the business of making music---with whom she was sharing stellar billing. Obviously, whatever admiration the aging diva may have had for the talented newcomer, who also had waxed generously and, more importantly, sincerely about the aging diva being an inspiration, provided her no hindrance from scheming to make it appear as if the latter was her front act. Fortunately, the talented newcomer’s tour de force that night made the aging diva appear just that---an aging diva. And in case you believe this incident to be the exception rather than the rule---a momentary fear-induced aberration involving an aging diva coming face to face with electrifying youth in a society irredeemably obsessed with youth---then consider this most recent incident: Sunday, I received a call from an entertainment old hand, who proceeds to inform me about how this controversial diva had issues a veiled threat about pulling out of a scheduled guest appearance in the upcoming concert of a male singer if this mercurial diva were also to pop in as a guest performer. The mercurial diva ultimately decided it was not worth her energies to lock horns with the controversial diva.

The thing is that for all the lip service that entertainers pay to the concept of friendly competition, the nature of the business is such that competition can only be fierce at best, occasionally becoming downright vicious even, no matter where an entertainer is in the show-business pecking order. Unless, of course, you believe the entertainment media have a natural predilection for coining “titles” that ultimately have no worth---and they are worthless for simple reason that these have been summoned and appended to this entertainer and that merely to serve as an ammunition in a never-ending celebrity pissing contest. Of course, it can be argued that the same could be said about “superstar,” the appellation that has been Nora Aunor’s and hers alone since she emerged from impoverished obscurity in the late 1960s to become the object of public adulation never before seen before or since. Strangely enough, the only woman in Philippine entertainment who most deserves the diva title---and, yes, in both its reverential and pejorative definition---will forever be referred to as “superstar.” Ultimately, this---and how the distinction came about as one entertainment writer struggled to distill into a single word not only Nora’s phenomenal celebrity in show business but the enormity of her societal impact---is all that Nora Aunor needs.

Last Saturday night at the Music Museum, Nora once more proved---not that she still needs to prove anything to both her admirers and her critics---that she is without peer in the emotional reading of a song. Indeed, whatever production shortcomings “The Legend…Live,” her two-night concert at the famed music hall in Greenhills, San Juan, may have had, the sheer magnificence of her singing was more than enough compensation. The voice once extolled as golden by the entertainment press has become husky with age, now giving her readings an amber glow of quiet wistfulness that informed even the upbeat passages of the concert. In song after song---with a repertoire whose diversity took her from Hagibis rock ‘n’ roll to classic jazz---she would, pitch perfect, extend a note, abbreviate another and wrap another around a word until the song had become hers and hers alone, quivering and shimmering in heartaches long past but never---“ever”---completely forgotten.

This awesome quality of Nora’s music was no more evident that Saturday night than in her reading of “The Windmills of Your Mind,” which she took apart and reassembled in a hypnotic stream of pained whispers and torchy virtuosity. It was as much excellent singing as it was riveting dramatic performance full of fire and music, not unlike her magnificent work as an actress.

I left the Music Museum that night in a near daze over the musical genius to which I had again been witness---and I could only think that the entertainment industry will always have its dime-a-dozen divas but it will never know another Nora Aunor.

Actress.

Singer.

“Superstar.”