Aretha Outshines Cast at Divas Show

April 11 -- While VH1's yearly Divas Live concerts have become an important franchise, while also providing solid revenue for the channel's noble Save the Music charity, the show itself has now moved so far afield from its original intent, it's tough to know what to make of it.

Last night's disjointed evening from Radio City Music Hall in New York was further proof that producers ought to take this concept back to its roots, scrap it altogether, or at least rename it.

Though worthy honoree Aretha Franklin was in terrific vocal form (when is she not?), the rest was little more than a kitchen-sink mish-mash of conflicting promo agendas and rag-tag hosting that had almost nothing to do with the show's now-meaningless title.

Predictably, the Queen of Soul wiped the floor with this year's crop of instant "divas" dispatched to flutter around her — nowhere more obviously than during the show's "Freeway of Love" finale, when overrated singers such as Mary J. Blige, Jill Scott, and a trio of wayward Backstreet Boys all but disappeared in her wake, much as they had all evening.

Only an unbilled Stevie Wonder, who sneaked onstage in the final moments, held his own during the number. Why he wasn't an integral part of the evening, which is rebroadcast tonight at 8 p.m. and throughout the month, is unclear.

Instead, producers left Blige and Scott to salute Franklin with her hits "Day Dreaming" and "Natural Woman," respectively. At least they fared better than Salsa vet Celia Cruz, Marc Anthony, and emerging singer-songwriter Nelly Furtado, who seemed to have dropped in from Saturn for their incongruous segments.

Other than a dead-on spoof of "We Are the World" from the cast of Saturday Night Live, the highlights were Franklin's alone, as she traversed pop, rock, jazz, gospel, R&B, and even opera, pulling out Puccini's "Nessun Dorma," as she did at the '98 Grammys. There was also the requisite "Respect;" a brilliant, fast-paced "Think;" and a blithe jazz set with Herbie Hancock, Clark Terry, Roy Haynes, and other great old-timers.