The lives and loves of the new pop divas - female pop singers

Ebony, Nov, 1993 by Lynn Norment

They have fame, beauty, wealth, youth an -- most notably -- distinctive voices that make you stop and investigate the source. With sass, soul and incredible vocal range, the new divas have arrived and increasingly are dominating the pop charts and the airwaves.

Yes, there are the superstar divas such as Whitney Houston, Anita Baker, Janet Jackson, Aretha Franklin and Natalie Cole, but the nouveau singing stars are carving out their own niches in the ever-changing, intense atmosphere of the music industry. With each new release, they are winning new fans and rave reviews, etching out their own pages in the history of great music.

Notable among the exciting new divas are Mariah Carey, with her distinctive five-octave range; Regina Belle, with rich, sultry vocals; the sensuous, sassy Jody Watley; the deeply soulful Oleta Adams; and fresh, smiley Shanice Wilson.

In 1990, Mariah Carey became just the third artist in the history of the Grammy Awards to be nominated in the same year for best album, best song and best new artist. Her self-titled debut album held Billboard's No. 1 spot for 22 consecutive weeks and sold more than seven million copies.

Carey, whose new release is Music Box, says she's known she wanted to pursue a singing career since she was four years old. It was around that time that her Irish mother, Patricia Carey, a former soloist with the New York City Opera, and her father, Alfred Roy Carey, a Washington, D.C., aeronautical engineer who is Black and Venezuelan, were divorced. She seldom saw her father.

When she was 18, Carey met Sony Music president Tommy Mottola at a New York party and asked him to listen to her demo tape. Later, he popped the demo in the tape deck of his limo, and upon hearing Carey's voice, asked the driver to return to the party. She had left, but within days he made contact and within weeks offered her a record deal with Sony's Columbia Records. "When I first heard and saw Mariah, there was absolutely no doubt she was in every way destined for stardom," Mottola has said.

In the months that followed their chance meeting, her career escalated, a relationship blossomed and Mottola, 43, divorced his wife of 20 years. In June 1993 he and Carey were married in a star-studded wedding at St. Thomas Church on New York's Fifth Avenue. The 24-year-old bride wore an ivory, off-the-shoulder, beaded-bodice gown with a 27-foot train. As the couple left the church, they were showered with petals thrown by 50 flower girls.

Marriage is "making a commitment," Carey said in a recent television interview. "I used to think of marriage as the end of the road; but now I'm ready for commitment."

Regina Belle was also ready for commitment when she married Cleveland Cavaliers guard John Battle in 1991. The couple, who met at Rutgers University, were also married before a star-studded audience, but at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Washington, D.C. The Winans sang to the newlyweds, and Belle serenaded her new husband with "Inseparable."

"I married my best friend," she says, adding that she and Battle were close platonic friends while students at Rutgers. She says during college, her self-confidence blossomed. "I had a lot of insecurities about being dark," she admits. "In college I realized that we are all sisters under the same sun. We come in all rays. The thing is to advance and do all you want to do, be creative."

Belle, 30, has two adopted children, Tiy, 3, and Jayln, 2. Despite "two miscarriages in two years," she and Battle are determined to have other children. "Family life is wonderful," she says.

On the career front, Regina Belle is doing quite nicely also. Her third release, Passion, is riding the music charts with her moving rendition of "If I Could." In addition, Belle's 1992 duet, "A Whole New World," with Peabo Bryson has broadened her audience.

Since summer, she's been touring, often with children in tow. "I'm a hard worker," she says. "I have never accepted that someone would give me anything. I've always been one to work my butt off and do for myself."

Belle says her father was a baritone and her mother still sings soprano in the choir at Friendship Baptist Church in Paterson, N.J. At age 12, Belle won a $25 contest by singing the Emotions' "Don't Ask My Neighbors." Throughout her teen years, she sang at weddings, fashion shows and with a local group, and throughout college was opening act for mentor divas like Patti LaBelle, Gladys Knight and Dionne Warwick.

Belle says she's always thought of a diva as being "snotty," which she is not. "If a diva is one who can relate to everyone in the audience, then yes, I'm a diva," she declares.

And so is Jody Watley, who says, "I don't mind being called a diva, for a diva represents a strong performer."

And that she is. A former Soul Train teen dancer and singer with the group Shalamar, Watley quickly established herself as a dance music queen with catchy lyrics and undeniable sex appeal. "But if you look below the surface, you'll see there is something else," she says. "I'm a vocalist. I'm a songwriter. I'm an entertainer. I'm a hands-on person, with my music career and everything. It is a positive trait my parents instilled in me."