Can Black Divas Rise Again?
Despite the superstardom of Beyoncé and Rihanna, the 2010s have been rough for black female singers.
Once upon a time (circa 2008), black female singers didn’t quite run the world, but they ruled a sizable chunk of it. Beyoncé was already well into her Queen Bey reign, and Rihanna was starting to challenge her for the crown.
Alicia Keys was still a chart superstar, big enough to be entrusted with singing a Bond theme (“Another Way to Die,” a Jack White duet from the 2008 007 film Quantum of Solace). Pop’s hit list also included ’90s holdovers like Mariah Carey and Mary J. Blige, who the previous year had sold 629,000 copies of Growing Pains, her eighth studio album, in just one week.
Despite being a superstar for four decades, the Queen of Soul wasn’t resting on her laurels — or her throne. Aretha Franklin was months away from her show-stopping and (natch) jaw-dropping performance at the first inauguration of President Barack Obama. And her goddaughter Whitney Houston was one year and two weeks (exactly, as of this article’s publishing date) away from her swan-song/comeback album I Look to You.
Fast forward a decade, and things have changed as dramatically as Houston’s vocal key at the end of “Saving All My Love for You.” With hip hop continuing to scale…
