"To me, a diva is not not somebody who goes around demanding they get everything on their rider list," says Erasure's Andy Bell. "I think a true diva is someone who really practises their art and makes moving records."
Jennifer Holliday (Dreamgirls Original Broadway Cast) – And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going
I heard the Dreamgirls LP in the late 80s when I first moved to London and this was the only track that stood out. I don't think I've ever heard such a ballsy version of any song, ever, even from Aretha. And I don't know much about Jennifer Holliday, but I think Dreamgirls was the first role she landed on Broadway. I remember seeing a guy called Skinny Bitch, who was a drag queen, doing a performance. He came on stage in a fur coat with high-heeled shoes and gold earrings, and during the performance he threw it all into the ground. Then, at the end, he jumped in the air and fell to the floor. And I thought that was just a good rendition of the song.
Barbra Streisand – The Love Inside
I think that any song Streisand sings she rehearses to perfection so it's completely flawless. Anything she turns her hand to comes out like this. This comes from the Guilty album, which I think should have been made into a West End musical years ago. This song is about getting over a breakup. And when I was getting over a break-up three years ago, I just bawled my eyes out to this song. And I think that once you stop crying to this, when you can listen to it without tears, that's when you know that you're over the pain of breaking up with someone. It's amazingly cathartic; music really can help you get through tough times.
This Mortal Coil – Song to the Siren
I heard this a long time ago and it took me a while to find out it was Liz Fraser from Cocteau Twins on lead vocals. She's one of those people who's so shy, you never see her being interviewed, and when you see her on TV she has these piercing blue eyes. I always thought the lyrics were jibberish, but I found out the other day that
it had real words – it's a Tim Buckley cover version. I find her voice really haunting and she sounds troubled when she's singing. She puts soul inflections into the songs – more notes than there are syllables.
Kirsty MacColl – 15 Minutes
She's underrated, and I think she's only just getting the credit for her work now. This song sums up her writing. It was written around 1989, so I think she's quite a visionary. This is talking about people being on TV and having 15 minutes of fame, you know, just getting your tits out for cash. A lot of her songs are like that, and the way she uses textures and harmonies is pretty amazing.
Clara Rockmore – The Swan
I received this track on a compilation someone sent to me. When I heard it I thought it was the most beautiful thing, the sound she creates from the theremin is the closest you can get to a human voice. I read up on her last night and she was a child prodigy, and used to play the violin in St Petersburg. Then she got this debilitating bone disease and had to stop. She moved to New York and met Leo Theremin and started working on this electronic version of the violin that she could play. She had perfect pitch and I don't think anyone's mastered the theremin like she has. It's known as quite a sci-fi instrument, but she adds some warmth to it. I think when they do finally make humanoid robots they'll have to adapt a theremin to make them speak realistically.
Kate Bush – Moments of Pleasure
I've loved a lot of things Kate Bush has done from the beginning. She makes me feel like I've been transported to the place she's singing about. Usually they're fantasy places so you feel you're with her in the wilderness. But even when you're in New York, like in this song, the way she describes it is like some kind of 50s Hollywood movie. Her phrasing can almost bring you to tears. She can make the most mundane things sound magical, as in the lyric "Every old sock meets an old shoe". Isn't that a great saying? You could tell that the phrase came from her mum, who had just died.
Sinead O'Connor – Three Babies
I think Three Babies is one of the most devastating songs she's written. I don't know if it's based on truth or if the souls she feels she's lost are imaginary. Her voice is so fragile and she has an innocent quality about her. I met her once in Dublin and we went on a pub crawl – she was just as beautiful in real life as on TV. I said, "I wanted to see you and tell you I was in solidarity with you when you ripped up the picture of the pope on television". But she said, "No, it was fair enough, I deserved that, I shouldn't have done those things". And I thought, "Good for you that you don't carry those things around with you and let them get you down". Then we carried on drinking and she drank me under the table. I ended up throwing up outside the pub. And yet she's got this lovely ethereal voice!