The diva - a central figure in the landscape of contemporary popular culture: gossip-generating, scandal-courting, paparazzi-stalked. And yet the diva is at the epicentre of creative endeavours that resonate with contemporary feminist ideas, kick back against diminished social expectations, boldly call-out casual sexism and industry misogyny and, in terms of hip-hop, explores intersectional oppressions and unapologetically celebrates non-white cultural heritages. Diva beats and grooves echo across culture and politics in the West: from the borough to the White House, from arena concerts to nightclubs, from social media to social activism, from #MeToo to Black Lives Matter.

Diva: Feminism and Fierceness from Pop to Hip-Hop addresses the diva phenomenon and its origins: its identity politics and LGBTQ+ components; its creativity and interventions in areas of popular culture (music, and beyond); its saints and sinners and controversies old and new; and its oppositions to, and recuperations by, the establishment; and its shifts from third to fourth waves of feminism.

This co-edited collection brings together an international array of writers - from new voices to established names. The collection scopes the rise to power of the diva (looking to Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Dolly Parton, Grace Jones, and Aaliyah), then turns to contemporary diva figures and their work (with Beyoncé, Amuro Namie, Janelle Monáe, Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion, Shakira, Jennifer Lopez, and Nicki Minaj), and concludes by considering the presence of the diva in wider cultures, in terms of gallery curation, theatre productions, and stand-up comedy.

Kirsty Fairclough is Professor of Screen Studies at the School of Digital Arts (SODA) at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. She is the co-editor of The Music Documentary (2013), The Arena Concert (Bloomsbury, 2015), The Legacy of Mad Men, Music/Video (2019), Prince and Popular Culture (Bloomsbury, 2020) and author of the forthcoming Beyoncé: Celebrity Feminism and Popular Culture. She is the Chair of Manchester Jazz Festival.

Benjamin Halligan is the Director of the Doctoral College of the University of Wolverhampton, UK. His publications include Michael Reeves (2003), Desires for Reality: Radicalism and Revolution in Western European Film (2019), and Hotbeds of Licentiousness: The British Glamour Film and the Permissive Society (2022). He has co-edited: Mark E. Smith and The Fall (2010); Reverberations (Bloomsbury, 2012); Resonances (Bloomsbury, 2013); The Music Documentary (2013); The Arena Concert (Bloomsbury, 2016); Stories We Could Tell (2019); Politics of the Many (Bloomsbury, 2021) and Adult Themes (forthcoming).

Nicole Hodges Persley is Professor of American Studies and African and African American Studies at the University of Kansas, USA. Her books include Sampling and Remixing Blackness in Hip-Hop Theater and Performance and Black Matters: Lewis Morrow Plays (2021) and, as co-editor, Breaking it Down: Audition Techniques for Actors of the Global Majority and Hip-Hop in Musical Theater (2021).

Shara Rambarran is Senior Lecturer at the University of Brighton, UK. She is a musicologist for the award-winning Spotify music podcast, Decode, co-runs the Art of Record Production conferences, and is an editor for the Journal on the Art of Record Production. Her publications include Virtual Music: Sound, Music, and Image in the Digital Era (Bloomsbury, 2021) and (as co-editor) The Oxford Handbook of Music and Virtuality (2016), and The Routledge Research Companion to Popular Music Education (2020).