Fresh stars try on a new title for "VH1 Divas"

       A diva doesn't bow out gracefully, or quietly, which is why Paula Abdul, weeks after detaching herself from American Idol , found herself on a stage in Brooklyn, holding a series of microphones in the general area of her face,lip-synching a four-song medley of her 20-year-old hits.
       It took gumption to do that, knowing full well that everyone who was to take the stage in the next two hours would be a vocal titan.(Well, almost everyone.)But above all, a diva makes a scene.
       And while there was tremendous talent at this year's incarnation of VH1 Divas ,last Thursday night at the Howard Gilman Opera House of the Brooklyn Academy of Music and hosted by a loopy, manic Abdul, there wasn't much to see.
       In prerecorded segments of the show,which was broadcast live on the VH1 network, each of the night's stars Adele, Kelly Clarkson, Miley Cyrus,Jennifer Hudson, Leona Lewis and Jordin Sparks - politely distanced herself from the diva stigma.(Well, almost everyone.)
       But really, the word was unattainable,unless it now means "female singers who weren't otherwise occupied or stratospherically famous". Previous iterations of this concert, a franchise that had been abandoned in 2004, featured Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey,Celine Dion and Tina Turner, among others.
       But Thursday night's diminished star power turned out to be an asset - there was no anticipation of petulance or disruption, just electric singing. Lewis delivered a stirring True Colors in a duet with Cyndi Lauper, her swoops a balance to Lauper's scrapes. Clarkson's Already Gone was winningly bitter. Sparks was joined by the country star Martina McBride for A Broken Wing , on which McBride was devastating.(An idea for next year:Country Divas , with McBride,Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert,Taylor Swift and several contrition interludes by Kanye West.)
       Jennifer Hudson, one of four products of the Simon Cowell machine on the bill - along with Clarkson and Sparks, who both won American Idol , and Lewis, win-ner of the UK's X Factor - impressed the most.
       Spotlight , from Hudson's 2008 selftitled debut album, was epic in a way the blithe recorded version never approached. And her duet with Stevie Wonder on All in Love is Fair was hefty - he in the full velvet of his voice, and she shamelessly jumping to the big notes.
       Cyrus, the night's biggest draw, based on audience screams, was the exception to all rules here. The least gifted singer - on her duet with Sheryl Crow, she wrestled with the melody of If it Makes You Happy , only sometimes winning and the only one to see the "diva" tag as an opportunity, not a burden."I feel like I'm going to start bossing people around today," she said, joking during her taped intro.
       But she had nothing on Abdul, who's been bossing people around for years,or at least guiding them irrationally. This month it was announced that Abdul's seat on American Idol would be filled by the affable, anodyne talk show host Ellen DeGeneres. DeGeneres will probably also take Abdul's place as the show's nurturer.(DeGeneres was the host of VH1 Divas in 2002; she won this trade.)
       How's Abdul taking the news? Noisily.She fired off a few awkward Idol barbs on Thursday, but mid-show she displayed a brief flash of genius. After a commercial break, to the sounds of Pink's Get This Party Started , she appeared in one of the aisles dressed as DeGeneres - black suit and trainers, blonde wig - and mocking the signature dance moves DeGeneres does on each episode of her talk show.
       If Abdul possesses a sort of intelligence,it is this - a gift for the kinesthetic. The mocking was brutal because it was so accurate, just a tweak of the awkward,tight shuffle invented by DeGeneres as a relatable anti-dance.
       For Abdul, a better dancer and choreographer than singer orrealitycompetition judge, it must have been tough to move so stiffly.
       After bopping her way to the stage,she tossed herself into a chair and mused,"Can't a girl try out a new job?" So long as it comes with the old attitude, no problem.AP
       ON THEIR BEST BEHAVIOUR: Left to right, Miley Cyrus, Kelly Clarkson, Jordin Sparks, Paula Abdul, Jennifer Hudson, Adele and Leona Lewis close the "VH1 Divas" show in New York.