'VH1 Divas': Miley-Sheryl rocked, Paula schlocked

Last night, Divas returned to VH1 for the first time in five years. Hallelujah! And while it wasn’t quite the Mariah-Whitney-Christina finger-waving, rafter-shaking smorgasbord of the special’s heyday, I’d still give it a big ol’ thumbs up. ‘Twas a ton o’ fun. VH1 had pimped it as a show all about Miley Cyrus, Jordin Sparks, Kelly Clarkson, Leona Lewis, Jennifer Hudson, and Adele, but lots of older, less-usually-considered-divas divas showed up, like Martina McBride, Sheryl Crow, and Melissa Etheridge. Oh, and Stevie Wonder was there, too. And no disrespect to the younger ladies, but thank goodness the old-timers were there — the night turned into a great old-divas-meet-new-divas extravaganza.

To be truthful though, at two hours long, the show was bloated and stuffed with tons of filler like constant gags from host Paula Abdul, who poked fun at her recent exit from American Idol by launching the show by saying, “I’m Paula Abdul, and this is not American Idol!” She continued by dressing up as new Idol judge Ellen DeGeneres, fawning over Liza Minelli, and supposedly Tweeting from the stage while MTV stars Whitney Port and Lauren Conrad were on stage.

But the most egregious act from Abdul? Her opening-show performance. She lip-synched her way through a medely of her hits, which included “Straight Up” and “Forever Your Girl.” And during a snippet of “Opposites Attract,” she danced next to a screen featuring MC Skat Cat. That is, until a huge photo of Simon Cowell popped up. So…not expected! But, I suppose I’d rather have seen her “sing” her hits rather than recent messes like “Dance Like There’s No Tomorrow” or cover something contemporary and equally as awful.

As for the good, in my opinion, the show-stopper went to the collab between Miley Cyrus and Sheryl Crow (pictured), who teamed up to sing a rockin’ version Crow’s hit “If It Makes You Happy.” (Don’t they look related? Mother and daughter?) Even though I trumpeted the old-timers (like Crow) above, here it was Miley who stole the moment (after kind of screwing up her current hit “Party in the U.S.A.”), with a nice assist from Crow. I mean, who knew that Miley could tear through the wailing “if it makes you happy!” line in that song with such control? Crow just let her take the lead. I’d give runner-up accolades to the Melissa Etheridge-Kelly Clarkson collab of “Bring Me Some Water” and the Jordin Sparks-Martina McBride collab of “A Broken Wing.”

Needless to say, the night was all about the cross-generational duets. Do you agree? What was your favorite performance of the night? Favorite moment? (Maybe when the Real Housewives showed up on stage?) What performance did you hate the most?

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