Music is a very male-dominated industry, and when women do rise to prominence they are often pitted against and compared to each other, despite the fact that each queen is a unique snowflake and should be treated as such.
But once in a blue moon, all the stars align and three or more female powerhouses collaborate to create a club-banger that reminds the boys that these divas are not only fierce, but borderline superhuman when they work together. You better work, ladies.
Here is a list of My Top 7 Favorite All-Diva Collaborations
7) Bang Bang – Jessie J, Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj
While Nicki Minaj is not new to collabs by any means, when you hear her unite with new-ish comers Jessie J and Ariana Grande in the diva-fied collaboration of 2014, your brain will literally fall out of your butt. And while the chorus of this song is a little High School Musical (as one of my fellow interns Gwen once described it), I still think this song is catchy as hell, and it’s nice to see girl power alive and kicking.
6) Let it Go – Keyshia Cole, Missy Elliott, Lil Kim
In my opinion this is the only “Let it Go” that matters (jk both songs are bangerz). This song is such a girl power jam, it is the 2007 equivalent of “No Scrubs.”: “if he isn’t gonna treat you the way he should then let it go~” I just love that each powerful woman is preaching girl power in female-anthem. It’s like the Mecca of girl power, it’s girl power inception. I want to listen to this on repeat while driving in a low-rider car in slow motion through East L.A.
5) Give Me All Your Luvin’ – Madonna Featuring MIA and Nicki Minaj
While this song will always remind me of folding sweaters (I swear they play it at every retail establishment ever… It’s good shopping music, don’t fight it). It will also always remind me of that time MIA flipped off the camera at the 2012 Super Bowl, as a big eff you to corporate “dick-shaking” and an homage to Matangi (and if that’s not girl power at it’s finest, I don’t know what is?). Also I really love the combination of MIA and Nicki, I pray to the lady-gods for future collabs plz n thankz.
4) We Will Rock You – P!nk, Beyonce, and Britney Spears
While this was only a commercial and they never released a full-length song, Beyonce, Britney and P!nk murdered this song just like they would a human, if they were actual Roman Gladiators (with tridents and everything)! It was truly a recipe for success: take one part cultural relevancy (the movie Gladiator just had come out) plus 3 parts total divas, plus 1 jar of Vaseline to make their rock hard abs glisten, plus ridiculous talent from all three ladies and boom, you’re gonna sell some god damn soda. Also can we talk about Enrique for 5 seconds, RIP that mole tho.
3) Till The World Ends – Britney Spears, Nicki Minaj and Ke$ha
So you’re telling me you can make an already AMAZING Britney Spears song even MORE AMAZING when you add Nicki Minaj and Ke$ha (the $-sign was still intact at that point)? I liked this song to begin with, but when I heard the Femme Fatale remix I literally paused. I was done. THIS CAN’T BE REAL! And while we know that most Nicki Minaj verses make things better, I didn’t think it would be THIS great. And when the beat drops, I drop to the floor and start flopping around like a fish out of water, because I’m out of metaphorical water, I’m in the rapture that is this remix.
2) Like a Virgin/Hollywood – Madonna, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Missy Elliott
I thought I had watched this video a million times after the Madonna and Britney kiss played on repeat following the VMA’s, but I realized today that I’ve never actually seen the full performance. May I just say A) I forgot that Madonna kissed Christina Aguilera and B) that kiss was seriously the tamest thing I’ve ever seen, it’s crazy how people freaked out so hard about it! These four powerhouses gave this classic track some new, fabulous life and this performance has gone down as my favorite one from the VMA’s ever. I mean a giant wedding cake AND Missy Elliott?!?! It really doesn’t take much to impress me.
1) Lady Marmalade – Christina Aguilera, P!nk, Lil Kim, Missy Elliott and Mya
This, my friends, is the pinnacle of all queen collabs. There is a veritable assortment of talent and cuteness demonstrated in this video. We have sweet Mya and her ridiculously amazing dance moves (do y’all remember that she tap danced too, how cute!). Then you have P!nk whose hair in this music video is SO on trend for right now, (I cant believe she, of all people, called that shit) but her raspy sexy voice and uncharacteristic costuming blew all of our minds!
Then there is Lil Kim, looking straight up Marilyn Monroe who spits the most fierce girl power verse ever. And Christina…oh Christina…you know what you did with this track? You destroyed it. I swear Christina Aguilera cannot be real, her pipes are out of this WORLD. And while I could’ve done with more Missy Elliott than just the beginning and the end (really producers, really?) this song is a smash, 12 years reigning, and I seriously don’t think I’ll ever get sick of it.
And that wraps it up! Which one was your favorite? Have a favorite collab I didn’t mention? Leave it down below!
Photo Credit: HoustonPress / Rickey.org
