A former BBC showrunner has revealed which pop stars have solidified their diva statuses – at least in his memory.
Gareth Davies, who worked on the now cancelled show Top of the Pops, is opening up about the bizarre behaviors and random requests of singers including Shania Twain, Jennifer Lopez and Madonna.
Davies also mentions the stars who surprised him by being unexpectedly down to earth.
He claims that because Twain “doesn’t open doors” there was this’ very long line of entourage running one after the other, almost like a conga.’
‘They were basically all running to the next door, the next door, the next door through the BBC corridors to make sure that when Shania started walking, she didn’t have to slow down at any point,’ Davies exclusively tells Page Six.
Shania Twain has been dubbed one of the ‘biggest divas’ by former BBC showrunner Gareth Davies
Davies told fascinating stories of Jennifer Lopez and Madonna backstage at Top of the Pops
Noting that ‘it was quite fascinating to see,’ Davies claimed there was ‘sort of like this regimented, rehearsed line that if someone faltered, if someone didn’t get to the door before Shania did, they might be in trouble.’
Describing it as ‘a little bit overkill,’ he crowns her ‘one of the biggest divas’ he’s ever met.
Meanwhile, he says Lopez takes the prize for ‘sassiest.’
Recalling his encounters from the hallways of the British programme TOTP, Davies revealed in the new interview that she had all her dressing rooms decorated in white.
‘It was like this white plastic film that went everywhere,’ the founder of The Presenter Studio explained.
‘She managed to take over a whole corridor and got all of those rooms decked out [in] white, which for the BBC back in those days, this felt very unusual.’
He added: ‘A lot of time, money, and effort was spent on making sure that J.Lo perhaps felt as sassy as what she kind of wants to be backstage.’
It wasn’t just backstage that the star’s bizarre requests were fulfilled. She also demanded a white microphone for use on the show.
Davies claim Twain did not open doors when she visited the BBC studios and performed
Davies shared that while the likes of Macy Gray kept their posse small, Madonna showed up with a huge entourage.
‘Everyone’s got their very specific role within quite a big machine,’ he said about the ‘Like a Prayer’ singer’s crew.
He went on to reveal what happened when on one occasion, a member of the entourage messed up.
‘She kind of had that one job just to bring the outfits, but didn’t bring them, which I thought was very funny,’ he said. ‘But I didn’t see any fireworks off the back of that, and certainly the fireworks would have been hidden from Madonna.
‘You can still have a massive entourage, but sometimes the simple things don’t quite go right.’
DailyMail.com has reached out to reps for Twain, Lopez and Madonna for comment.
Janet Jackson, Britney Spears and Kylie Minogue were all surprisingly low-key guests
On the flip side he noted the rather down to earth experiences he had with Britney Spears, Kylie Minogue and the Spice Girls.
Davies added that despite his expectations, Janet Jackson too was surprisingly a non-Diva.
‘Janet Jackson was one where we were waiting for quite a long time for Janet to arrive and expecting Janet to be really late and just hanging out on the stage with all of Janet’s back-up dancers,’ Davies shared.
‘Everyone was just assuming that Janet was going to be late until someone pointed out that Janet Jackson had been there the whole time and was just sitting on the studio floor just waiting for us rather than it being the other way around.’
