Got 2B Real: The Diva Variety Show

Last updated
Got 2B Real: The Diva Variety Show
Also known asGot 2B Real
Genre Comedy
Created byAndrea Lee
StarringAndrea Lee
Jamaal D. Pittman
Terrivio-Wesley
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons2
No. of episodes15
Original release
ReleaseJuly 29, 2011 (2011-07-29) 
December 13, 2015 (2015-12-13)

Got 2B Real: The Diva Variety Show (often simply referred to as Got 2B Real) is an American parody reality television web series on BET Her created by and starring Andrea Lee. [1] The series was heralded as "hilarious", "genius" and "art." [2] [3] [4]

Contents

Premise

A group of popular singers throw shade and read each other, reinvigorating past rivalries and discussing current events.

Characters and cast

Creator Andrea Lee (under her pseudonym "Patti LaHelle") voiced the following characters, all based on well-known music legends and performers:

Lee voiced additional guest appearances by Brandy, Diana Ross, Nene Leakes, Joseline Hernandez, Tami Roman, Iggy Azalea, Kelly Rowland, LaTavia Roberson, Erykah Badu, Tamar Braxton, Kandi Burruss, Barbara Walters, Nick Cannon, Lady Gaga, Iyanla Vanzant, Oprah Winfrey, Nicki Minaj, Lil’ Kim, Blu Cantrell, Jay-Z, Shaun Robinson, Celia Cruz, Cristina Saralegui, and briefly, Andy Cohen.

Additionally, several references to the British TV series “Downton Abbey” were made, to great effect, with Lee voicing the part of Maggie Smith’s character Violet Crawley. The premiere episode of season two had a “Harry Potter”-inspired plot, with Lee again voicing Maggie Smith, this time in her role as Professor Minerva McGonagall, as well as voicing Professor Dumbledore. Going with the “Potter” theme (where the boy attends a school for “witchcraft and wizardry”), the Divas instead attend an important meeting at a school for “bitch-craft” and “wiggetry”. This is the moment when, whether the Divas like it or not, they are separated into “Team Class” and “Team Sass”, apparently by Professors McGonagall and Dumbledore. “The order is random,” McGonagall tells the ladies, “…like some of you here today.”

Other lead characters were voiced by Terrivio-Wesley (Dionne Warwick), Jamaal D. Pittman (Whitney Houston), Darcell Bios (Maya Angelou), and Samantha Johnson (Christina Aguilera).

Impact and legacy

The show was launched the same year as Issa Rae's Awkward Black Girl and the Tracie Thoms-starring Bandwagon, two other popular Black-centered digital series. G2BR immediately reached the very pop culture icons represented on screen. Whitney Houston's daughter Bobbi Kristina tweeted that the first episode was funny, and Jackée Harry, Chaka Khan, and Patti LaBelle were confirmed viewers. [5] [6]

Lee followed up the series with a film finale, Got 2B Trill: The Untold Story in December 2015. She later wrote for the series Pretty Dudes . [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dionne Warwick</span> American singer (born 1940)

Marie Dionne Warwick is an American singer, actress, and television host.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patti LaBelle</span> American singer and actress (born 1944)

Patricia Louise Holt, known professionally as Patti LaBelle, is an American R&B singer and actress. She has been referred to as the "Godmother of Soul".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Jackson Jr.</span> Musical artist

Paul Milton Jackson Jr. is an American fusion/urban jazz composer, arranger, producer and guitarist.

VH1 debuted the first annual VH1 Divas concert in 1998. VH1 Divas Live was created to support the channel's Save The Music Foundation and subsequent concerts in the series have also benefited that foundation. The VH1 Divas concerts were a follow-up to the channel's annual VH1 Honors benefit concert that ran from 1994 to 1997, airing annually from 1998 to 2004. After a five-year hiatus, the series returned in 2009 with a younger-skewed revamp. In 2010 the concert saluted the troops and in 2011 it celebrated soul music, doubling the previous year's ratings. After a dance music-focused 2012 edition aired live from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on December 16, 2012, the show took another hiatus before being revived on December 5, 2016, at the Kings Theatre in Brooklyn, New York with a holiday theme and achieved its highest ratings in over a decade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oprah Winfrey's Legends Ball</span> Three-day celebration held in 2005 by Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey's Legends Ball was a three-day celebration in 2005 held by Oprah Winfrey honoring twenty-five African-American women in art, entertainment, and civil rights.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Essence Music Festival</span> Annual music festival

The Essence Festival, known as "the party with a purpose", is an annual music festival which started in 1995 as a one-time event to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Essence, a magazine aimed primarily towards African-American women. It became the largest African-American culture and music event in the United States. Locally referred to as the Essence Fest, it has been held in New Orleans, Louisiana, since 1995 except in 2006, when it was held in Houston, Texas, due to Hurricane Katrina's effect on New Orleans and 2020 when it was cancelled. A spinoff iteration of the festival was also held in Durban, South Africa, in November 2016. The festival features artists simultaneously performing on a main stage as well as four standing-room only superlounge stages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Tee</span> American pianist, singer and arranger

Richard Edward Tee was an American jazz fusion pianist, studio musician, singer and arranger, who had several hundred studio credits and played on such notable hits as "The Hustle"(1975), "Slip Slidin' Away"(1977), "Just the Two of Us"(1981), "I'll Be Sweeter Tomorrow "(1967), "Tell Her About It"(1983), "In Your Eyes", "Until You Come Back To Me"(1974)

The BET Honors were established in 2008 by the Black Entertainment Television network to respect the lives and achievements of African-American luminaries. The awards will be presented annually and broadcast on BET during Black History Month.

The third season of Australian Idol debuted on 26 July 2005. The first of three semi-finals was held on 16 August 2005 with three of the Top 12 contenders announced the following night on 17 August 2005. 2Day FM radio host Kyle Sandilands replaced former judge Ian Dickson.

David Nathan is an English-born biographer, journalist, authority on soul music, and singer. In the 1960s and 1970s, he was the co-founder of the Soul City record label and a contributing editor to Blues & Soul magazine. Living in the US between 1975 and 2009, he wrote several biographies of musicians as well as hundreds of articles and liner notes, and founded the website soulmusic.com. He has also recorded and performed as a jazz and blues singer, both under his own name and as his alter egoNefer Davis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sasha Allen</span> American singer and actress (born 1982)

Sasha Sierra Allen is an American singer and actress. Born and raised in Harlem, New York, she began her career in the music industry as a backing vocalist for Christina Aguilera, Alicia Keys, John Legend, Leona Lewis, and Usher. In January 2016, she joined the Rolling Stones touring band. In May 2020, she joined The Pussycat Dolls touring band.

The Hampton Jazz Festival is a major musical event started in 1968, and features many of the world's major jazz artists. It is held during the last full weekend in June each year, with the primary venue being Hampton, Virginia's Hampton Coliseum. Festival organizers describe it as "the best available jazz, R&B and blues artists that are on tour during the time of the festival... packaged at a reasonable price." In 2024 it was re-branded as the Hampton Jazz & Music Festival, with an emphasis on a broader range of musical acts.

"Ain't No Way" is a song written by singer-songwriter Carolyn Franklin and sung by her elder sister Aretha Franklin as the B-side to her 1968 hit, "(Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You've Been Gone". This song should not be confused with a different song of the same title, recorded by Aretha Franklin on her 2003 CD So Damn Happy: "Ain't No Way" by Barry J. Eastmond and Gordon Chambers.

The 1994 Soul Train Music Awards were held on Tuesday, March 15, 1994, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California. The show was hosted by Patti LaBelle, Gladys Knight and Johnny Gill.

Glendon Theodore "Teddy" Campbell, Sr. is a gospel drummer & singer. He was the drummer on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. He is the lead singer for the Soul Seekers.

<i>Classic Moments</i> 2005 studio album by Patti LaBelle

Classic Moments is a studio album by American singer Patti LaBelle. It was her second full-length release with Island Def Jam's Def Soul Classics imprint and released on June 21, 2005 in the United States. The album features LaBelle's renditions of modern pop, soul and R&B songs, mostly ballads, including her versions of "Love Don't Live Here Anymore", "She's Out of My Life", "Didn't I " and "I'll Stand by You".

The 1993 Soul Train Music Awards was held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California on March 9, 1993. The show was hosted by Natalie Cole, Patti LaBelle and Luther Vandross.

Manchild was an American 1970s funk band from Indianapolis, Indiana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minerva McGonagall</span> Fictional character in the Harry Potter series universe

Professor Minerva McGonagall is a fictional character in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. Professor McGonagall is a professor at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, the head of Gryffindor House, the professor of Transfiguration, the Deputy Headmistress under Albus Dumbledore and a member of the Order of the Phoenix. Following Lord Voldemort's defeat at the hands of her student Harry Potter and the deaths of Headmasters Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape, McGonagall takes the position of Headmistress. McGonagall was originally portrayed in the film adaptations by actress Maggie Smith, and later by Fiona Glascott in the Fantastic Beasts prequel films The Crimes of Grindelwald and The Secrets of Dumbledore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dolores Umbridge</span> Fictional character from Harry Potter

Dolores Jane Umbridge is a fictional character from the Harry Potter series created by J.K. Rowling. Umbridge is the secondary antagonist of the fifth novel, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, where she has been stationed at Hogwarts by the Ministry of Magic to take power away from Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore, who have both been informing the Wizarding World of Lord Voldemort's return.

References

  1. 1 2 Allah, Amari (January 4, 2018). "What's Next For Andrea Lee, Creator of Got2BReal, Commonly Known as Patti LaHelle". Wherever I Look. Retrieved June 23, 2019.
  2. "The Craziest And Shadiest Diva Moments From The "Got 2B Real" YouTube Series". Global Grind. August 15, 2018. Retrieved June 23, 2019.
  3. Hopf, Andrew (December 14, 2015). "The Hidden Genius That Is "Got 2B Real"". Odyssey. Retrieved June 23, 2019.
  4. Glazer, Eliot (23 January 2012). "Behold the Newest Installment of 'Got 2 B Real,' a Web Series That Dubs Over the Voices of R&B Goddesses". Vulture.
  5. @REALbkBrown (August 11, 2011). "SOOO funny! Mom at the end- PRICELESS! LMAO (PARODY) Guess Who's Coming To [Patti's] Dinner - Episode 1 via @youtube" (Tweet) via Twitter.
  6. @JackeeHarry (December 14, 2015). "Hung out with my girl @ChakaKhan last night & cackled over our appearances in #G2BReal movie, @_maleficentt!" (Tweet) via Twitter.