A former television producer is looking back on his years behind the scenes — and naming the pop stars who, in his view, delivered the most diva-like moments.
Gareth Davies, who worked on the iconic British music show Top of the Pops from 1996 to 2001, said the job gave him a front-row seat to the unusual demands, backstage rituals and memorable behavior of some of the biggest names in music.
Speaking to Page Six, Davies singled out Shania Twain as one of the standout “divas” he encountered during his time on the BBC series, claiming the country-pop superstar apparently avoided opening doors for herself.
According to Davies, whenever Twain was called to the Top of the Pops stage, a lengthy trail of assistants would move ahead of her “almost like a conga” to make sure every door along the route was opened before she arrived.
He recalled that members of her entourage would hurry through the BBC corridors from one doorway to the next, ensuring that once Shania Twain began walking, she would not have to pause or break stride on her way to perform.
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.’
Shania Twain has been dubbed one of the ‘biggest divas’ by former TV producer Gareth Davies
Davies told fascinating stories of Jennifer Lopez and Madonna backstage at Top of the Pops
Describing it as ‘a little bit overkill,’ he crowns her ‘one of the biggest divas’ he’s ever met.
Meanwhile, he says Jennifer Lopez takes the prize for ‘sassiest.’
Davies revealed in the new interview that the pop icon had all her dressing rooms decorated in white when she went on Top of the Pops.
‘It was like this white plastic film that went everywhere,’ he 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.’
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It wasn’t just backstage that the star’s bizarre requests were fulfilled. She allegedly also demanded a white microphone for use on the show.
Davies claimed Twain did not open doors when she visited the BBC studios and performed
Meanwhile, Madonna also scored a mention as somewhat of a diva.
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.’
Daily Mail 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.’