Search - Various Artists :: Divine Divas

ANOTHER STELLAR VOYAGE

EriKa | Iceland | 10/04/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Unfortunately the information provided in the description of this THREE CD set is not complete, including the track listing, so it would be difficult to get an idea of whether or not you wanted to purchase this collection. Personally, I would advise you to do so if you are interested in women vocalists and world music. This collection (and its predecessor Global Divas) is a gorgeous, perfect marriage of women's voices from all over the world. Unlike many other collections which serve as a "volume two" to some other collection, this does not suffer as a sophomore effort. In fact, the world is so vast and full of creative artists such as those featured here that we could probably be treated to many more similar collections without tapping the same material or artist more than once. This collection seems to collect efforts from lesser known women artists worldwide, providing a huge array of diversity. The result is three CDs of depth and a showcase for emerging talents. With both this collection and the Global Divas collection I was introduced to some extremely outstanding talents (with whom I might otherwise have been unacquainted), and this inspired me to seek out their individual albums. In some cases, that proved difficult, but from this collection I was able to purchase quite a few gems which have enhanced my entire music collection. Among the gems here (although it is misleading to single anyone out because every single contribution to this collection is superb) are: French pop chanteuse Francoise Hardy with her unforgettable "Comment Te Dire Adieu?", Tex-Mex folk style singer Tish Hinojosa with the moving "Déjame Llorar", Italy's Alessandra Belloni with "Canto di Hecate", the very typically Balkan "Your Scarf Will Not Hold Your Hair" from Zana Leskaj and Luljeta Ilia (which is wonderful but will take some getting used to for those not familiar with Balkan music), the mystical and mysterious sounds of "Jheel Mai Chand" from Najma, the enchanting voice of American Alison Krauss (who is in fact well known in the U.S. but heretofore unknown by me, not being a country fan. But Alison transcends this label with this heartbreaking rendition of "Baby, Now That I've Found You"), and some other beautiful songs on the third CD from Judy Frankel, Saozinha from Cape Verde, Éva Molnár from Hungary, and Emma junaro from Bolivia. The real standout among all the CDs in this collection-- entirely unique-- is a singer called Marina with a song called "Illoqarfik". Marina is apparently the most popular singer in GREENLAND, and she lives and works in her native northern Greenland. This is another crowning achievement, and I highly recommend this collection!"