That living-on-the-edge quality

“All the things that have happened in my life are meant to happen. Having done the ’Rent A Diva’ bit, and having had some success with the Pet Shop Boys thing, there was no more mileage in it. I’m not a dance act. I felt if I was to do music again I'd have to be where I felt comfortable and was allowed to be less of a Diva. Where it wasn’t necessary for me to sound as if I was about to explode if I changed key one more time.”

“I think the Diva only came with various overwritten dramas that come along when people make up all sorts of stuff. I mean you do one thing and it gets blown up into this legend of 'Pop Callas' proportions and it was - most of it was - rubbish, but I also ran with it for a while. I almost started to believe it for a while. But I’m not a Diva at all... In the pop world I was probably given to more waving of arms and general noise making, sort of directing traffic.”

“I think Divas have this rather... neurotic is the wrong word... but there’s this sort of tension, and it's very real. I am tense, not now, but I certainly am when I am worrying about things on stage, and I think that edge makes it an uneven performance, but in the high parts, it creates an atmosphere of 'God, is she going to explode, or is she even going to get through this song, is she going to finish this act, what's going to happen next?’ and I think that living-on-the-edge quality makes audiences quite enjoy themselves."

Dusty Springfield OBE (born Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien, 16th April 1939 – 2nd March 1999).

We still miss you, Dusty, Diva or not.