A diva is a celebrated female star, originally of the opera house and now of pop, film or fashion, with the talent and presence to command any room she walks into. The word is Italian for goddess, from the Latin diva, and English adopted it in 1864 for a distinguished woman singer, the prima donna of the opera stage.
Nobody wore the title more naturally than Maria Callas, nicknamed La Divina after triumphant performances in Rome, Buenos Aires, Naples and Mexico City around 1949 and 1950. Her fame rested on a voice that moved between very different kinds of roles, a fierce theatrical instinct and standards she applied to herself first; she sang more than 40 roles and recorded more than 20 complete operas. The word has since picked up a teasing second meaning for anyone with demanding habits, but etymologically every diva is simply divine.