Jennifer Lopez Had ‘Diva Dressing Room Demands’ and Shania Twain Refused to ‘Open Doors Herself,’ Says Manager Who Worked With Them
Ever wonder what it’s like to work with some of music‘s biggest superstars? Well, Gareth Davies has done that. Before he became the CEO of The Presenter Studio, he was a BBC Assistant Floor Manager who spent the ’90s and early 2000s working backstage alongside several iconic artists for the British TV show Top of the Pops.
As part of his job, Davies moved between dressing rooms, the studio floor, and live performances and met several singers including Jennifer Lopez, Janet Jackson, Madonna, Britney Spears, and Kylie Minogue. Now, Davies is revealing what some of those stars were like behind-the-scenes from who had the biggest diva demands to who was the most down-to-earth celebrity of all.
Speaking on behalf of online bingo provider Zingo Bingo, Davies shared that Jennifer Lopez was a total diva and needed to have her dressing room a certain way.
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“The dressing rooms were all along this narrow corridor, so nothing special, really, quite old-fashioned. But for that small stretch of space, she made it completely her own. The best way to describe it is that she turned her dressing room entirely white.
“At the time, I’m not sure where the fascination with white came from, but she wanted everything transformed. The whole room was covered from top to bottom, which was quite unusual. She didn’t paint it, she had plastic sheeting put up everywhere instead, so it created this striking, all-white environment.”
He also recalled something strange about Shania Twain as she always had so many people around her.
“Shania Twain has a really large entourage with her, and my lasting memory was watching her walk from the dressing rooms to the studio. There was this long line of people moving ahead of her, almost like a relay. Apparently she didn’t open doors, so someone would always be one step ahead holding it open for her. It was like this perfectly choreographed system, all so she could just keep walking.”
Davies also shared that one global superstar was very down-to-earth and that was Janet Jackson.
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“I remember everyone on the studio floor waiting quite a long time for Janet to arrive. We were all being very casual about it, thinking, well, she’s a major A-lister, of course she’s going to be late. So we just waited around. But as it turned out, Janet and all her dancers had been there the whole time, quietly waiting on stage themselves while we were all waiting for her.
“She was just there in her tracksuit bottoms and hoodie, completely relaxed in that effortlessly cool way. What really stayed with me was how kind, gentle, and soft she was. Everyone was genuinely taken aback. She felt like one of the dancers, really, just keen to be part of the group rather than setting herself apart as the star.”
