'VH1 Divas Celebrates Soul' With Mary J. Blige, Jennifer Hudson, and Jill Scott

Kevin Winter

VH1 announced a pretty impressive roster of artists for VH1 Divas Celebrates Soul airing Monday, Dec. 19 at 9 p.m. This year’s performers are Mary J. Blige, Jennifer Hudson, Jill Scott, Florence + The Machine, Kelly Clarkson, and Jessie J with The Roots serving as the house band.

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The concert series will pay tribute to the “great cities of soul music,” including Chicago, Detroit, London, Memphis and Philadelphia.

“This year’s telecast will showcase the vast impact soul music has had on the 21st century’s music and pop culture landscape as our talented and diverse lineup will attest,” says VH1 and VH1 Classic’s Original Music Production & Development EVP, Lee Rolontz.

Each artist will perform their own hits along with some soul classics. The Roots will serve as the house band with Questlove as musical director.

Once again, the event will benefit the VH1 Save The Music Foundation, which works to restore music education in public schools.

The annual VH1 Divas special debuted in 1998. Past performers have included Beyoncé, Katy Perry, Sugarland, Diana Ross, Tina Turner, Cher, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, and Aretha Franklin.

It is executive produced by Greg Sills for Chloe Productions and Lee Rolontz, Rick Krim for VH1.

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