Diva House

Diva house, known in Britain as handbag house, is an anthemic subgenre of house music that rose in gay clubs in the early 1990s. It places a commanding, gospel- and soul-trained female voice at the centre of the record, supported by piano stabs, organ basslines, strings and dramatic breakdowns that clear space for the vocal before the beat returns. Drawing on disco, garage house, R&B and dance-pop, diva house favours full songs over DJ tools: verse-chorus structures, euphoric key changes and choruses built as collective singalongs, delivered by singers such as *Robin S.*, *Crystal Waters* and *CeCe Peniston*.