La Belle Patti

Patti La Belle has done more for Philadelphia than Ben Franklin, its favorite son! In her two nights on NBC leading the Philadelphia-based choir in the reality show, Clash of the Choirs, La Belle has turned into an icon before our eyes. Of course, she may have been a Diva before this, but she has now shown herself to be a Diva with Extreme Class.

The show, for those of you who have not channeled surfed recently is based on the audience voting premise. This time America votes for whichever choir they think has performed the best. There were six choirs to start--all made up of ordinary people from five cities, Houston, Cincinnati, New Haven, Philadelphia and Oklahoma City. Each choir is led by a celebrity (La Belle leads Philly; Michael Bolton leads New Haven, Nick LaChey leads Cincinnati, etc) and each is amazingly good in its own way.

LaBelle's choir, however, is easily in another league--they are that good. The clips show La Belle really teaching these people how to sing, enunciate and perform and boy do they deliver. Now who knows how much time LaBelle really devoted to this project and how much coaching was actually done by her music director, but regardless, these people are amazing.

LaBelle has gotten some bad press over the years in Philly, some of it for keeping a kennel full of dogs whose barking has drawn the wrath of neighbors, but she has never denied her roots. She is immortalized on a mural in North Philly; she performs at the 4th of July extravaganza on the Parkway and if her choir wins, the city gets $25,000 for charitable endeavors.

I'm a sucker for feel-good shows and this one really is mushy so if you don't like warm and fuzzy don't bother. But if good music, big dreams and encouragement are your thing, tune in tonight at 8:00 on NBC. The promos promise that the Divine Miss P is going to sing with her choir and, in my book, that is worth watching.