DIVA IN DEMAND
Jackie Clarke’s been keeping herself entertained for several successful decades – and music lovers right along with her.
WORDS JO - MARIE BAKER
There were only six people in the pub when a teenage Jackie Clarke turned up in Mount Maunganui, ready to put on a show. It was a Tuesday night in the mid-1980s and Jackie – wearing a vintage outfit and winklepickers, her hair teased high – was touring with her first band, Marching Orders.
“You really learn your trade by bravely singing your show when no one’s interested,” she laughs.
Four decades later, Jackie’s coming back to the Bay to perform on a considerably grander scale. The much-loved singer, actor and entertainer will return to Mercury Baypark Arena on November 28 for DIVAS! Christmas Special, alongside Tina Cross, Suzanne Lynch and Annie Crummer, and backed by a four-piece band.
The show is a festive reincarnation of the DIVAS! performance that premiered in Tauranga in 2024 before touring the country, celebrating some of the greatest female voices of the past six decades. Expect everyone from Aretha Franklin, Dolly Parton and Nina Simone, to Whitney Houston, ABBA, Taylor Swift and P!NK.
Jackie says an important omission from the previous show will also be rectified. “We didn’t have any Mariah Carey last time, and I think we’ll definitely fix that, especially with this show’s Christmas vibe. We put a lot of thought into the songs we choose and it just releases the joy monster in people. It’s a great party.”
There will, naturally, also be frocks.
“We love any excuse to put on an amazing frock and let rip. To sing songs by Celine Dion and Adele and all the greats, you have to have a great frock to get you in the zone.
“Come dressed to the nines. If the audience is better dressed than us, that’s the perfect scenario. Don’t hold back.”
Behind all that glamour, preparations begin in more domestic surroundings. The women spend hours around their kitchen tables, drinking coffee, eating Tina’s home baking and painstakingly working on their vocal arrangements.
“We put a lot of detail into it,” says Jackie. “We don’t just turn up and sing. You work so hard so that it appears effortless, and that’s the magic – and when you get those moments of perfection, it’s just the best feeling in the world.”
That friendship and trust has been built over decades; Jackie has sung with Annie, Suzanne and Tina (in different incarnations) for almost 30 years. Together, she says, they tackle songs she wouldn’t dream of attempting alone, and if something still goes wrong on stage despite all that preparation, she can live with that too.
“People love mistakes. People love the humanity of watching things fall apart. That’s often where the real juice is.”
Tauranga has long been something of a second home. Jackie was involved with Tarnished Frocks and Divas from its humble beginnings in 2005 through to its spectacular arena productions, forging lifelong friendships along the way. The homegrown extravaganza gave hundreds of local women the chance to sing, dance, model and perform, often doing things they’d never imagined themselves capable of.
“The whole thing was such a beautiful kaupapa,” says Jackie. “All these people were given an opportunity to discover their best selves. Tauranga always has a special place in my heart. It lit a fire in a lot of people in the best possible way.”
Jackie’s career has been quite a journey from that near-empty Mount pub. Working across music, theatre and television, she found fame with musical comedy trio When The Cat’s Been Spayed, and became a familiar TV face through shows including Saturday Live and New Zealand Idol.
“It’s a wave that you ride, and it comes and it goes. I’m like a hardy perennial. I keep on keeping on through the highs and lows.”
At 60, she certainly isn’t seeking easier challenges. Just weeks before DIVAS!, she’ll take to Auckland’s Q Theatre in Songs for Nobodies, a one-woman play that requires her to portray 10 characters across five stories involving legendary singers Judy Garland, Patsy Cline, Edith Piaf, Billie Holiday and Maria Callas.
“These one-woman shows are so petrifying,” she says, “but it’s a beautiful space to be in when you’re actually scaring yourself shitless with a huge challenge.”
It makes returning to Tauranga to sing with close friends all the more wonderful. The contrast is part of what Jackie still loves about her work – wildly different projects drawing on her “la la la” and “blah blah blah” skills. “I’ve just turned 60, and I feel like I’m in my prime. I really feel like I’m getting the hang of this.
“You can always feel how music feeds people’s souls, and it doesn’t matter if it’s in a bar for six people or it’s a massive arena show. The chemistry is the same. I’ve spent my life entertaining myself, and if you do that, the audience will be entertained as well.”