In an interview with The Telegraph this week the Divine Miss M, 68, gave her two cents about the current raunchy state of pop music.
“It’s terrible! It’s always surprising to see someone like Ariana Grande with that silly high voice, a very wholesome voice, slithering around on a couch,” said Midler, who began to mock the singer’s raunchy moves on the couch she was sitting on.
“I mean, it’s silly beyond belief and I don’t know who’s telling her to do it. I wish they’d stop. But it’s not my business, I’m not her mother. Or her manager. Maybe they tell them that’s what you’ve got to do. Sex sells. Sex has always sold.”
Music legend, who has won three Grammy Awards and been nominated for two Academy Awards, speculates that the pornification of popstars of today means they will struggle to have enduring careers.
“I mean, apparently people really like to pretend they’re having sex. They really like to slap each other’s butts,” Midler says, as she slaps her own behind.
“I mean, don’t ask me. It’s beyond me. I’m too old. I don’t know what the end game is going to be. I don’t know where you go from all that sex in your twenties. I don’t know how you sustain it.”
Her advice to 21-year-old Ariana and other young girls of today: “Trust your talent. You don’t have to make a whore out of yourself to get ahead. You really don’t.”