By: Patti LaBelle (1991 / Hip Hop)Download album. Track paused. Complete song listing of Patti LaBelle on OLDIES.com. Spin: Ranked #16 on Spin's list of the '20 Best Albums of '96.' Tracks of Disc 1; $1.29 on iTunes1.

Patti LaBelle can say anything she damn well pleases. First of all, she’s Patti LaBelle – legend, icon, trailblazer, Hall of Famer, the Godmother of Soul. Second – there is no second. When you’ve been belting it out for a half-century, there doesn’t have to be.

So when the beloved singer rang me recently before her Jan. 26 gig at Sound Board at MotorCity Casino Hotel, LaBelle wasn’t about to mince her words when she talked about her player haters, “all the little heifers who can’t sing” ravaging the once-honorable “diva” title – and the singer who was too intimidated by Patti’s talent to open her show. We can’t wait to see you, Patti.

I can’t wait to see my children! It’s been a long time. Well, I was in Detroit for a brief Christmas show with KEM and Ron Isley (in December 2013), but that wasn’t a Patti moment. (Laughs) When did you first know you had a big gay following? I’ve been in this business for maybe 51 years, and so I think 50 years ago.

(Laughs) The first year I wasn’t sure, but the second year of performing I got this love – I mean, great love – from my gay fans. I always questioned, “Why do they love me? Why do they really, really give a damn about Patti LaBelle?” And I think it’s because I’m such a free spirit and such a drag queen, really, myself.

The original drag queen. What’s your relationship with them been like over the years?

Has that bond gotten stronger? It’s much stronger. I think if I ran for president of the gay community, they might elect me. And I would handle it so well. It would just be one of those things I was born to do. So I think every year it grows and grows and grows.

A lot of gay fans who come to see me, I think they’re afraid to be out until I say something and let everyone know it’s fine to just be yourself. If you were president, what would be the first thing you might do for the gay community? I would let everyone gay who wants to get married – no matter what city, what country, what state – say “I do.” That would be my first order. Everybody say “yes” to gay marriages. For you, what does it mean to be a diva?

That word is used so loosely that I don’t even consider myself a diva. I always considered myself a woman who sings her heart out and who gives 120 percent. “Diva” is a word that I wouldn’t wanna call myself because it’s so loosely used. It’s not cute anymore. Is there a negative connotation to it now? Yeah, because all these little heifers who can’t sing are called divas! It doesn’t mean anything to me and probably to some of the other ladies who have been doing it for as long as I have: Gladys Knight, Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick.

You know, I’m speaking for me – I don’t know if they like to be called divas – but I know I wouldn’t call them divas, because it’s not in good company. But it used to be a respectable term at some point. Well, for opera singers, and for ladies who earned it, but that was way, way back when. Now you can look up to them, but you might not see what you wanna see. Design doll 4009 crack. People who are doing it and doing it with about 40 people on stage with them to hide their pitifulness – that’s not a word, but you know what I mean.

You’re the president, Patti. Make up words if you want. You got that right. Biblioteki dlya bazis mebeljschik 8. Do you notice when your gay fans are in the audience?

Do you feel that energy? We were in Durham or Raleigh, N.C. – I don’t know where I was Saturday – and it was a front row of white gay men, and when I sang “Little Girls” they hugged each other and stood up after. A lot of people stood for this particular song, but they were so happy to be there, listening to me, knowing that it’s OK to kiss, that it’s OK to hug, that it’s OK to just let yourself go. And I do notice my children. At every show I do – I notice them. What are the songs you can’t leave the stage without performing?