--- title: Watch Demi Lovato Covers Adele on James Corden VIDEO description: James Corden engaged in a highly-competitive 'riff-off' with Demi Lovato on last night's Late Late Show. canonical: https://time.com/4728712/james-corden-demi-lovato-diva/ author: Kate Samuelson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-04-06T16:00:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:42:36.369Z og:title: Watch James Corden and Demi Lovato's Diva Riff-Off og:description: Including renditions of Adele, Aretha Franklin, Gloria Gaynor and Katy Perry og:url: https://time.com/4728712/james-corden-demi-lovato-diva/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdb8ad0ec693a991a/6988c1b4bc6cfc2b9e3e0c78/the-late-late-show-cbs-james-corden-demi-lovato.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: 170406_Late Late Show Demi Lovato og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch James Corden and Demi Lovato's Diva Riff-Off twitter:description: Including renditions of Adele, Aretha Franklin, Gloria Gaynor and Katy Perry twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdb8ad0ec693a991a/6988c1b4bc6cfc2b9e3e0c78/the-late-late-show-cbs-james-corden-demi-lovato.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch Demi Lovato Go Full Adele in an Unfair Diva Sing-Off With James Corden > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=408e5ecc-7bb7-4a9a-b7c5-df81e236fabc&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) by [Kate Samuelson](https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/) ## Kate Samuelson Apr 6, 2017 4:00 PM UTC  Demi Lovato and a cappella group Level perform the Diva Riff-Off with James Corden during "The Late Late Show with James Corden," Wednesday, April 5, 2017. Demi Lovato and a cappella group Level perform the Diva Riff-Off with James Corden during "The Late Late Show with James Corden," Wednesday, April 5, 2017. Terence Patrick—CBS Broadcasting, Inc. by [Kate Samuelson](https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/) ## Kate Samuelson Apr 6, 2017 4:00 PM UTC [James Corden](http://time.com/4726416/james-corden-katy-perry-soap-opera/) may have regretted criticizing today’s divas after engaging in a highly-competitive ‘riff-off’ with [Demi Lovato](http://time.com/4725309/demi-lovato-poot-meme-reactions/), who proved her point that modern divas can blow you away. “Divas back then were just better than divas are today. Know what I mean?,” bemoaned Corden, on last night’s [_Late Late Show_](http://time.com/4511131/james-corden-usain-bolt-sprint/). “They didn’t have Instagram, they just had sass, voice, souls.” At this, Lovato stormed on stage. “If you think divas back then were better and I think divas today are better, why don’t we just settle this tonight?” she asked him. Corden and Lovato then began an ‘impromptu’ riff-off, which began with Lovato singing Adele’s ‘Rolling in the Deep.’ Next, Corden threw himself into Tina Turner’s ‘River Deep, Mountain High,’ at which Lovato held her ear and made a highly unimpressed face. The competition continued with renditions of Aretha Franklin’s ‘Respect’ (Corden), Katy Perry’s ‘Roar’ (Lovato) and, finally, Lovato’s own ‘Heart Attack.’ After Corden admitted a miserable defeat, Lovato reassured him. “You’re the best damn diva I’ve ever seen,” she told him. “Maybe there’s a world where divas then and divas now are both great?” The pair then broke into a performance of Gloria Gaynor’s ‘I Will Survive.’ Watch the amusing clip below: ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4728712/james-corden-demi-lovato-diva/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4728712/james-corden-demi-lovato-diva/"},"headline":"Watch Demi Lovato Go Full Adele in an Unfair Diva Sing-Off With James Corden","datePublished":"2017-04-06T16:00:13.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:42:36.369Z","description":"Including renditions of Adele, Aretha Franklin, Gloria Gaynor and Katy Perry","url":"https://time.com/4728712/james-corden-demi-lovato-diva/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","celebrities"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdb8ad0ec693a991a/6988c1b4bc6cfc2b9e3e0c78/the-late-late-show-cbs-james-corden-demi-lovato.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kate Samuelson","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdb8ad0ec693a991a/6988c1b4bc6cfc2b9e3e0c78/the-late-late-show-cbs-james-corden-demi-lovato.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"170406_Late Late Show Demi Lovato","caption":"Demi Lovato and a cappella group Level perform the Diva Riff-Off with James Corden during \"The Late Late Show with James Corden,\" Wednesday, April 5, 2017 (12:35 PM-1:37 AM ET/PT) On The CBS Television Network. 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