On the night of Saturday February 11th, I was sat at my friends house playing music and just casually playing board games. Little did I know what was about to come...my friend sent me a message and said "Have you heard about Whitney Houston?". Well my heart just suddenly jumped, was it serious? Was she pregnant? Or is she dead? I had so many questions in my head in the space of a minute until I looked on my usual entertainment website "Digital Spy" and saw blasted on the front page "Breaking News! Whitney Houston has died aged 48".
It took me a while to process it, I couldn't even speak. One of my favourite singers of all time is gone. So I quickly switched on the news to see what was happening. Everywhere it was..."Whitney Houston...Dead". I kept thinking...is this real? My eyes were glued to the television all night knowing that nothing else could be done and I might as well just go to bed. And so I did.
Whitney's life was by far a whirlwind, she grew up in New Jersey, sang in a gospel choir and was discovered at a young age. She became one of the most well known singers ever with hits such as I Wanna Dance With Somebody, I Have Nothing, One Moment In Time and who could forget I Will Always Love You, a song from the soundtrack of The Bodyguard. A movie in which she starred with Kevin Costner.
I was born in 1989, so I was born in the midst of her success, the height of her career and I feel so blessed to think I was created at the time my parents listened to her music. The earliest memory I have of Whitney would have to be for the iconic video that was I Will Always Love You. Who could forget that voice or even the movement of her mouth, simply breathtaking. The video gave me goosebumps at such a young age. I kept thinking, who is this woman?
It wasn't until the song "It's Not Right, But It's Ok", that I realised, wow, now I know she is a superstar and even down with the teens! This song was one that my age would look up, a voice that was angelic and a song that made pop music cool!
I was never really a "deep" fan until she was making her comeback album "I Look To You". I kept thinking, I really want to hear her new music. Then when she was in the process of making that album. In the meantime, I purchased her Ultimate Collection album which has been overplayed on my iTunes may I add!
I kept looking at her past youtube videos and thinking, wow this girl can sing!
It was then time for the release of her I Look To You album, I went out and purchased it after the first few weeks of release and I have to say, it really is such a fantastic album. By this time, there had been a lot of criticism that her voice had gone and she can't sing anymore. Judging by her album, she could definitely still sing, whether that was enhanced was beyond me but I could tell she still had something in her.
Well all knew that Whitney had a drug addiction problem which stemmed from her marriage to singer Bobby Brown whom she had a turbulent relationship with. There were accusations that he hit her and that he abused her. Whitney herself admitted to Oprah that the only thing she did at home was listen to gospel music and take drugs.
Its no doubt that her voice may have been damaged by drugs but that didn't stop Whitney from making her comeback and making sure her fans have some new music from her and get to see her on tour for her "Nothing But Love World Tour" which was dedicated to her international fans in Europe and Australia.
Her tour was ultimately a financial success but was a critical failure. Deeming Whitney's voice as damaged and will be very difficult to claim her title back as the best singer in the world. Seeing youtube videos of her on tour were very uncomfortable to watch, knowing the voice she had and comparing it to this one was devastating as a fan. You only wish her the best and hope she can someone gain her vocals back.
So the last couple of years for Whitney were fairly quiet, making on and off appearences at parties and events but it wasn't until her final event for Clive Davis that nobody knew would be her last. She performed a "Jesus Loves Me" (very ironic) with singer Kelly Price. This would be her last performance and she was then escorted back to her hotel room and passed away there.
I didn't know this until recently that while Whitney's body was in her hotel room. The pre-grammys party hosted by her friend Clive Davis was still happening just 4 flights down. All the guests had a sobre evening, knowing that Whitney had died but I'm not too sure if everyone knew where her body lay. But it wasn't until the guests were leaving the party when they realised that her body was leaving the same time as them in the coroner van. Very morbid. I'm not sure why Clive Davis decided to go ahead with the party knowing the full details of her death and where her body was.
Her death is still so shocking to me and only wish I could of lived throughout her whole career so I would have seen it from beginning to end.
The only way I had of saying goodbye was by watching her funeral on television. I watched it from when her casket came in the church and when she left during the song "I Will Always Love You". Watching all the speeches and performances really were unbelievable. Highlights for me were Kevin Costners emotional speech and R Kelly singing "I Look To You" which brought me to tears.
I'm just so grateful to have been around when Whitney was and being able to witness how iconic and legendary her performances were. So Thank You.
R.I.P Whitney Houston
Harry Charitou
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