Monday, February 13, 2012

In Memoriam

Whitney Houston (1963 – 2012)

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I read the news of her passing Saturday night and my world stopped for a second.  Whitney Houston has been one of my favorite singers ever since I can remember listening to music.  Her voice was simply perfection, a crystal clear, soaring marvel that cast a spell over me and never let go.  Couple that with a stunningly beautiful figure and features and you have the makings of a superstar.

whitney-houston-I always followed her through the years and bought all her albums, even those that weren’t that great, just because listening to her voice was so satisfying, everything else was secondary.

Needless to say, I was extremely saddened when it finally became clear that her gorgeous instrument had been ravaged by years of drug and alcohol abuse, particularly during her turbulent and abusive marriage to Bobby Brown, with whom she had her only child, Bobbi Kristina.

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Her last attempt at a comeback a couple years ago, I Look To You, wasn’t a bad album, but suffered from the inevitable comparisons to her earlier work.  And when she went on tour, and had to sing live, and had to sing the hits from her catalogue that made her a superstar, the critics and the fans, myself included, were aghast and the audience was largely disappointed.

Now that she’s gone, all the criticism and all the gossip matter no more.  One of the greatest artists to ever walk among us is gone.  Many singers have followed in her path, chief among them Mariah Carey, but Whitney was unique.  There’ll never be another Whitney.

From The New York Times:

From the start of her career more than two decades ago, Ms. Houston had the talent, looks and pedigree of a pop superstar. She was the daughter of Cissy Houston, a gospel and pop singer who had backed up Aretha Franklin, and the cousin of Dionne Warwick. (Ms. Franklin is Ms. Houston’s godmother.)

Ms. Houston’s range spanned three octaves, and her voice was plush, vibrant and often spectacular. She could pour on the exuberant flourishes of gospel or peal a simple pop chorus; she could sing sweetly or unleash a sultry rasp.

[…] But by the mid-1990s, even as she was moving into acting with films like “The Bodyguard” and “The Preacher’s Wife,” she became what she described, in a 2009 interview with Oprah Winfrey, as a “heavy” user of marijuana and cocaine. By the 2000s she was struggling; her voice grew smaller, scratchier and less secure, and her performances grew erratic.

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Here’s her Wikipedia page, and her official website.

R.I.P. Whitney.  I will always love you.

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