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The Whitney Houston Thread

:birthday:Happy Birthday Whitney!!!!:birthday:
I miss you.:(
You're one of the best singers to have ever walked this earth!!!!!:yes:
Give Michael a hug for me, I know you two are up there just having a good ole time.:D
 
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:heart: Happy birthday precious angel, you will never be forgotten :heart:
 
Happy Birthday, Whitney! :flowers:

You made me happy with your voice, and you kept "competing" with my love for Michael and his music from the very beginning. :yes:
 
I've only ever known the big hits, up until recently I decided to get Whitney's debut album on LP and I can't describe how much I was blown away by it. I'd alos never heard the original version of Greatest Love of All. Can anyone recommend another album to get?
 
innuendo141 said:
I've only ever known the big hits, up until recently I decided to get Whitney's debut album on LP and I can't describe how much I was blown away by it. I'd alos never heard the original version of Greatest Love of All. Can anyone recommend another album to get?
Click to expand...

I'd day the first two and 'My Love is Your Love', the latter has some good Darkchild & Wyclef stuff on it and although is typical early 2000s sound has some nice tunes, notably the title track and 'It's Not Right, But It's Okay'. It also has a single called 'Heartbreak Hotel' on it!

Amazingy it was only her fourth studio album but seems much later, thanks to the long Bodyguard years! Speaking of which, her recording of 'I Have Nothing' is a vocal masterclass (despite it being done by every talent show contest ever!)

Other notable recordings include 'One Moment In Time'. And I also love 'I'm Your Baby Tonight' even though the production didn't quite hit the mark with that one.
 
Oh Thanks Tony. I rememebr My Love Is Your Love being released and thought it was cool. Still smitten with the debut, I'd really never given her a go. It's such a strong album, not one bad song on it.
 
4/26/2017 by Stephen Dalton Hollywood Reporter
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Director Nick Broomfield’s Showtime-backed music documentary chronicles the dramatic rise and fall of record-breaking pop diva Whitney Houston.

The phenomenal rise and tragic demise of Whitney Houston is an almost archetypal saga of success, excess and the scarcity of second acts in American lives. But it becomes a little too archetypal in the hands of British director Nick Broomfield, whose new bio-documentary on the late singer is heavy on glib generalizations but light on sharp insights or juicy revelations.

That said, Houston’s enduring superstar glow and a vault full of superlative, previously unseen footage should ensure healthy interest in Can I Be Me, which world premieres at the Tribeca Film Festival this week ahead of its Showtime TV launch later this year. Theatrical roll-out in various European markets will also follow over the coming weeks.

Opening with the fraught 911 call that alerted the world to Houston’s death at the Beverly Hilton in February 2012, at the age of just 48, Can I Be Me then scrolls back to her early life in New Jersey. Mentored by her proud but controlling mother, gospel singer Emily “Cissy” Houston, she soon excelled as a soloist in her local Baptist church choir. A spell as a teenage model and backing vocalist led her to Clive Davis of Arista Records, who carefully molded the young star for maximum appeal to mainstream white audiences. And so began a record-smashing, Grammy-winning career that spanned world tours, blockbuster movies and close to 200 million album sales.

Broomfield highlights some key factors that fuelled Houston’s self-destructive fall. Her close relationship with longtime gal pal and personal assistant Robyn Crawford, widely rumored to be a lesbian romance, begins to implode after she marries bad-boy rapper Bobby Brown in 1992. Estrangement from her beloved father John, who becomes embroiled in a bitter $100 million lawsuit against his daughter from his deathbed, is another body blow. The marriage to Brown becomes stormy, boozy and druggy, wrecking Houston’s health and voice. The film mentions his infidelities, but not his 2003 arrest for physically assaulting Houston, an oddly coy omission which smacks of backstage deal-making.

Can I Be Me seeks to build a case that Houston was destroyed by a toxic mix of social, parental, financial, sexual and racial pressures, but these conclusions feel too fuzzy and vague to carry much weight. Broomfield has a solid track record of campaigning documentaries, but his music films are often his weakest. Kurt & Courtney (1998) and Biggie & Tupac (2002) are mostly notable for their flimsy claims and unproven assertions.

Broomfield shoots for the same kind of interview-rich intimacy as Asif Kapadia’s terrific Amy Winehouse documentary Amy (2015), but he falls short. Crucially, he fails to secure first-hand access to key players including Brown, Crawford, Cissy Houston and Davis. Although he works around this obstacle to some degree with archive clips, he inevitably ends up giving too much credence to the fringe players from Houston’s entourage who consented to be interviewed. One claims “Whitney had the career that her mother really wanted.” Another says she “died of a broken heart.” This is tabloid-level pop psychology, banal at best, dishonest at worst.

At least the film offers some welcome comic relief in the form of Houston’s former bodyguard David Roberts, a ruddy-faced Welshman with a military background and a poetic turn of phrase, who comes across like a satirical Simon Pegg creation at times. Amusingly, Roberts makes a point of refuting any personal parallels with Kevin Costner’s character in The Bodyguard: “I did not make love to her.” His duty of professional care towards his boss finally crossed a red line when he tried to warn Houston’s managers about her deepening drug dependency. He was removed from his job soon afterwards.

For Houston fans, the true buried treasure in Can I Be Me lies in the extensive archive material shot by German director Rudi Dolezal for a shelved documentary about the singer’s 1999 European tour, her last major global venture. A music video veteran who has worked with numerous legends including Queen, The Rolling Stones, Miles Davis, Quincy Jones and Elton John, Dolezal secured extensive backstage access to Houston, Brown and Crawford just as their open-secret ménage-a-trois was acrimoniously unraveling. The chemistry between the trio, both sexual and romantic, is electrifying and oddly touching.

Dolezal’s close-up concert footage is also a joyous reminder of Houston’s effortlessly engaging stage presence and soaring, octave-vaulting, transcendently soulful voice. We are left with a powerful sense that her death was a tragic loss, both privately and publicly, but Can I Be Me never quite tells us why.
 
By Yvette Caslin | April 29, 2017 | Rolling Out
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Demetria McKinney, Hassan Johnson and Joy Rovaris in the title role.

Bobbi Kristina Brown, the only daughter of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, is getting a well-deserved biopic. The TV special will air on TV One. An aspiring singer, she was found face-down and unresponsive in a bathtub in her suburban Atlanta townhome in January 2015. She was in a coma for six months before dying in hospice care at age 22 on July 26, 2015.

Disney channel star Joy Rovaris (“Stuck in the Middle”) will play Bobbi Kristina. Demetria McKinney has been cast as Whitney Houston and “The Wire‘s” Hassan Johnson was tapped to play Bobby Brown.

Also cast in supporting roles are Vivica A. Fox who will play Pat Houston, while Bobbi Kristina’s boyfriend Nick Gordon will be played by Nadji Jeter.

Scheduled to premiere this summer, TV One describes the show:
Bobbi Kristina is the made-for-TV biopic, inspired by the life of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown’s only child. Bobbi Kristina Brown grew up in the shadow of her uber famous, superstar parents’ spotlight. This film offers an intimate look at the highs and lows of parental, familial and romantic love complicated by fame through the eyes of a sensitive, vulnerable young woman.

Her high-profile life – and death – may have been shrouded in mystery, but this film will reveal her humor, her quirks, her deepest fears and longings as well as her fight to be seen, heard, and loved. The narrative structure takes the viewer on a dramatic journey of memories, conflicts, visions, perseverance, faith, friendship, and ultimately love — the love of a man and a woman, the love of a father and a daughter, and the bond between a mother and a child.
​

In March 2016, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Henry Newkirk unsealed the autopsy results of Bobbi Kristina Brown. According to the autopsy, marijuana, alcohol, “a cocaine-related substance,” sedative and anti-anxiety medications and morphine were found in her system. The manner of her death was classified as undetermined.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge T. Jackson Bedford ordered Bobbi Kristina’s romantic partner Nick Gordon to pay $36,250,000 in damages in a civil suit. Gordon repeatedly failed to meet court deadlines in the civil suit and the conservator of her estate won by default.
 
Olly Richards | Jul 4, 2018 | NME
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If you saw Nick Broomfield’s Whitney Houston documentary, Whitney: Can I Be Me, last year, then you may think you don’t need another raking over the singer’s sad life. If so, please reconsider. Kevin Macdonald’s effort is easily the superior film – a deep dive into Houston’s life, with revelations about both the horrors she suffered and the woman she was behind the picture-perfect pop-star.

Any look at Houston’s life is going to be profoundly sad, because it’s a story that, from a distance, makes no sense. A woman who it seemed had everything – a once-in-a-generation voice; global fame; timeless hits – kept crawling back to drugs that would rob her of first her voice, then her life. In interviews with many of the most important people in her life, Whitney finds that the answer to Houston’s downfall is much more complicated than it might appear, certainly not just down to her difficult marriage to Bobby Brown.

Macdonald makes strong use of a mix of archive footage and interviews with Houston’s friends, family and colleagues. Some of the clips reveal a woman more ego-driven than we typically saw. In one clip, taken from a time when Houston’s chart success was waning, she bitches about the popularity of Janet Jackson and Paula Abdul, who Whitney claims is “out of key on her record”. Interviews with her friends and family are, understandably, much more forgiving, but the combination of the two gives us a rounded view.

There is still one great hole in Whitney, and it’s the same one as Can I Be Me – Robyn. Robyn Crawford was part of Houston’s life for decades and it’s been widely said that the pair were in a relationship. As probably the person who knew her best, Crawford’s side of the story, and insight into Houston’s loves and fears, is the most important one to really explaining her. She didn’t contribute to either film and both feel the lack, using others to speculate on their relationship in a way that’s more gossipy than revealing.

That omission aside, Whitney is a powerful reminder of just what an incredible pop star Houston was, and a sensitive and shocking examination of a life that was far from perfect. A descent that seemed inexplicable starts to make sense as we hear of her fractured childhood and the abuse she suffered, and how the love and safety she sought never quite found her. Expect to cry, and not just at the power of Houston’s voice.
[video=youtube;hmoDWLnT4gU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmoDWLnT4gU[/video]
 
I'm not convinced Whitney is easily the better film. Indeed, Can I Be Me does communicate some elements more effectively.

However both do offer a rather interesting insight.

I attended a screening of Whitney last week followed by a Q&A with the director.
 
by Daniel Kreps • May 20, 2019 • Rolling Stone
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After years of safeguarding the legacy of Whitney Houston, the late singer’s estate – led by her sister-in-law Pat Houston – announced big plans for the singer on Monday, thanks to a publishing deal that could spawn an album of unreleased music, a Broadway musical and, for the second time, a hologram dedicated to the legendary singer.

Soon after news of the Houston estate’s plans, Rolling Stone spoke to BASE Hologram CEO Brian Becker, whose company will create the Houston hologram, about the upcoming stage show, tentatively titled An Evening With Whitney: The Whitney Houston Hologram Tour.

In addition to the hologram, the concert experience will feature “a complete band onstage, backup singers, dancers, etcetera,” Becker says. “We will substantially increase our use of the creative elements that are available to us with this technology because it is cinematic, which means we can do animation and special effects to really enhance the show.”

The burgeoning hologram industry doesn’t have the most dependable track record with bringing late icons to the stage. For every Ronnie James Dio and Frank Zappa – two deceased artists whose digital visages now entertain audiences on hologram tours – there are dozens of holograms that don’t make the leap to actual illusions: Promised world tours from the holograms of Liberace, Selena and Patsy Cline never materialized, the ballyhooed comedy club featuring the holograms of late stand-up comedians never opened and planned holograms for artists ranging from the Notorious B.I.G. and Tammy Wynette never appeared.

However, BASE has been the architect of two of the more successful hologram concerts: The pioneering Roy Orbison show – soon to be joined onstage by a Buddy Holly hologram – and a concert dedicated to late opera star Maria Callas. “The Maria Callas hologram doesn’t get as much coverage in the pop world, but the Maria Callas hologram is really extraordinary,” Becker says. “We’ve received acclaim from classical audiences and classical critics for not only the visual presentation but also the music and how we treated it, so that’s something we’ve been able to point to as what is needed when doing something with the vocal range and impact that Whitney Houston had.” (BASE Hologram is also working on a show dedicated to another troubled diva, Amy Winehouse, which was postponed in February due to unspecified “unique challenges and sensitivities.”)

For the Houston production, scheduled to premiere in early 2020, BASE enlisted renowned director and choreographer Fatima Robinson, who has worked on everything from the Grammy Awards to Aaliyah videos to Michael Jackson’s “Remember the Time.” “Whitney was a groundbreaking icon with a transcendent style that evoked emotions in a way very few artists can. To be involved with something like this which will honor her memory in such a unique way is a dream,” Robinson said in a statement. “The show is going to be a tribute to her grace, her charisma and her passion for music.”

Becker added that Robinson, as the director of the show, would have final decision on whether the concert will feature one Houston hologram or if the hologram will reproduce numerous eras from the singer’s career.

In 2015, the Houston estate endeavored to bring the singer to digital life with Hologram USA. The following year, leaked rehearsal footage of the Houston hologram’s debut “performance” – a duet with Christina Aguilera on The Voice – was met with so much online backlash that the Houston estate nixed the performance. “We decided the hologram was not ready to air,” Pat Houston said at the time. The curtain ultimately never raised on Hologram USA’s Whitney.

However, BASE is collaborating closely with the Houston estate to avoid a similar situation. “I can tell you this: Everything we’ve done with the estate, they’re side by side with us. They have the approval rights of creative; they have given us those approval rights thus far for everything that we’ve done,” Becker says. “The estate, and Pat Houston in particular, is incredibly protective to the quality and legacy of the artist.”

“Whitney prided herself on her family and that included her fans. She adored her audiences and that’s why we know she would have loved this holographic theatrical concept,” Pat Houston said in a statement. “An event at this level is something special and BASE Hologram’s track record to be fully authentic and respectful made them the perfect partner. This upcoming tour will allow audiences to experience Whitney’s amazing voice and passion for music for a long time to come and help them share that magic with future generations.”
 
Whitney Houston, Roberta Flack, Nick Ashford, Valerie Simpson, Diahann Carroll

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Whitney Houston - her first interview with Entertainment Tonight

1m 18s

 
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Whitney Houston on the Merv Griffin Show, 1983. Whitney's first tv appearance. She's 19 here.

Home - 4m 54s

 
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