Whitney Houston: The Woman Who Made Music History

 

Hey everyone, today I want to talk about a great singer who made music history: Whitney Houston, who would be 60 today.

The best voice of the last century: a three-octave range that made her the woman of records. She was the first to top the US Billboard Hot 100, remaining in first position for forty-six weeks (only Taylor Swift will surpass her by a week in 2020). A talent capable of spanning several decades without difficulty: adhering to the dance trends of the Eighties with "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)," able to definitively consecrate herself with the ballads of the Nineties like "I Have Nothing," and perfectly current with R&B and hip-hop of the early 2000s with "One of Those Days." Houston made her music her creed and totally revolutionized the fate of pop-soul. Her story, however, was restless.

 

Whitney's turbulent life was the subject of a documentary directed by Oscar winner Kevin MacDonald and presented at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018. The film begins with the notes of "How Will I Know" - a 1986 single from her debut album - and Whitney dances energetically, while vintage images alternate in the background. Sound dance, fluorescent tones, and catchy music, which have become emblematic of the glittering eighties, alternate with images of tanks and explosions, of the then-president Ronald Reagan and of the AIDS campaigns, of the first hints of the nineties.

Houston grew up in a family of artistic women. Daughter of the soul singer Cissy Houston, a member of the vocalist group The Sweet Inspirations, who introduced her to music, and cousin of the Seventies pop star Dionne Warwick, Whitney experienced her incredible vocality as a child, performing in the local gospel choir in Newark. Her celebrity is at home, as are certain silenced rules of popularity, which require Whitney to remain silent in the face of sexual abuse perpetrated by her cousin Dee Dee Warwick - sister of the star Dionne. Abuse repressed and hidden for an entire life, considered by Whitney's loved ones to be the trigger for the tragic evolution of her biography. The only lighthouse in the stormy waters of show business was her authentic relationship, perhaps her only one, with her friend, assistant (and probably also her life partner) Robin Crawford.

 

In 1992, at the age of 29, Houston married fellow singer Bobby Brown, and her complications finally took over. Anorexia, bulimia, drugs, medications, and lawsuits. A marriage made of betrayals, addictions, and a lot of violence, yet another stage in a self-destructive spiral that will bring the singer to the end. The predictable end of the marriage in 2006 completely unmoored Whitney. She puts drugs before music, loneliness before family, losing control of herself: "I like it, and I want to do it until I feel the need to stop," she declared to her assistant regarding her addiction to crack and cocaine.

 

Also in 1992, Whitney consolidated her talent on the big screen, attempting to further escape from that suffocating reality that surrounded her. In the film "Bodyguard," in which she stars with Kevin Costner, she plays the - almost autobiographical - role of Rachel Marron, a pop star whose safety is protected by a personal bodyguard. She thus ends up occupying an important position in cinema too, overturning the Hollywood dynamics according to which only a "white" diva could play the protagonist in such a project.

 

It was from the soundtrack of that film that "I Will Always Love You" was born, a cover of Dolly Parton's song of the same name, made much more famous by Houston than the original. Her version becomes the best-selling single ever by a female singer (over 22 million copies), the love song par excellence, representative and driving the entire subsequent wave of romantic R&B ballads.

 

In 1994, Whitney - increasingly dull and weakened by addictions and the toxic relationship with her husband - was the first great artist to sing in post-apartheid Africa. Nelson Mandela embraces her, and her extraordinary high notes move an audience that recognizes her, feels her close to them. “I know what my skin looks like. I grew up in a black community with black people.” Houston has always tried to preserve her African-American identity, despite often being condemned by her community.

 

Then the epilogue. A cruel and somewhat circular fate, that unfortunate February 11, 2012. She died from drowning due to intoxication from a mix of antidepressants, diphenhydramine, alprazolam, and cannabis, in a tub of the Beverly Hills Hotel, the sumptuous hotel of the stars - emblem of that same environment by which Whitney was overwhelmed, and on which she was never able to impose herself. The same fate will befall her daughter, Bobbi Brown, who died of similar fate at just 22 years old, in 2015, after six months in a coma due to a cocktail of cocaine and medicines. The culmination of a failure. Of the artist, of the woman. Of the mother.

Today's Blogger

Hello, I’m Isabel Baiocchi. I am 15 and I’m in the third year at high school. I’m glad to take part in this project because it’s interesting and truly amazing! This blog is giving me the opportunity to improve my writing skills in English while dealing with topics I love.