Whitney Houston

You either get the voice or the moves, not both. Beyonce is choreographed to hell, but she can't dance. Jennifer Lopez, Paula Abdul, they could dance, but shit for vocals.

Lesbian. Works best with cane.

A lot of people can't. Just because you can sing your tits off doesn't mean you can dance. This is the problem I have with Broadway these days - everyone's expected to be a good dancer on top of a great singer (although, it kinda seems like they put acting off to the side sometimes). Was Ethel Merman a great dancer? Or Patti LuPone? They could belt it out with the best of them, but they weren't great dancers either. Sometimes, just being able to sing as beautifully as Whitney is enough.

Someone deserves to burn in Hell for that hair, OP.

Whitney Houston was just a dumb woman.

A flat out, dumb woman.

Her biggest flaw was her skinny legs. Same with Meghan Markle...

You can be dumb and have rhythm.

Too much white DNA.

That’s what made Josephine, Judy, Sammy, David Ruffin, Michael and Liza, Stephanie Mills and Prince to some extent so amazing. They could do it both at the same time.

Neither could Simon, maybe it’s the song?

why couldn't she choose a good wig?

Why couldn't she find somebody who loves her?

Why did someone think her name was Susan?

Why did she have to take a bath that day?

Why hasn't Mr. Bubbles been charged with homicide?

A tribute

Because she didn't feel comfortable in who she was. Anyone can dance, but you must be rested in your body. FEEL the rhythm.

If you watch some early videos of her live performances she would move a little bit and you could tell she can dance a little. I think she didn't feel comfortable dancing because she didn't want her body and her moves to be what people focused on, I think it made her feel too exposed. She just wanted to sing.

Now we have the opposite. Female singers dropping it like hoes but with no real singing ability. I rather listen to a great voice.

Lol!

oh stop! The girl couldn't move even a little bit

Mariah Carey can’t dance, either. If I had a choice, I’d rather be able to sing.

The girl had real scrawny legs. Not thin and muscular, but just brown painted bone. Feh!

Bone? Come on...

Didn’t she almost have it all?

I don’t know about that, but she believed that children are our future- she was wrong about that though, RIP Bobbi Kristina.

She was a big ballad singer. Being 'dancy' wasn't really her thing.

Simply one of the loveliest creatures I’ve ever laid eyes on...she didn’t have to dance because she could sing! Some of y’all are too dense to understand that.

She was gorgeous with an amazing voice, and not a half-bad actress, either. Dance ability would have been one talent too far.

I mean, Judy could dance and act and sing, but a looker with a great body she was not. Nobody gets everything.

I never noticed because I was distracted by the voice of a generation

Whitney was gorgeous and had one of the last century’s greatest voices.

Give god a break

I used to love the MadTV skits about Whitney but now I view them through the lens of her addiction and the closet. Just sad.

She could cut up and do a little dance if she wanted to.

Her lack of dancing skill reminds me of the "Blacks Without Soul" segment from Amazon Women on the Moon

I'd rather sing like Whitney Houston than dance like Janet Jackson

Can lesbians dance?

We smoked the baby!

Whitney was a puppet for Clive Davis, molded completely in his image. She was told what songs to sing, how to dress, how to wear her hair. If you’ve ever watched a Whitney interview, especially in her earlier years, she’s unusually cold and combative. Something I also noticed about Whitney recently while watching the “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” video while slightly stoned is how desexualized her image was crafted. That song in particular is about the desire, the longing to be with someone in a romantic way. And yet the Whitney in the video is anything but sexy (purple eyeshadow aside). Looking back knowing what we know now, the idea that she could be gay makes total sense. Uncomfortable with herself, the image created with her that she was forced to confine to. When Whitney was booed at the Soul Train awards for being “too white”, she took it very personal. Suddenly, she’s dating Bobby Brown and begging Clive to let her be more “urban”, the result of which is the subpar “I’m Your Baby Tonight” album which featured album art of Whitney in the back of a motorcycle with a license plate that says “Nippy”. She really couldn’t win. It’s no surprise if you look back at Whitney at the peak of her career the dark clouds on the horizon way before she became a crackhead.

Because it takes years of practice it wasn’t a skill she was interested in developing

She just became so ghetto towards the end. As if she had something to prove. Hey folks I am black. See I speak ghetto with the best of them.

[quote]She just became so ghetto towards the end. As if she had something to prove. Hey folks I am black. See I speak ghetto with the best of them.

That almost seemed like an affectation. Because -- at least in interviews -- in her earlier years she never spoke like that. Unless that persona was fake.

[quote]I'd rather sing like Whitney Houston than dance like Janet Jackson

In retrospect, I don't think Janet was actually that amazing a dancer: She relied a lot on that choppy style, an army of backup dancers and the same few militaryesque moves. Paula Abdul was better.

She was good, but not otherworldly. Not as good a dancer as Whitney was a singer.

I know I have incurred the wrath of Janbot.

I love listening to Whitney's voice in her prime even as she sang some awful material. It was so rich and sumptuous. I don't think any other pop singer could take I Will Always Love You and sing it in that slow arrangement and be so totally captivating.

I'm not totally sold on her lesbianism, though it might be true and would explain a lot. She does look like a Subaru driver in the white outfit in this video.

^^^Oh my gosh, Whitney is wearing the earring that all the stupid trendy boys are wearing now. R42 I agree. Her voice on her first two albums but most of her songs do suck. Why? I hear other songs from the time period and I'm like, why didn't Whitney sing this? Most of her albums are fillers. On Bodyguard she sounds good but her voice was already starting to deepen there. Not much good material in her catalogue at all. Such a waste. Her voice in the beginning was soooo BEAUTIFUL.

MY LOVE IS YOUR LOVE is a great album (that only one of hers that could be described that way). Beyond that she had some good songs and some dreck filler.

[quote]And yet the Whitney in the video is anything but sexy (purple eyeshadow aside).

All the colors were so childlike. That seems like active desexualization to me. I think circa MLIYL is the only time she ever came close to seeming sexy. That album was her career's best.

I liked her later stuff MUCH better. Her bad wig era was much more interesting. Million Dollar Bill is by far my favorite song she sings. Even with the early onset of old lady voice.

[quote]I know I have incurred the wrath of Janbot.

Yes, and your punishment for being so incredibly stupid and tasteless will be coming swiftly and succinctly.

Whitney may not have been a great dancer, but she was Janet Jackson compared to the incredibly rhythmless Mariah Carey, who can’t even strut across a stage correctly.

Janet has danced 40 million dance moves...

*cue copy and paste of her dancing achievements*

....

For the same reason that her signature sound was a shrill caterwaul.

[quote]Doncha wanna dance with someone who loves me?

That's such a stupid lyric.

No, I want to dance with someone who love ME.

I saw her live in concert and it was amusing how stiff she was on stage. She danced like a white person.

You don't have to be a great Paula Abdul type dancer if you have some rhythm and can command the stage like Cher and Diana Ross. For someone like Whitney or Streisand voice alone will always be front and center. If you're Helen Reddy however...

She was molded for a white audience and it stuck, somewhat. Specifically, a white preteen girl audience in the 80s. The LAST thing on that agenda is "good dancing". It was mostly about how big you could get your hair and how many colors of eyeshadow you could fit onto your lidspace.

The I Wanna Dance W Somebody video to me, as a little white girl, was like opening up a beautiful Barbie doll on Christmas. She was made to look like Barbie on purpose in that video. And w her figure and height it was probably easy for them to make that decision.

Other black folk had mainstream appeal without seeming so stiff -- like Diana Ross.

Diana Ross is still criticized in the black community for acting white/aloof/etc. What the black community gets wrong about this is that these are women who've been immersed in "White" culture for their entire careers, their bosses and colleagues that are overwhelmingly white, touring white European countries, and not having a strong connection to their impoverished roots(naturally). Put acting posh for your public persona on top of that, not wanting to scare away your "audience", and you become an almost 100% "fake" character.

I get the feeling that Diana Ross was born naturally snobby and reserved and benign, which she is.

Tina Turner is interesting. Much less 'white' stage persona, but offstage she's said things like Africans are lazy and ugly and is now married to a white man and lives in Switzerland.

Dionne Warwick, despite her Burt Bacharach sound, has sometimes seemed to fulfill the worst black stereotypes.

I think Tina was just won over by Europe. She hated America and her memories there, she wanted to break up permanently. Who knows why she made those idiotic remarks about Africa. Maybe she thought it fit, to her new Euro audience? She is a good example of "not going Black" though.

I think when there's abuse and tragedy involved we really can't judge how a public figure chooses to present themselves. Whitney included. With her church-heirarchy background I wouldn't be surprised if there was some abuse in her childhood as well, a la Aretha Franklin.

Fans forget that stardom is a job until the day you die.

[quote] Whitney Houston was just a dumb woman. A flat out, dumb woman.

But she was LOUD, Whitney was very, very LOUD. Which made her a great singer in the minds of dullards, anyway.

[quote]Why couldn't she dance?

She just couldn't. She didn't have it in her.

I don't think any pop singer had a more beautiful voice than hers.

And I don't think anyone threw away their talent to the same extent either.

R4. That was a popular 80s look. Chill, child.

[quote]Most of her albums are fillers.

I disagree. This is my fave song from her second album. If this is what is called filler, then I’m happily a fan.

Whitney had a great voice, but man, "I Wanna Dance with Somebody" seems to be one of her most played songs since she passed away, and it's just an ok song. Clive Davis really was good at promoting her, but had rather crummy taste in songs for her to sing. Her cousin Dionne Warwick's songs, mostly by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, are so much better as songs. I'd rather they played "The Greatest Love of All" or Whitney's version of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You" over "I Wanna Dance", because the latter really isn't that good of a song.

WTF do you mean that I can’t dance?

Lesbians and Gays Unite!

Whitney’s sexiest song was another underrated album track from 1998’s My Love is Your Love. By then she’d become too big for Clive to control so I don’t think that album was his vision.

I love the way her voice dips at 1:05 when she says “masculine”

Lots of closeups - that will do the trick:

Whitney may not have been a dancer, but she had rhythm. You can hear in her old R&B up-tempos. It’s something only black people appear to have. No white person on earth can sing this song, without messing up the tempo (try it), but it came so naturally and effortlessly to Whitney.

Op, you can’t dance either.

WHY????

[quote]Whitney's version of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You"

LOL It’s Whitney’s song, child. No one thinks of it as a Dolly Parton song. Even Dolly says so and she’s okay with it. It happened quite a lot.

Frank Sinatra stole ‘New York, New York’ from Liza Minnelli; Aretha Franklin stole ‘Respect’ from Otis Redding and even Sinhead O’Connor stole ‘Nothing Compares to You’ from Prince.

Dolly wrote it and gets the residuals.

or royalties.

[quote]But she was LOUD, Whitney was very, very LOUD. Which made her a great singer in the minds of dullards, anyway.

Whitney was not loud. Celine Dion is loud, Whitney was not. She was a greater singer with an extraordinarily beautiful voice. I like that people are linking her lesser known songs so you know her big hits weren’t necessarily her best stuff.

This is no frills Whitney at her purest.

Whitney couldn't dance for shit but she had lots of stage presence and charisma when she was relaxed and enjoying herself. She got to let loose a little in the "So Emotional" video, wearing first jeans and a leather jacket in the "rehearsal" part of the video, and a fab power bitch suit in the "live performance" part. Out of a glamorous gown and with some room to move around the stage she looked like she was actually having fun and comfortable in her clothes.

Too bad she couldn't enjoy an image that was clearly more aligned with who she was as a person--a slightly butch glam.

She was Crack Dancing.

[quote]Dolly wrote it and gets the residuals.

That is true. And Dolly even says on stage that “Whitney sure made me a lot of money”. But that’s not what we’re talking about.

If I Told You That is one of her best uptempo songs. She should've done more stuff like that. And like her MLIYL album, or even Aretha's A Rose Is Still A Rose or Natalie Cole's Snowfall on the Sahara albums.

I will never forget her and Bobby dancing about the stage on "Divas Live Las Vegas."

They were both high AF. Just jittery and bouncing all over the place.

R67 I love her in that video. You can tell she's having fun. I like that song too, however it's ironic she is singing it. Same with "Greatest Love". People saying "I Wanna Dance" is not good is straight up TRIPPIN. That fuckin song kills. I just heard it in the grocery store today and it took all my strength to not start dancing and singing slong. Every wedding I've been to gets the same reaction from EVERYONE. It's a pop CLASSIC. I also saw Tina Turner say in an interview that she thought black people listened to too many sad songs. That, that's what R&B was and she didn't like that. That's why she sang rock n roll.

You're full of shit, R73.

Is ‘Respect’ an Aretha Franklin song or an Otis Redding song? Is ‘My Way’ Frank Sinatra’s or Paul Anka’s? ‘Blue Suede Shoes’ Elvis Presley’s or Carl Perkins’? ‘That’s What Friends Are For’ Dionne Warwick’s or Rod Stewart’s? It’s not even a debate. The originators/songwriters lost out to bigger, better talent.

She couldn't dance but she did have the ratio of beauty and talent than any other female pop star.

The episode about Nels being ashamed of his fat sister was great.

BUT, let me tell you what I saw on Oprah one time.

The episode featured housekeepers of the rich and famous and Oprah asked each one to name their biggest disappointment.

One of the women named Michael Landon and Oprah was just shocked. The woman said Landon constantly made insulting fat jokes about her.

Whitney was a dumb woman. Mariah is slightly smarter than her but still a dumb one. Janet is the dumbest one without a doubt.

Celine and Jennifer are very smart business women on the other hand.

Whitney seemed like she had some kind of deeper problems (family, I suspect) than the others.

Happy people don't become drug addicts.

Her family was disgusting. Clearly shown in that horrible documentary "Whitney" they produced. Her gross brothers. The half brother. Her ugly ass mother. Her piece of shit father. She should have run into Kevin Costner's arms for real and cut them ALL off. She didn't have the courage and confidence, or the sexual attraction from what we hear. I heard she was bisexual when I was in middle school after she married Bobby. A girl groupie I knew went to Bobby's concert backstage and he told her Whitney was bisexual. I didn't believe it but always remembered that. And now....

Just watched the doc on Netflix. Every family member was a vulture, and Bobby was (still is) a piece of shit. They're ALL the reason she died the way she did.

she couldn't sing or dance. And crappy boring songs. Add to that her pissy personality and you got a big 'ol mess. the Nick Broomfield doc shows her bad she was in concert. Couldn't hit the money notes and very detached from the material. Even her debut on Merv Griffin when she was a teen sucks.

Chaka Khan was a much better singer and has a superior back catalog.

When you have that level of vocal talent mixed with supermodel looks - you don't have to dance. Her legs were gorgeous by most standandards of female beauty in the 80's and 90's (I have no idea what some of the above posters are thinking here). Straight men like skinny, taller, beautiful women and Whitney fit the bill perfectly. Her voice will likely go down in history as at least top 3 greatest of all time (to some, THE greatest). As for her drug addiction - there is little to say that hasn't already been said before. Was she lesbian? Well, it stands to reason for sure. All in all, it was a sad ending to a truly gifted woman's career in so many ways.

Her heels kept getting caught in the crack.

[quote]way before she became a crackhead.

I keep telling this story on DL but it bears repeating. In the late 80s I worked with some black ladies from Newark who went to the church where Cissy and then Whitney sang. These ladies sang too but they were looked down on by the Houstons because the Houstons looked upon themselves as royalty. But then the ladies I knew would hear from friends in East Orange that Whitney was often observed doing drugs outside her house.

The ladies would tell this story whenever Whitney’s name came up because it angered them that Cissy acted too good for the other “colored ladies” get there was her daughter doing drugs right out in public.

She may’ve had a great voice, but her material was awful. “The Greatest Love” is pure kitsch by even Top 40 standards. Her catalog is, sadly, a bunch of trite, bland pop songs. Even Beyoncè’s music is complex and innovative in comparison. Only Mariah rivals Whitney in having vocal talent so inversely proportional to quality of material.

R96 - very true in many ways. She sang a lot of bubblegum/"feel good" music, but her vocals were largely wasted on the material. Again, styles change and perhaps by default (due to her immense talent, looks and star power) - she set many styles/trends during her reign during the late 80's and all through the 90's. The power ballads were fine (some stand the test of time better than others), but she could have done so much more with different talent management. Davis molded and created her into an almost asexual, easy-to-digest, antiseptic songbird.

R95 - from every report that I have heard you are 100% correct. Whitney was a heavy drug user starting in middle school (and TONS of people observed observed her using on a VERY regular basis during her teen years). Most medical experts say that her heavy 2-pack-a-day (cigarette) smoking habit killed her phenomenal voice long before the crack or weed addiction ever could however.

She obviously didn't have the same vocal talent as Whitney but I much more enjoy Olivia's catalog.

Knobby kneed crack ho

r96 "Her catalog is, sadly, a bunch of trite, bland pop songs". This is wrong. Whitney has some great R&B tracks from the late 90s and 2000s. "Heartbreak Hotel", "Fine", "My Love Is Your Love", "One Of Those Days", "Million Dollar Bill", "It's Not Right But It's Okay", "Same Script, Different Cast" etc.

[quote]I know I have incurred the wrath of Janbot

You sure have, you stupid, know-nothing twat...