Discussion
  • Read More
    Where are my keys?Yesha
    2/11/17 1:13pm
    Illustration for article titled

    Been trying for decades to perfect this effortless sexycool.

    Reply
  • Read More
    Tomi MarchantYesha
    2/11/17 12:45pm

    Those high notes during the choruses of “Run To You” still melt me every. single. time.

    Reply
  • Read More
    redzedYesha
    2/12/17 1:01pm

    DAMMIT!

    I just got the chills. What a great story.

    Her voice still makes me stop whatever it is that I’m doing for a moment. Even at the gym.

    Didn’t we almost have it all...

    Reply
  • Read More
    "Hachi"Yesha
    2/11/17 2:56pm

    :-)

    This was really uplifting today.

    Reply
  • Read More
    TheInfantTyroneYesha
    2/11/17 2:49pm

    First concert I ever went to was Dion Warwick. My mom took my sister and I with her. It was a free concert and we were dirt poor, which is why my mom took us. Anyway, part way through the concert Dion Warwick introduces a special guest she brought along with her, her niece. Now, this was back before Whitney was a household name, before most anybody knew who Whitney was (Whitney Houston — the album — came out later that year). She took that stage and lit it up. I was only a kid, but just old enough to register I was seeing something amazing and note the levels of difference separating her from Dion Warwick. And she commanded both the stage and the crowd. I didn’t know people could do that. It was my first concert and the first half of it was Dion Warwick. I pretty much fell in love with Whitney that day.

    It’s easy to pass judgement and criticized, but ultimately it’s just so sad how her life careened off the tracks. She was troubled, for sure. But don’t forget that she was so amazing. No knock on Dolly, I love her, but Whitney took one of Dolly’s songs and made it uniquely her own. Let’s all always love Whitney.

    Reply
  • Read More
    tsarinaz2016Yesha
    2/11/17 5:26pm

    I was watching the Peanuts Valentine’s Day special. I was 12 years old. My primary connection to Whitney Houston prior to that moment was that “The Greatest Love of All” was played at many a family reunion when I was a kid, and a few months before, just a couple weeks before my absolutely terrifying and heartbreaking move, that was the song my mother played to help me sleep as I laid in her bed suffering from murder-mystery-induced insomnia. I had fantasized about being a singer since I was a toddler, but it never became much more than a fantasy. Two days later at school, Whitney Houston’s version of “The Star-Spangled Banner” played on the loudspeaker. Usually the kids would sing along to “The Star-Spangled Banner” every morning, but on this day they didn’t- except for me. I thought I sounded a little like her. My teacher called me “The Voice” and the other kids laughed. Somehow, my extremely overreactive imagination made this into a parallel between myself and Whitney Houston, which I pathetically clung to for six months. I was horribly bullied all the time, so I guess that was my way of making their teasing into something benign, instead of the soul-crushing humiliation and rejection it actually was. That week was Valentine’s Week, which was absolute hell. The day Whitney died was the first anniversary of the first time I got dumped by my “friends”, but somehow this managed to be even worse. I made up this elaborate scheme to get my crush to like me, which culminated in me sending him a “secret” love note that everyone knew was from me. You can guess how that turned out- “ew! I’d never go out with HER!”- and I also managed to hurt myself and lose the gifts I’d bought for my family on the same day. I was home “sick” for two days reeling from the humiliation. But I clung to that non-parallel for dear life. For months afterwards, my mom and I used to sing Whitney songs as she did my hair. She died a few months before Bobbi Kristina did. I remember sitting at my computer crying thinking that I wasn’t going to survive without my mother either, that in a few years I would die.

    Dammit. Now I’m crying again.

    Reply
  • Read More
    Clown Shoe PilotYesha
    2/12/17 1:23am

    Did you see the SNL episode they pulled from the vault for rebroadcast today? It was from 1991, Whitney Houston was the musical guest and she killed it.

    Reply