Whitney Houston

Whitney Houston, died on Feb, 11 at the age of mere 48.

Personally, I’ve never been really a fan of her. There is no doubt that she had a great voice and was a terrific singer, a true R&B star. However, back then when she first came out, her songs just didn’t catch me like others. Maybe, it was because I didn’t like R&B that much at that time, though I did like MJ, perhaps it had something to do with his song’s dance rthyhm plus his dance moves in MV, etc. On the contrary, Whitney was selling her voice which wasn’t good enough for me back then as a teen with relatively superficial taste in music. A few year later, I began to learn to appreciate R&B songs, but I was won over by Mariah Carey since her debut. So, I didn’t have an urge to revisit Whitney’s song to enjoy R&B.

‘I’ll always love you’ was a huge hit in 1992. To be honest, I hated that song very much at that time. Looking back, it couldn’t help for having that feeling to that song which was by no mean bad, it was really a great one indeed. I hated it because it was played so much on radio and everywhere I went that I couldn’t stand listening to that anymore. Particularly the showcase of her voice range at the end of the song, that was supposed to be admired but it became nuisance to me instead. On top of that, I didn’t like the movie Bodyguard neither. However, in 1998, she did sing a song that I consider to be the R&B diva duet of the century ‘When you believe’ with Mariah Carey that I love very much. Overall, in spite of all her success in artistic awards and commercial achievements throughout her career, I’m sorry to say that I’ve never really been drawn to her music all those years.

Don’t get me wrong that this blog post is aim to diss her or her achievement or whatsoever. I do feel sad for such a talent that died this young. What happened to her in her personal life is none of our business. Some people said that her marriage to Bobby Brown led to her downfall in her career as well as her life in general. I think that we have no position to judge what’s right or wrong about her choice. Cuz, who knows the truth? And does it really matter anymore?

Recently, I had the chance to sit back and listen to her works. Surprisingly, I began to be able to appreciate her songs unlike when I was young. I guess it is because I’m old enough to feel the emotion of her voice unlike before. I don’t feel bad to finally being drawn to her music. Cuz, her music, like many of other great singers can certainly pass the test of time.

At the end, I just wanna say “Thanks Whitney for the good works that you left behind and may you R.I.P.!”