Whitney Houston was deemed ineligible for a Best New Artist Grammy for 1985 because she’d sung backup on a Jermaine Jackson single before releasing her album. Not only is this ridiculous given how many “best new artists” were in other successful bands before their win, she was definitely more deserving of a nomination than Katrina and the Waves, and not just because I loathe “Walking on Sunshine.” (If I’ve heard any of Freddie Jackson’s songs, I don’t remember them; Julian Lennon is clearly there as a legacy, and I’ll genuinely give them A-ha.) Now, you can argue if she’s better or worse than Sade, but there should have been room for at least a nomination, regardless of which woman won.
Houston is something of a tragic figure in the history of pop music. My usual sources don’t talk much about her drug use, but of course they can’t avoid it altogether, because it’s so interwoven with her career. She was fired from an Oscar telecast. She did two stints in rehab. And she accidentally drowned, presumably because the drugs in her system knocked her unconscious in the bath. She had a total of three miscarriages, and it’s hard to say if the drugs caused them or were self-medication or a heartbreaking combination of both, at least from the remove I have from the situation.
What we can say is that she was a decent actress and a phenomenal singer. Whether you liked the actual songs or not, it was undeniable that her voice was well worth it. Arguably, had she lived, this would have made her a better choice for The Witch in Into the Woods than Meryl Streep—even I know that Streep’s a better actress, but I have no doubt that Houston could have handled the songs. She had range, and she had flexibility, and she definitely could’ve gotten her part in the Prologue up to speed. At her best, Houston had the kind of voice that no one could have said wasn’t good enough for pretty much any singing part.
Because of my own radio-listening habits, I almost exclusively remember her at her best. I’ll still turn up the radio for “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.” “I’m Your Baby Tonight” is another one that has a place in my heart. She was one of the early black artists to break the color barrier at MTV, because her success was so huge they couldn’t say no to her. Especially once The Bodyguard and her version of “I Will Always Love You” broke out. It was unavoidable, and Houston helped force the issue at MTV, regardless of why they were claiming they didn’t play black artists. They had to play Whitney Houston.
She also, and this is always nice to discover, seems to have been a genuinely supportive person, leaving out her fraught marriage. She refused to have anything to do with not just Apartheid South Africa but with any company having anything to do with Apartheid South Africa. When Apartheid ended, she was the first major artist to play in South Africa, in a series of concerts in tribute of Nelson Mandela. She was asked to do the entire Waiting to Exhale soundtrack and insisted it instead should focus on a variety of powerful voices. She had a children’s charity. She was one of the first performers to be an AIDS activist. Whatever sparked her drug use, it robbed us of a powerful force for good in addition to a powerful singer.