PontusFromSweden, on 02 March 2012 - 07:47 PM, said:
I would add that Whitney, today, was still the best singer out there. The tone of her voice was amazing, and what she did with her lyrics was just breathtaking. You listen to I Look to You or MDB, or A Song For You on her I Look To You album, and show me which singer today could move anyone like Whitney did with those songs. She was, to the very end the most amazing singer, ever (sorry 'Ree, but that's the fact). There was a quality to her voice that just tore at your heart, at your gut, and nobody else out there can do it, and the American Idol wannabes who copy and mimic her are just laughable.
The problem with Clive is that he actually thinks HE created Whitney Houston. He forgets that she was amazing before he met her and he forgets how many other labels wanted to sign her. He forgets her DNA; he forgets that her mother was a choir director who taught her to SANG in the church; he forgets that she learned her craft singing background vocals for years before he ever heard her; he forgets that she spent her childhood and youth watching and learning from masters (Dionne, Aretha, Cissy) from the wings of stages around the world. Clive had nothing to do with creating Whitney Houston, the singer. He introduced Whitney Houston to the world, but he did not make her the singer she was. Moreover, he did not make her the superstar she became either, that was all her with her decision to do the Bodyguard.
I have a lot of respect for Clive as a music executive. He knows marketing. And he may be able to do some flim-flam, Madonna-type tricks, and sell a lot of records with JHud, or some other AI talent show singer, but if he thinks he can create another Whitney Houston, he surely has lost his mind. Someone needs to remind Clive to sell the Kool-Aid, but don't drink it.