Concert date: 9/18/99 Wembley, UK

Review of the show:
This, I should make clear, was my first ever concert and I mean first, not just Whitney,

anyone. This whole experience was new to me. So remember that when reading this

review.

I was staying at the Hilton National hotel, which is literally next door to the Wembley

Arena, so i could sense the atmosphere building the whole afternoon. When I finally

left the hotel and went round to the arena, what was presented to me was 10,000 fans

dying to get in and groove to Whitney!! They weren’t dissappointed!

At 8.05, Amanda Marshall, the opening act came out and did her stuff for about 30-40

minutes. It’s worth commenting here that she has great potential. She has such an

amazingly powerful voice, but for me it was wasted on the songs she does, they all

sound the same and the crowd certainly didn’t seem to be there for the kind of head

banging stuff she was throwing out. My own opinion is that Whitney’s promoters

could take more consideration to details such as this, it all adds to the build up!!

Anyway, at 9.05, all the lights went out. The crowd went unbelievably wild, like I have

never experienced before in my life. Then the backing lights for the stage came on and

started flashing over us and the crowd started stamping their feet with excitement,

UNBELIEVABLE!! Whitney’s bound to have experienced this and more before, but

this must surely have got her adrenalin pumping!! Then the music flipped into that

sassy beat which starts us into:

(NB . If you want a quick review, I’ve rated each song out of 5 stars!)

GET IT BACK ***

The dancers were grooving about for about a minute I think then, she appeared,

running up those, by now, famous steps and the crowd lost it. She started singing and

it was good.... one thing I should point out is that I have read many reviews that say

she couldn’t get the crowd livened up for the first 3/4 songs, now I understand. If the

rest of the crowd were like me, they were sitting there stunned. My mouth went dry, I

was nervous, I can’t explain it very well, but it was truly amazing, anayway, hence I

could hardly move an inch!! The song itself was really good, nothing more, nothing

less. Whitney’s vocals are somewhat lost amongst the music going on with this one!

HEARTBREAK HOTEL **

This, for me, is I guess, the lowpoint of the night, although low isn’t a good word, just

not as high as the others. Amongst all the harsh sounding instrumentals in the back,

this song lost all it’s soulful edges for me. Whitney again became a background for the

instruments. She did get a good bit without so much music towards the end though

and it was bits like that that hinted at how good her voice was.

IF I TOLD YOU THAT ***

Much the same as the first two, the pace in this one took Whitney’s vocals away from

the limelight, but this one maintained more of it’s identity for me than HH. Again

though, some good vocals were appearing!! She ended this song by asking the

audience ‘What would you saaaaayyy’ a number of times!!

A 5 minute interlude followed for drying time and a drink of water. Whitney decided

enough of the antics, let’s make this fun for everyone and started a great little cameo

where she was holding her make up mirror up and touching up her lipstick. The crowd

lapped this up!!

SAVING ALL MY LOVE FOR YOU ****

This was where the singing itself started to become really special. Although, as

everyone knows, this wasn’t the full rendition of the 1985 classic, what there was was

unbelievable. She sings so clearly, so brilliantly, the notes were all perfect!!

UNTIL YOU COME BACK *****

This is one of three songs to get the 5 stars on my review. INCREDIBLE. She sang it

so well, nothing was really done to the song, the words were as they were written and

she performed it classically and brilliantly, I loved this so much and it meant so much

more than on the CD!!

I LEARNED FROM THE BEST ****

For me, this was an important song, it’s my favourite, certainly of the album, possibly

ever!! When the music started I got nervous again, shouldn’t have worried, she did it!!

After the bad reviews I heard of her singing this on TV earlier in the year, I worried,

but she was great!! It was heartwrenching, ‘I LEARNED FROM YOOOOOUUU’,

that’s just the bit before the big finally. OK, for all you critics out there, it was not a

copy of the CD where she holds the one last note for 14 seconds or whatever, instead,

it became three or so endings, each held for around 5-9 seconds, then she ended by

saying ‘I Learned from the Best’!! Brilliant

STEP BY STEP ****

This was one of the best dance tracks performed, I recognised it for a start, it hadn’t

been mixed out of recognition, you’ll see what I mean in a minute, it was really, really

good!! Everyone was dancing by this point!!

------------------------CHANGE------------------CHANGE----------------------

Screens showing various rehearsals, music of I Have Nothing, Run To You, Queen of

The Night and stuff, done by the backing singers!! It was a great chance to reflect on

th show and her career.

------------------------CHANGE------------------CHANGE----------------------

MY LOVE IS YOUR LOVE ****

There’s not much to be said here, she did this song really well and called it our song!!

It was really good, do you know I forgot Krissy should have been singing bits on it, I

can’t even remember if it was recorded on or not? Also, I should say there was a

magical Calypso style mix at the end of the track, which had everyone shakin their

bootys, including Whitney!!

I WANNA DANCE WITH SOMEBODY **

For me, definitely another Heartbreak Hotel. Again, this was nothing to do with

Whitney’s singing, that was fine, but the song had been changed so much I didn’t

recognise or like it much. Luckily that dance section was saved by:

HOW WILL I KNOW ****

Out of these two tracks the first would be my favourite normally, but last night this

way outdone it. It was classic Whitney, what else can you say, she performed it really

really well!

I LOVE THE LORD ***

Firstly let me pay recognition to BeBe Winans who was there last night and was

passed the microphone to do a little ad lib of this song and it was magic and would get

four stars from me!!

Secondly, when Whitney did this song, I was so built up for it I was a little bit let

down. Again her singing was marvellous, she is grabbing notes from all over the

spectrum and ramming them down your ears with so much ease. But she got carried

away, she went on and on with the same line at one point for ages, that was driving me

nuts, I so wanted her to hit those deep down soul points of the song and she took ages

to get to them. But that’s all that was wrong, brilliant otherwise!!

I GO TO THE ROCK ***

Great, band intro in the middle where we took Whitney this time, clapping before she

wanted us to. We made her laugh tonnes and she got her own back telling us ‘these

people are from the home of Shakespeare and they don’t get English- nah I’m only

joking, you clap if you want’!!

YOU’LL NEVER STAND ALONE *****

Yes, you read correctly, sorry to make you all jealous and that, but she sang this one. I

won’t say she sang it for us, but rather for a girl in the audience from the Platinum

club, whose mum died recently. Whitney is not a heartless bitch, she didn’t need to pay

any attention to that girl when they met, but she did and she listened and she did this

request especially for her. And do you know what else, she sang it as well as anything

all night, it was again Heartwrenching.

I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU *****

The mandatory 5 stars, for a stunning performance with great notes and great ending.

When Whitney started the end with ‘I will always love..’, the whole audience went

‘Youuuu’ and we meant it, she bent over double in appreciation and then came back

with a great ending note.

ENCORE - IT’S NOT RIGHT, BUT IT’S OK ****

A great performance as well, about the best I have seen of it live, other than the Brits.

She was having so much fun by this point, we had all been laughing and joking the

whole evening and it could be seen here at the end, as she and her dancers were joking

and jumpin around!!

That was it, she had finished and I walked away from one of the best nights of my life!!

What more can you say!!

OVERALL RATING *****

I had to give this 5 stars, despite some of my grumbles, her voice was great, god if I

wanted original tracks I could listen to the CD’s , so I guess some remixes will do.

This was one of the most unforgettable nights of my life!!