Concert date: 9/24/99 Koln, Germany

Review of the show:
September 24th 1999 - THE day, I was going to see Whitney Houston live in the Köln arena!

I woke up with mixed feelings, on the one hand I was dying to see her but on the other I was afraid that the concert might not be as good as I had imagined.

When I arrived in Cologne I met some other Whitney fans and we went together to the Köln arena. There I heard that the fans I've met were members of the Platinium Club and so they had the privilege to go in before all the 'normal' fans. Well, I was kind of sad because I had the usual ticket and I wanted to go in before the official entrance as well. One girl of the group told me she had one ticket left and I could buy it from her so I tried to sell my ticket and then bought her second ticket. I was a bit afraid because she only had a letter of the fan club saying she can pick up the tickets at 6:15 PM, but it was only 5:00 PM so I stood there without a ticket, just with the promise to get one in about one hour.

I was so nervous and prayed that everything will be alright but - of course - it wasn't. At 6:00 PM they opened the doors for the public but we hadn't got our tickets so everyone went in except the fan club. We were so angry and afraid and I regreted having sold my ticket so much! Well, we all tried to convince the security to let us in but he refused. To top it all, they had never heard that Whitney has got an official fan club!

Then at 6:20 PM the man with our tickets came out and asured that the crowd wasn't able to go into the arena at that time they were just allowed to buy t-shirts or posters in the foyer. We were so glad to hear it.

The man with the tickets guided us past the crowd to the entrance to the arena. As the door opened and we went in the crowd started screaming and booing at us and made us feel very important! We ran into the arena and saved us good places.

I stood right in front of the micro inthe middle of the stage and couldn't believe that it happened to me. Just two hours before I thought I have to fight for a relative good place but suddenly I stood in the first row less than three meters away from the one and only Whitney Houston! It was such an amazing feeling that made me forget all the trouble before and it also helped me to survive the following 3 hours of waiting.

At about 8:15 PM, Amanda Marshall entered the stage and sang some songs of her new CD. Her performance was quite good but nevertheless I was so happy as she left and made way for Whitney.

As you probably know, Mrs. Houston is never on time, and that day she left us waiting until 9:30 PM. As she was anounced for 9:00 PM the crowd became noisy and some started to boo.

We didn't want them to boo so the first row tried to start a Mexican wave but it reached only to the fifth row. The security started to laugh at us because the first rows were so excited and the rest died of boredom.

However, as the lights went out and we could see the silouettes of Whitney dancers everyone was happy that it began. I forgot my hurting feet and my terrible thirst and just listened to the music.

What was Whitney wearing?
Whitney came down the stairs with a blue jeans an black top and a long red coat, she had her hair as in the INRBIO video.

When she started singing we all started applauding and screaming, it was an amazing moment. After the first song, she said hello to us and told us that she was sorry to be late. Someone screamed "It's not right but it's okay" and made her laugh. I don't remember exactly which songs she sang and I don't remember the order either but I know she sang "Heartbreak Hotel", "If I Told You That", "I Learned From The Best", "Get It Back" and a medley of "Why Does It Hurt So Bad" and some other songs I don't remember. She also sang "Step By Step".

During this song she stood right in front of me and sometimes looked at me when I sang with her. And then it happened, she sang "step by step" and I wanted to sing "day by day", but I didn't think of the pause between it so when everything was rather quiet I screamed "day by...". It was so embarassing because Whitney had noticed it, looked at me and a little smile came on her face.

During "My Love Is Your Love", she sang "...and the lord asked me what I did with my life ... I would say I spent it with you!" and pointed to Bobby Brown who stood at the right side of the stage during the whole concert. For this song he was wearing a long hair wig, it looked so funny. I think it was at the end of that song where Whitney went to Bobby and kissed him, they looked too cute!

One of the songs was "I Love The Lord". Whitney introduced it with "You know I did some movies too, Bodyguard, Waiting To Exhale, The Preacher's Wife..." then someone interrupted her with "We love the lord as well!" and she said "Oh, glad to hear that!" She really talked to us and she didn't say it as loud as the other things so she really spoke to us.

There are some more examples:
Someone said, "I love you!" She smiled and said, "I love you back!" Then there was someone who tried to throw a rose on the stage, she failed but Whitney saw it and whispered a thank you during her song.

The funniest moment
The funniest moment was when she sang "I Will Always Love You". There she made a longer pause before singing "...and I will always love you, will always love you..." in this pause the guy next to me screamed "Do it Whitney!" and she started to laugh. She laughed for a long time and went on singing after a really huge pause. With this song she said goodbye to us, much too early as I think.

What was she wearing?
During the concert she had changed her clothes one time. In the second part she wore a pink dress with a yellow fur jacket, very sexy, I loved that one!

Anyway, as she'd left the stage we all screamed "Zugabe!" (which means "Encore!") and after a while she came back with a blue fur jacket, a blue fur hat, jeans that were blue on one side and like a leopard fur on the other. [this is exatly the same thing WH wore for the encore in Toronto - June 29/99]

She sang "It's Not Right But It's Okay" and then finally went off the stage. It was such a great experience standing so close to Whitney and when she looked right into my eyes while singing... I can tell you that was great!

After the concert a friend and I went to sleep in a youth hostel. I dreamed of the concert and of course of Whitney and I also dreamed that she stayed in the Hyatt Hotel where I met her... and so on.

The next day my friend and I went to the train station to go home. As we passed the Hyatt Hotel, I remembered my dream and so we decided to have a look at it. In front of the main entrance was sitting a girl who said she saw Whitney entering the hotel the night before so we decided to wait a while.

It was just 8:30 AM so we had enough time. We sat down and talked. We thought Whitney would leave after the breakfast because she had another concert in Antwerp, Belgium that day.

So we stood there waiting, waiting, waiting... At about 11:00 AM, Amanda Marshall came out through a side entrance with a blue Whitney cap and sunglasses. Actually we weren't waiting for her but we thought we could make a photo of her so we went to her and asked "Amanda?", "Mrs. Marshall?", "Could we take a picture of you?" but she just ignored us, she was so arrogant. We were 3 girls, it wouldn't have taken her more than 5 minutes, but she just didn't answer.

Well, we said to her that we don't want to buy her CD anymore and went away. We really wanted to buy the CD but now as she is so arrogant she can keep it for herself.

On the way back we met one of her crew members and asked him if he'd seen Whitney and if she's still inside. He said that he wasn't sure but he thought she was still asleep. So we went back to the main entrance and waited another two hours before three crew members of Whitney came out.

We asked them when she would come out but of course they didn't tell us so we waited again some hours.

Meanwhile some other fans had arrived so we were about 10 people now. At 3:00 PM Gary Houston left the hotel, made photos with us and promised us that his sister would definitely leave through the main entrance. There we knew that she was still in and that we would see her if we waited long enough.

At 4:00 PM the tour bus came and the crew members went in, all except Whitney, Bobby and two dancers or singers (don't know). As hotel security didn't look we went in and asked everyone about Whitney. They all said they couldn't tell us but that made us hope that she was still there.

We sat in the lobby until 6:00 PM, then they noticed us and told us to leave the hotel. We went outside and gave up the hope that she would ever come out because it was so late and there was the concert in Belgium where she had to be a few hours later.

As we decided to give up, two bodyguards came out and parked two cars in front of the hotel. One of them had a Whitney sticker on his jacket so we decided to wait again. I can tell you, it was the right decision!

At 7:15 PM Whitney came out of the hotel and hurried to one of the cars. At once there were some people asking for an autograph so she told her bodyguard to wait and started to explain: "Hello, nice to see you!".

Someone asked for an autograph. "No, I didn't think of that." (That's what I understood, I'm not sure if it makes sense). "I'm so sorry but I'm really late, I have to go! Bye!"

Then she went to the car and they drove off. It was like two seconds and I don't even remember what she wore. The only thing I know is a leopard fur hat. I was able to take three photos and I'm hoping so much that they will be good.

As I finally left to the train station it was about 7:30 PM and I was a bit upset that I had been waiting for hours and every part of my body was hurting and all I got for it was two lousy seconds.

We were not more than 20 people so she had really had enough time to give us all one autograph in less than ten minutes. I would have been happy if she had given us already signed pictures or something like that. Anyway, at least she didn't ignore us like Amanda Marshall.

All in all it has been an awesome weekend and I am so happy that I have been so close to her two times! Tomorrow I will definitely go to the ticket service and try to buy another concert ticket!!!

--Nadine