Concert date: 10/20/99 Milano, Italia

Review of the show:
After seeing this concert I was so astonished and shocked I could not put reasonable thoughts together. Only three days later I find myself reasoning again, thus starting to write this review.

The Set

The set consisted in three big fans, colorful starry background, many beautiful colors changing with the lighting. A stair climbed from the center of the stage to a balcony (with piano) on the right. The four vocalists would have taken place on the left. The rest of the band (two guitars, one percussion and one keyboard) was to be in center stage, the instruments building up a big sparkling mass. Two big screens at the sides showed camera shots of the concert.

    I was in the central area of the parterre, adequately equipped with binoculars, waiting for my 17th birthday present.

The Opening Act

The opening act with Amanda Marshall started at 8:35 PM. I didn’t like her too much; she was just waving her great ball of hair up and down. Nothing to remember. Also during her show there was a lot of confusion, people coming in, walking around, nobody paying attention to her...

    At 9:00 PM, when Whitney should have started, the palace was still half empty. There were Italian VIPs like singers Eros Ramazzotti, Laura Pausini and Giorgia, soccer player Christian Vieri and coach Marcello Lippi.

    The staff of the concert was showing around the tourbook calling it “the concert’s program”... I bought one anyway.

The View Of The Queen

Whitney came in at 9:45 PM, 45 minutes late, but people had been arriving until 9:30. Only then the palace was 100% full, making the attendance of 10,000 people.

    She was wearing Michael Jackson style trousers, jacket and hat, all dark-colored with paillettes. Beautiful! Her hair was INRBIO-style, but in natural dark color. Much better!

The Beginning

Aggressive beginning with Get It Back. She was dancing! Very well, I’d say. She followed the four dancers, but with her personal style. It was clear since the beginning her voice was in good shape, the quality being at record level, although I noticed she sang the verses very quickly in the first couple of songs. Perhaps her vocal chords were still a bit cold and she could not hold the notes too long.

    Whitney then took off her hat, finally showing herself, and sang Heartbreak Hotel

followed by a jazz-style improvisation. During all pauses people yelled “GO WHITNEY!!”, “I LOVE YOU!!” and she replied “Thank you, I love you back” or “I KNOW! I KNOW...”. She was very nice and friendly.

    After If I Told You That she sang

“Can you say ‘yeah’?” and asked us to make us heard. “I need to feel you”, she said.

    Then she took of her jacket showing a fancy white blouse and said: “I’d like to take you back in 1985 for 30 seconds”, and she did this with a little bit of Saving All My Love For You.

    Until You Come Back followed. In this slower song Whitney’s voice had more space and it sounded exactly like the record! No difference! It was amazing! She was starting to unleash her brilliant and perfect voice.

    After the beautiful song I Learned From The Best Whitney asked us to stand up and clap the hands to the music of Step By Step.

The Pause

Whitney went in the backstage to change. And for a pause. During this time the vocalists (Sharlotte Gibson, Valerie Pinkston, Cindy Mizelle and Whitney’s brother Gary) sang sprouts of I Have Nothing and Queen Of The Night while the big screens showed clips of Whitney taking dance lessons. This maybe explains her dancing, which used to be unlikely, from what I’ve heard.

    The My Love Is Your Love music started, the vocalists repeated the beginning (“Wyclef Jean’s alright...”), clearly waiting for Whitney, who was perhaps taking too much time to change.

The New Dress

The Queen of the night came back in a gorgeous silver strapless shirt with paillettes, short black skirt, black boots. She was looking great in that outfit, she seemed much younger than 36, and still as sexy as 10 years ago!

    Starting My Love Is Your Love she sang “If tomorrow is judgment day...”, stopped up her ears, and one of the vocalists, I think, sang Bobby Christina’s part. Whitney’s daughter was not there, of course, having to attend the school. Towards the end of the song husband Bobby Brown came on stage, hugged her, and just made some screams instead of singing.

    The show went on with I Wanna Dance With Somebody and How Will I Know, taking us back to the “beginnings” of which Whitney said: “they were so successful, thanks to you”.

    She then said: “You know who made these clothes? D&G? ... Dolce and Gabbana?” The public cheered. “They must be here somewhere.” The spotlights pointed to the high area of the stand very close to the stage, almost behind it. She asked: “Can you see the show? Are you sure?!?”. And then: “Who put them there? Who did it?!?”

The Gospels

“I would like to sing some Gospel music. You know Gospel music? Let’s pretend this is a church, OK?” She said she wanted us to pray, or to just sit back and appreciate the music in case we were not catholic.

    She started with Jesus Loves Me, but it was at the beginning I Love The Lord that her voice, finally by itself, without the vocalists and the band partially covering it, was most valued.

    She then ended with I Go To The Rock the Gospel part. She showed all her passion for this kind of music. She was really caught by the songs, changing and inventing the words on the go.

The Soundtracks

Whitney said she was going to sing some songs taken from her movies: “one from Waiting To Exhale, a couple from The Preacher’s Wife and maybe one, just one, form The Bodyguard”. Since most of the people were there just for I Will Always Love You they should have booed or something to this provocation; I guess the same people didn’t understand english...

    So she sat down and sang I Believe In You And Me, which I liked particularly, then Why Does It Hurt So Bad.

    As the music from I Will Always Love You started, the crowd began to scream and clap, everyone went crazy! Some guy behind me phoned a friend to let him hear Whitney... It was clear most of the audience was just waiting for this one. Whitney sure kept up with their expectations. She sang all the notes perfectly and held them very long. After the instrumental break, executed by the guitar in the place of the sax, before the last “and I”, Whitney made a very long pause. She uncovered some drinks on the table next to her seat... In the meanwhile you could hear people everywhere screaming “VAI (go) WHITNEY!!!”. Just in the instant I got distracted the drums went THUD and Whiney went “and IIIII...” She did that perfectly without hesitation, then she delivered an excellent improvisation making the song, in my opinion, much better than the record version.

The End?

She said “good night” and went away. Everyone was standing for a great ovation, although the audience seemed to forget the encore. I was terrified! We couldn’t let Whitney leave without the It’s Not Right But It’s Ok encore! Fortunately someone started whistling (too bad I can’t) and after a while of clapping hands and whistling, the time for Whitney to change, the INRBIO (remix) music started.

The Encore and The End

She was in a white long coat open in the front and white trousers to sing the Thunderpuss remix version of It’s Not Right But It’s Ok. That was, definately, the end of the show.

About The Show

I had the feeling that the public was composed in large part by ‘conservative’ people who hadn't realized this was the “My Love Is Your Love” tour, with a different style from the Bodyguard days. Maybe Whitney should have taken this into account and sang less ‘aggressive’ songs if she wanted the crowd to go really wild.

    Sometimes I felt the vocalists were having too much importance, leaving to Whitney only the ‘decorations’.

The Voice

Whitney didn’t attempt those oh-so-high notes that would have made me faint (like in I Have Nothing and I’m Every Woman), but she hit without uncertainty almost all the high notes in the songs she sang (although she worked around a couple acuti at the beginning), plus others when improvising, showed her very wide range, from earth-shaking lows to piano-only highs: she sure sent chills down my back!

    A part from this, the sound of her voice always had a record-level perfection; there was not one uncertainty or tremble (there were a couple in the only Italian TV appearance).

    She proved she still is the greatest voice in the world.

Overall Impressions

That night I wanted Whitney to prove that her voice is still great and that we were not to look for a new Whitney already. And she did it. She looked wonderful and sounded fabulous.

    This was surely one of the best experiences in my life.