December 1999 Nippy News (Part II)

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99/12/31
TV Reminder! Whitney is co-hosting "Grammys Greatest Performances" on CBS-TV tonight at 9 p.m. EST with Natalie Cole. In addition, Whitney will reportedly appear on ABC-TV and NBC-TV, so have your VCRs ready! Specific air times have not been given for Whitney's appearances on both ABC and NBC. For more information about Whitney's upcoming appearances, check out the Nippy Events Calendar! New Screen Captures: In light of Whitney co-hosting the Grammys special tonight, here are some great screen captures from the 1994 Grammys in which Whitney won three awards for "The Bodyguard" soundtrack. (Thanks very much Eddy VB)
99/12/30
Here's a great American Music Awards poll! Let's vote for Whitney as favorite artist from the 1980s. The poll closes at 1 p.m. EST on January 17th, and the winners will be announced during the show that night on ABC-TV! So quite frankly, we should vote like CRAZY for this one! The site does not require cookies, so we can, and should, vote for Whitney as much as possible. The web site doesn't give a hint at who's winning, so all we can do is vote, vote, vote! She's up against basically all the musical icons whose careers took off in the 1980s. This is a great poll. We can make a real impact here. Chart News: MLIYL holds its ground with a bullet on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, but it may need an airplay boost. Let's keep requesting the song! Read the details, plus French chart news... From Billboard Online: Women Rule 1999 European Charts! Take a glimpse back at some of the events surrounding the MLIYL project with the following new RealVideo and RealAudio in the Whitney Worship Webpage archives: 1) MLIYL 1998 press conference excerpt in RealVideo. 2) Divas Live/99 - RealVideo in which Mary J. Blige talks about how Whitney has paved the way for many artists, and Whitney discusses what it takes to be a real diva. 3) 1999 MTV Europe Music Awards - RealVideo of Whitney discussing awards, and an excerpt from her acceptance speech. 4) 1999 MTV Europe Music Awards - RealAudio of Whitney talking about how she recorded additional vocals for the house remix of ILFTB. (Many thanks Eddy VB)
99/12/29
Cyberworks' Li Pays $2.5 Mln to Fly in Whitney for His Party: Here is more information about Whitney's New Year's Eve appearance in Hong Kong. Read the details... (Special thanks to Corey) Entertainment Tonight also confimed today that Whitney will perform at a private concert in Hong Kong on New Year's Eve, and that she will flick the light switch to mark the new millennium. (Thanks John G.) MTV Asia's web site is running a poll where we can vote for Whitney as the female artist who will reign on the music charts in 2000. We can vote as many times as possible because the site does not require cookies. Whitney is currently in fourth place with 5% of all votes, so let's get to it! We can change this pretty easily if we work together. (Thanks Katerina) Let's vote for Whitney in this dance music poll at About.com's web site! INRBIO is currently in fourth place. We can vote as many times as possible because there are no cookies! The results will be posted at their site on January 3rd. (Thanks Jimmy J.) "The Bodyguard" will air January 1st on CBS-TV at 8 p.m. EST, and also January 2nd on 1+1 channel in the Ukraine! Fans in the Ukraine should check their local listings for air time. (Thanks Enrico S., Igor)
99/12/28
New RealAudio: Listen to Whitney sing "My Love Is Your Love," "I Believe In You and Me," "Why Does It Hurt So Bad," "It Hurts Like Hell," "I Will Always Love You" and "It's Not Right But It's Okay" from her September 1st concert that was held in Zurich, Switzerland! She's in great voice! The audio is only available to mailing list members, so feel free to subscribe! Just click on the link heading this paragraph or on the other mailing list links on this page if you want to join. Here's a nice picture of Whitney and Bobby from Whitney's recent All-Star Holiday Gala benefit, published in the December 27th issue of Jet Magazine! Plus, look at these scans from the gala invitation booklet! It's a thick booklet that includes text ads from many of those who attended. Of all the pages in the book, Michael's Jackson's ad for Whitney had a particularly nice signature. Also, David Gest, who produced the event, included this little family picture in his thank you to Whitney. (Many thanks Clif D.) According to the Platinum Club quarterly newsletter, Whitney "will be singing in the New Year at a gala event in Hong Kong where she will also flick the switch to light up this once-in-a-lifetime ceremony." No other details were provided. A couple of nights ago on the show "Sister Sister" on Nickelodeon, the twins were wondering who their real mother is and they started to describe their idea of what she would look like, and while describing her a picture of Whitney formed. They said that she would have beautiful hair, eyes, a great pair of cheek bones and a beautiful smile. For the record, Tia and Tamara [the twins] have mentioned on a couple occassions that they are huge fans of our Diva. (Thanks Carolyn) Whitney's ILFTB is at No. 27 this week on the Weekly Singles Chart at the Worldcharts web site. Let's vote for Whitney!Just click on their "Complete List" button and highlight all of Whitney's songs that are listed in a row. Click "Done," and they are then added to your voting list. Then just submit your votes. (Thanks Enrico S.) Here are two additional polls where we can vote for Whitney! You can vote up to 5 times per visit in each category: 1) Album of the Year poll. 2) Top 100 Albums of All Time poll. (Thanks David)
99/12/27
Year-End/Decade Chart News: Whitney's COMPLETE year-end statistics in Pop, R&B/Hip-Hop, Dance and Gospel. Also more information about Whitney's overall 1990s statistics, plus the latest European charts from this week! The Whitney Weekday Request Campaign has been updated again! Over 30 additional radio stations have been added, so remember to keep making those calls to support MLIYL, which is still growing on the charts! The record is not over yet! Whitney will host GRAMMYS GREATEST PERFORMANCES on CBS-TV December 31st along with Natalie Cole. The special will count down the 10 greatest Grammy performances of all time in the categories of Pop, Country, Rock and R&B. According to RockOnTV, the show will air clips of Whitney's perfromances of "Greatest Love Of All" and "I Will Always Love You" from past Grammy broadcasts. There is no word on whether either performance will be aired in its entirety.
99/12/25
New Screen Captures: See pictures from the great video for "Greatest Love Of All," which suits the song perfectly. It doesn't get much better than this. (Thanks Eddy VB) Check out the new Whitney Polling Booth banner above! All you'll have to do from now on is click on that banner to vote for Whitney in all the latest on-going polls! It contains a list of voting links. You can also submit additional polls to the Nippy News if there are any missing from the list. Thanks! Speaking of polls, here are five more: 1) Best Superstar Diva 2) Divas Live Poll 3) Favorite Female Artist 4) Who's Da Best Poll - this one actually has the gall to say "Diva or not, you decide" next to Whitney's name. Vote for Whitney's MLIYL as your Top Song of 1999 at Canada's Energy Radio. It was NUMBER ONE for several weeks at that station. Just click on their link at the bottom right of their webpage. There's also room to vote for other tracks, so we can vote for HH, INRBIO and ILFTB as well. They require an e-mail address and phone number. Use Toronto as your location and 416 as your telephone area code. You can make up the rest of the phone number. (Thanks Francis Lopez)
Merry Christmas everyone! Happy Chanukah! Happy Ramadan! Happy Kwanzaa! Happy Holidays!
99/12/24
The Fans Have Spoken: We've put Whitney over the top! Excellent job to everyone who has been voting for Whitney's MLIYL album on the R&B Hip-Hop Albums chart in this Billboard year-end poll! But don't forget to also vote for "Heartbreak Hotel" in the Billboard Hot 100 voting chart! She's way behind on that poll. Whitney had been trailing TLC slightly on the albums chart, but now she has a big lead in front of them. This week Whitney's "I Learned From The Best" is at No. 3 on MTV Europe's "The Lick." Bob Marley & L. Hill are still at the No. 1 spot, followed by TLC at No. 2. On yesterday's show they aired a very brief interview with Whitney about the recording of the ILFTB house mix. (Thanks Eddy VB)
99/12/23
New Screen Captures: Take a look at what is probably Whitney's most glamorous music video, "Where Do Broken Hearts Go." Great Chart News: The MLIYL single rises on both the Billboard Hot 100 and R&B/Hip-Hop Singles charts! Read the details... Vote for Whitney's MLIYL as our favorite song of 1999 in the KISS 92 New Year's Day Listener Top 40 Countdown! They'll compile a list of the most-voted songs and will count them in order on New Year's Day. We also can vote for HH and INRBIO, but MLIYL is probably the best choice because it was more popular in Canada. (Thanks Francis Lopez)
99/12/22
Song of the Week: An essential Whitney duet, listen to Whitney sing "Bridge Over Troubled Water" with good friend CeCe Winans. It's what you get when you pair Whitney with one of her best duet partners. The performance is from the now-defunct VH-1 Honors. If you listen carefully, you'll hear CeCe say "I love you" to Whitney at the end. From Austria's TV-Media: Whitney's MLIYL is the second highest-selling album in Austria this year, selling 80,000 copies! Whitney also has the fifth top-selling single in Austria for the year with 60,000 copies. She also came in third on the Top-Tour-Charts for 1999: Whitney Houston (2 Konzerte in Wien) mit 24.000 Besuchern (Thanks Clemens) Canada was waiting for a ballad: On my way to work this afternoon, I started the car and I put the radio on. To my surprise, on Ottawa, Ontario, Canada's LIGHT 101.1 FM, there she was -- our Whitney Houston -- the Diva, singing "I Learned From The Best!" This was so incredible. It was a great surprise to me that ILFTB had already reached Ottawa radio statios. (Thanks Enrico S.) In general, Canada has been slow to play singles from the MLIYL album.
99/12/21
My apologies for not updating this page over the past few days. I have been very sick since Sunday. New Screen Captures: See pictures from Whitney's music video for "I Have Nothing." More Screen Captures: See Whitney at her annual Whitney Houston Foundation for Children Christmas party, which was held on Sunday! The news clip aired on Access Hollywood. Here's another picture from the Christmas party that was published in today's New York Daily News. Here is a really funny story! Whitney is too much for British Prime Minister Tony Blair! Never underestimate the power of "My Love Is Your Love." News about Possible Documentary: According to 20Minuten, a Cologne newspaper, director Rudi Dolezal filmed in all over 1,000 hours of Whitney behind-the-scenes over 2 1/2 months. In addition, according to a TV report, Whitney first didn't want anyone to follow her with a camera. But when she saw other documentaries produced by Dolezal for DoRo ("Queen - Champions Of The World"), she loved it and said she wanted a film like that about her. The deal for the "Behind the Scenes" project was made when Dolezal met her at the Cologne Hyatt Hotel on December 28. The video will be ready in the beginning of the next year. (Thanks Tobias H.) Here are Whitney's positions on Billboard's decade-end charts: • R&B artists: No. 12 • Pop female artists: No. 5 • Hot 100 singles: "I Will Always Love You" No. 5; "Exhale (Shoop Shoop)" No. 52 • Billboard 200 Albums: "The Bodyguard" OST No. 2; "Waiting To Exhale" OST No. 61 [Note: Alanis Morissette's "Jagged Little Pill" is at No. 1. Although "The Bodyguard" is certified 17X platinum compared to 16X for "Pill", the latter sold more copies while it still charted on the Billboard 200, hence, its higher placement.] (Thanks Rob N.) Billboard Year-End News: Billboard Online has just included the "1999: The Year In Music" section. On the year-end recaps, "My Love Is Your Love" ranks at No. 12 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums list. It places at No. 2 on the online voter poll. On the Billboard Hot 100, "It's Not Right But It's Okay" is the second single from the album to wind up in the top fifty at No. 44. On the voter poll, "Heartbreak Hotel" comes in at No. 9. Also, "My Love Is Your Love" ranks at No. 30 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart. Not bad for an album that peaked at No. 13! (Thanks Rob N.) We can vote for Whitney in this Billboard year-end poll! Vote for "Heartbreak Hotel" in the Billboard Hot 100 voting chart, plus the MLIYL album on the R&B Hip-Hop Albums chart! The voting booth closes on January 3rd, which means we can put Whitney over the top if we vote consistently. Here's an article about ILFTB from the December issue of the German McDonalds magazine... Whitney's ILFTB is at No. 40 on the Worldchart singles chart, while the MLIYL single is at No. 39. Unfortunately, the MLIYL album has dropped to No. 91. Let's all vote for Whitney at the Worldcharts web site! Also, vote for Whitney in the Best Female category! Just click on their "Complete List" button and highlight all of Whitney's songs that are listed in a row. Click "Done," and they are then added to your voting list. Then just submit your votes. (Thanks Enrico S.) I saw an advertisement promoting a millenniun celebration on ABC-TV on December 31 that will feature Whitney, Enrique Iglesias, Elton John and others giving live performances. (Thanks Carolyn) The live performance of "My Love Is Your Love" from the MTV Europe Music Awards can be seen as a video on MTV Jams at around 4 p.m. EST in the U.S. (Thanks Steven K.) Brazilian fans: VH-1 Divas Live/99 was split into two parts. The part in which Whitney performs is next Decmeber 26 at 9:15 p.m. on TVRecord. (Thanks Roberto, Fernanda) Cinderella will be shown by Polish TV. The first part will air December 25th at 10:30 a.m., and the second part will air January 1st at 8:35 a.m. (Thanks Sylwia)
99/12/18
New Screen Captures: Check out screen captures from the "One Moment In Time" music video, which is purely an Olympics tribute video. More news from Germany about a possible Whitney documentary... Exclusive behind-the-scenes pictures of Whitney during the MLIYL tour. (Many thanks Michelle S., Sylvie) Here's what Arista had to say about whether there will be a DVD release of Divas Live/99: "There is a very good chance that it will come out on DVD. As of right now we do not have a confirmed date as when it will be out." (Thanks Alan M.) According to France's Exclusif, "I Learned From The Best" will be released in France at the end of January! The import single is availables in the FNAC. It includes the ILFTB Radio Edit, ILFTB Album Version, MLIYL Jonathan Peters Radio Edit and INRBIO KCC's "The Love Groove Mix." (Thanks Julian S.) More News: ILFTB, the remixes are now available in France!! Yesterday I found the European maxi single with 5 tracks: Radio Edit 3:49; HQ2 Radio Mix 4:23; Junior Vasquez Radio Mix 4:58; HQ2 Club Mix 10:35; Junior Vasquez Club Mix 11:37. (Thanks Sausalito) On MTV Europe's "The Lick," Whitney's "I Learned From The Best" is at No. 2 this week! Hopefully Whitney will be at the No. 1 spot next week. (Thanks Eddy VB) On BET's Live From L.A. program on Wednesday, CeCe Winans was on and Rachel, the hostess, asked her about working with Whitney on the "Waiting To Exhale" soundtrack. CeCe said that it was a true song between them because that is what they are -- true friends, and that Whitney is a lot of fun. Then the other host, Michael, said that she [CeCe] is cool -- meaning that she has God and Whitney Houston as her friends! (Thanks Carolyn) This French-Canadian Adult Contemporary radio station is polling its listeners for the best song of the millennium. They have a picture of Whitney on the poll's web site, indicating that she is in contention. Please vote for IWALY or GLOA. This radio station still plays Whitney's older songs on a daily basis, even though they have not played a song from the MLIYL album yet. (Maybe ILFTB will break that pattern). (Thanks Saira) "The Preacher's Wife" will air December 19 at 8:00 p.m. on the AFN Network Japan. (Thanks Reniko)
99/12/17
God Bless my beloved Grandmother, who passed away today after battling to stay with us for three weeks. She is the strongest person I have ever met, and that I will ever have the great fortune to know. Ti voglio bene Nonna.
99/12/16
New Screen Captures: It's back to "The Bodyguard" years with Whitney's videos for "I Will Always Love You" and "I'm Every Woman!" If You're With Me Baby: Whitney earns a platinum certification for the "My Love Is Your Love" single! It's the second single from the album to be certified at one million copies in the U.S., and the first time any Whitney album has achieved 2 platinum singles. The first song from the MLIYL album to reach platinum status was "Heartbreak Hotel." (Thanks Rob N.) According to Germany's Bunte Magazine: Remember the Bambi Awards, when Whitney thanked a man named Rudi for documenting everything during the tour? Well, now we know what she meant by that. Rudi filmed her during her tour, in her hotel rooms, backstage and with Bobby. [Rudi has already made documentaries about Queen and the Rolling Stones.] According to the magazine, it may be shown to the public early next year and could even be a feature film documentary! The magazine also features an interview with Whitney and exclusive pictures! Read the interview here! (Thanks Michelle S.) Chart News: The full week's statistics for MLIYL and ILFTB, plus a lot more! According to the French broadcast "Exclusif," the album MLIYL has sold over 700,000 copies and the single MLIYL has sold 1 million copies in France. The announcer said Whitney is a huge success in France! (Thanks Stéphane W.) Last night on VH-1's Top 90 videos of the 90's, Whitney's "I Will Always Love You" came in at No. 50! I could not believe it! I had heard someone say earlier that it made a strong showing but we now have to wonder what is stong for them. I am sure many fans expected it to be at least in the Top 10. Also, a Rolling Stone editor said, "The song was a mega-seller and many people think that the song was based on Whitney and Kevin alone but it was also about the interracial world we are living in today. And besides, she [Whitney] could sing like a mother------!" They also showed clips of Whitney from 1992-93 talking about the song and how she knew that she could sing it from her soul. (Thanks Carolyn) "The Preacher's Wife" will make its television broadcast debut this Saturday at 8 p.m. EST on ABC-TV. (Thanks Alan) Check out the Nippy Events Calendar for other appearances! To all Brazilian fans: TV Record will air the VH-1 Divas Live/99 special on Sunday at 9:15 p.m . Let's all watch! (Thanks Roberto) If you missed the earlier Nippy News, use the News Archive or the news log.