2012-2-23
The “A Country Cannot Become a Decent Nation Unless Newsweek Has at Least 500,000 Subscribers” series.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Speech (I Have A Dream)
Simon and Garfunkel—America
The Legendary Singer Was “Ordinary and Extraordinary”
What Whitney Houston, Who Died Suddenly, Left Behind as a Singer and as a Black Woman
From the February 29 issue of Newsweek.
…The preceding section is omitted (most of the preceding text is omitted)
Even Beyoncé Could Not Match Her
The reaction was unprecedented, but that was also because Houston herself was an unprecedented presence.
She was not only a magnificent singer; she changed ideas about beauty and fame on a global scale.
From the moment she appeared before the public, Houston transformed the structure of several industries.
In 1981, she became the center of attention when she appeared on the cover of Seventeen as its first African American model.
In 1991, when she delivered a soulful rendition of the national anthem at the Super Bowl, the NFL’s (National Football League’s) championship game, viewers throughout the world marveled at her dignified bearing.
At a time when African American actresses were rarely given good roles, she also starred opposite the popular white actor Kevin Costner in the film The Bodyguard.
“The film company conceived the role for Whitney,” says film historian Donald Bogle.
“Neither then nor now would such a thing be possible for a Black actress. They understood that Whitney possessed something everyone wanted.”
There are, of course, other Black women who have left their mark on the entertainment industry, but they are somehow different from Houston.
Halle Berry became the first Black woman to win the Academy Award for Best Actress, but she is not an actress capable of earning as much as Houston.
Even Beyoncé, the singer described as Houston’s successor, cannot attract an audience as large as Houston could.
Houston could belong in any setting, at any time and in any place.
At one moment, she could appear to be the very embodiment of an ordinary girl; at another, dressed in an evening gown, she could captivate even Britain’s Queen Elizabeth.
“She was ordinary and extraordinary at the same time,” says Arushiya Puton, a minister close to the Houston family.
“She was beautiful, but she was not arrogant.”
That night, an event was held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on the eve of the Grammy Awards, and many stars in attendance, including actor Tom Hanks, paid tribute to the departed singer.
They paid tribute to a woman of exceptional talent, a woman whose turbulent private life was so overwhelming that it even overshadowed her enormous record of album sales.
Outside the hotel, hundreds of fans formed a line to say their final farewell to her.
Allison Samuels (Los Angeles)