Elisa Bray: A powerful soul voice that transcended time and trends
Monday 13 February 2012
Latest in Features
Related stories
On Facebook
Arts & Ents blogs
Brighton Fringe 2012: laughing through the blood, sweat and tears
It has been an emotional journey. The three weeks of intense activity that make up England's larges...
Disclosure: We’d never even been to a club when we made our first single
For most of us, reaching eighteen years of age opens up a new world for exploration, spontaneity and...
Something For The Weekend in London: May 25 – May 27
With 20+ degree weather expected to last all weekend in the capital, we'd be silly not to make the m...
As I stood outside the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Saturday, just hours after Whitney Houston was found dead in her room, cars streamed past, blasting her songs out of their windows. It served as an instant reminder of just how many sensational hits Houston had. Few can forget her cover of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You". But there were many more.
Every young girl of the 1980s and 1990s has a favourite Whitney song. Mine was "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)", an elating, vibrant pop track, bursting with cheesy synths. For others it's the reggae-tinged Wyclef Jean-produced "My Love is Your Love", or the heartfelt ballads "Saving All My Love For You" and "Greatest Love of All".
It was Houston's gospel-trained voice that transcended the fleeting trends. Sadly the only time I saw her perform live was on her 2010 tour, by which point drugs had taken their toll on a powerful soul voice. But that's not how she should be remembered; her voice was one of the greatest in pop music.
- 1 Publishing: Rude bits in disguise
- 2 One is nipping to Tesco: Jubilant Jubilee royals as seen by Alison Jackson
- 3 The 100 favourite fictional characters... as chosen by 100 literary luminaries
- 4 A dark day for goths (in a good way)
- 5 The London 2012 Festival: The greatest show of a great year
- 6 The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (12A)
- 7 French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy calls for West to intervene in Syria
- 8 Free Range: Meet the designers of tomorrow
- 9 Nazis, nannies and hair omelettes: Leonora Carrington, the last living Surrealist, looks back on her extraordinary life and times
- 10 Ladyhawke: Asperger's and the anxious pop sensation
- 1 Mark Zuckerberg saved $111m by selling Facebook shares before stock slumped
- 2 Brazil rocked by abortion for 9-year-old rape victim
- 3 Society: The only way is Finland
- 4 Schoolboy spiked brownies with cannabis in cookery class
- 5 FSA 'powerless' over JP Morgan
- 6 48 Hours In: Faro
- 7 'Hello mum, this is going to be hard for you to read ...'
- 8 African monkey meat that could be behind the next HIV
- 9 Coke reveals its secret: It may need to carry a cancer warning
- 10 French in uproar over oral sex anti-smoking posters
Experience the Heineken Hub
Get free wi-fi and exclusive i content while you enjoy a tasty pint of Heineken at participating pubs.
Can you imagine a career in teaching?
Be inspired to teach - let real teachers show you how rewarding the job can be.
Playing a game-changing role during the Games
Cisco is providing the solutions for London 2012's complex IT needs.
Enter the latest Independent competitions
Win anything from gadgets to five-star holidays on our competitions and offers page.
Business videos from commercial thought leaders
Watch the best in the business world give their insights into the world of business.
Career Services
Ridley Scott: The most macho man in movies?
Gallic gourmets put France back on culinary map
The outsider: Margaret Howell
For men only: A pilgrimage to Mount Athos
Feeding a hungry world – or meddling with laws of nature?



Comments