[Icon 02] Whitney Houston.

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I am a child of the 80s. I grew up in that era when pop music ruled the airwaves and people sang along as the hits played on the radio. While punk and rock still filled the music landscape, it is no question that the decade belonged to the trio of Michael Jackson, Madonna and Whitney Houston.

The three music artists are very much different in their style. While Michale broke away from Jackson Five and popularized his creepy dance moves to the tune of Thriller and Madonna tested the moral boundaries with songs like Papa Don't Preach and Like a Virgin, Whitney was belting it out with All at Once and the anthem-like Greatest Love of All.

The genre was called pop music because, well, it was popular. Almost anyone with a mic and the melody playing in the background could sing the songs. It was also around this time that karaoke crossed the shores of Japan and became popular in the country. Minus-1 tapes were also in vogue. So it was not uncommon to hear ten versions of a Madonna song while one walks a street and passes by ten houses, all equipped with the unignorable karaoke or minus-1 cassette.

I remember myself entertaining members of my mother's clan during gatherings singing to my heart's content One Moment in Time, the theme from the 1988 Olympics. I even have one photo preserved in my album, my mouth was wide open as I sang "When all of my dreams are a heartbeat away...". It was shameless. I was shameless.

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I was between the ages of nine to eleven when my taste for pop music started. Iwas influenced, in part, by my sister who aspired to become a professional singer herself. She was enrolled in a voice school and she would sometimes do her rehearsals at home. Some mornings I would wake up to the blaring sound of Cyndi Lauper or the sweet voice of Tiffany. Among all the artists that my sister aimed to emulate, it was Whitney who made a lasting impression on me.

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I did not have money at that time and whatever cash my mother would spare me I would rather spend on toys and candies. Consequently, I had to wait for the radio stations to play Whitney's songs or play my sister's tapes to be able hear Whitney's powerful and commanding voice.

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When I was in high school, I bought my very first Whitney Houston album. It was the soundtrack to The Bodyguard, her movie with the debonair Kevin Costner (SpeciMen 05). As it turned out, I was one of the millions who made it the bestselling soundtrack album of all time.

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I must have played side A of the album at least three times each day. I played only this side because it contains all the six Whitney tracks. The other side contains the songs of the other artists featured in the movie. (It would take me about three years before I finally appreciated S.O.U.L. System's Lovely Day.) After that, I had memorized by heart not only the lyrics to I Will Always Love You, I Have Nothing, Jesus Loves Me, Run to You, I'm Every Woman and Queen of the Night but also the nuances of Whitney's renditions that made these songs exceptional.

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Since then I have been able to purchase her succeeding albums, including the soundtracks to Waiting to Exhale (one of my favorite collaborations), The Preacher's Wife, One Wish (The Holiday Album), My Love is Your Love, Just Whitney, and back copies of I'm Your Baby Tonight, Whitney and Whitney Houston. Each of them is a gem.

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Like most of her fans, I rued the fact that Whitney married Bobby Brown. I had no prejudice, however, at the start of the relationship. It was only after, when Whitney succumbed to a life of illegal drugs that i felt bad. For her and for me. Whitney became an unreliable artist. Even when the songs in The Bodyguard were nominated in the Oscar, the producers of the award show replaced her with Natalie Cole for fear that she will become a production liability. News also proliferated that she became the hindrance to the completion of her own solo albums.
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But no one sang a song the way Whitney did. No one even has a voice like she has. So whenever I have the opportunity, I relish hearing her songs and her voices. I give myself pause whenever an old video is played on MTV. I especially like her in When You Believe, wherein she shows Mariah Carey who between them is the real queen of soul and pop music. While Mariah strained to hit the high notes, Whitney was effortless.
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There is an ongoing rumor that she and producer Clive Davis of Arista are working on a new album. Rumor has it too that Whitney is causing the delay. Whatever, I am sure that I will be purchasing the album once it hits record stores. No matter what type of songs are in the album ---even if they be rap or grunge--- I am quite certain that Whitney would pepper it with brilliance and dash it with panache. After all, nobody sings the way she does.

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