It's pretty rare to find such a scathing review of a pop concert, but here it is.
Actually, the Guardian's reviewer from the same concert thinks that there is a bit of an unfair anti-Whitney bandwagon developing, as most reviews said she was OK on some songs. But, there is this:
They say Houston behaved oddly, chatting about nothing in particular for minutes on end, took a 15-minute break only half a dozen songs in, and had trouble reaching some of her high notes.She does indeed appear to be regularly (see the comments below about the next concert) making a spectacular hash of the famous climax of "I will always love you", as you can see here. It's doubly excruciating because of the long, long break she takes before attempting it, and the whoops and encouragement given by her (not very British sounding) fans.
In fact, if you watch any Youtubes clips of the Birmingham concert, the enthusiasm of the audience is, somewhat puzzlingly in the circumstances, quite high.
The next concert she gave was at Nottingham, and the reviewer writes this:
However, Houston's rendition of the ultimate schmaltz anthem "I Will Always Love You" must have tested even her most loyal followers. It's a challenging ballad, not least if you've been doing extraordinarily damaging things to your upper body for several years. Her voice wheezes and grates through the high notes. There are attempts to plaster over the cracks with octave changes and smiles, but mid-song she stops, sighs and turns around to compose herself. She does finish the number, in a way, but it isn't spectacular and Houston, frozen, knows it. A momentary silence is pierced by the sound of a child crying in the stalls. Quite why left this song to the end is bewildering.But the on-stage behaviour is perhaps worth seeing on its own:
The songs include moments of genuine bonkersness. During "Saving All My Love for You" she stoops to moisturise her ankles and on several occasions appears to be singing to her shoes.All a bit sad, in its way.
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