Whitney Houston's Triumphant Train Wreck

Whitney Houstons GMA Performance: Triumphant Train Wreck

We are all so grateful that our Diva made it back to the stage and that in itself is a triumph. Her Mother Cissy, witnessing the triumph with the tragedy, cried on the sidelines as her daughter commended her for always being there through it all. Yes, Cissy could only do so much being that Whitney a grown woman, had made disastrous choices for herself. After Robin resigned, Whitney's personal management took a nose-dive. But made it back to NYC she did last week. We performers are always grateful to see a fallen star get up and rise to the occasion even if it is a train wreck. Judy Garland was a train wreck..broke, drunk and tragic...but still willed herself back to the stage....tattered and torn. We Americans have had our fill of tested Divas: Judy Garland, Dorothy Dandridge, Liza Manelli, Elizabeth Taylor, Janis Joplin...to name a few...have all fallen at one time or another and some did not make their comebacks. Whitney had scared us and we were afraid for her life at times...that she'd be another tragic ending. However, Miss Houston made her billed comeback performance on Good Morning America's summer stage last week. It is always triumphant to see any fallen singer will their way back to the stage hoping that being on stage will propel them to the inspiration for singing that once was lost but now is found again. Being on stage, having art sucked out of you by a loving committed audience is so inspiring to greatness. Whitney found her way back in the spotlight last Monday morning September 1, 2009 before 5000 NY fans in Central Park. She sounded horrible. She should never have appeard in that vocal state. Why? Because ears remember bad singing far longer than they remember good singing. And although you could see the disappointment on her face when she went for notes that she knew she didn't have, or that she thought she might have, or gave it a shot in performance not knowing what she had, where the voice was, she still felt the love. Took the risk. She knew she couldn't sing the material. She knew that she was dealing with a five note range. There was disappointment and tragedy in her performance as she herself and her mother acknowledged the crest fallen voice, however, their will, their spirit together with the granddaughter Bobbi Kristina bonded a powerful generational bloodline of support and insistence on getting over this particular mountain. This particular performance. This challenge. The solidarity of the legendary female singer family willed Whitneys comeback and therefore that power was powerful enough to prevail this time. But Whitney must believe in it herself. Because if Whitney does not believe in herself, she won't prevail. Because being a singer takes a little bit more than having a dream. Yes, a dream is a plan. However, to make the dream work, one has to be in the intuitional singer survival mode. If Whitney had truly been planning a successful GMA comeback performance, having had a 12 year or so more career, she would have known and exercised the importance of getting her 5-day rest...bodily, mental and vocal....before any show. Never should shows be back to back. Never. Whether that bad management planning was induced by her or her management, singers and performers who allow promoters to dictate their schedules to them or schedule back to backs are totally out of control of the success or failure of their careers, and have no clue of what they are doing. The importance of this concert should never have collided simultaneously with anything Oprah had planned. That never should have been on the schedule that week. What did she do fly to Chicago for the taping then fly to NY for the concert in 1 day? Recipe for disaster. Airplanes are dehydrating. Constant talking is vocal negligence. A singer must be vocally intelligent. This is where Whitney failed herself. The other problem may be, that Whitney herself, is not playing the game honestly. Because if she has been off of the crack pipe for 1-2 years, then the vocal cords should have healed by now, I mean the parts effected by the direct heat of the pipe on the cords. I am not in any way saying her range should have resumed...no, I cannot confirm anything of the sort...but the raspiness, the holes in the scales, and the shallow breathing would not be happening. That leaves me to say that I am not sure Miss Houston has left the crack alone. She did not perform as if she is serious about her comeback. I am not sure she believes in the comeback. Maybe she's doing it for mother, for baby, for aunt, for godmother, but if this is going to work, Whitney's got to do it for herself. She has to stop playing the games and stop blaming Oprah. She's got to put the crack pipe down, leave the weed behind, and stop the partying. Vacation is vacation. But business is business. The business of singing costs lives and fortunes, production and management. The art of singing deserves wisdom, artistic respect, vocal intelligence and self preservation.