Charlotte Church has a drinking problem

Charlotte Church returns to her wild ways with a boozy night that left her slumped over a bar table
By Simon CableLast updated at 12:01 PM on 18th May 2010
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After becoming a mother for the second time, it seemed Charlotte Church had finally embraced ault life and decided to ditch her wild ways.
But if these pictures are anything to go by, the Voice Of An Angel has fallen well and truly back to earth... again.
Ms Church ended a mammoth drinking session slumped over the table of a bar.

Out of it: Charlotte Church lies passed out in a drunken slump after a mammoth drinking session in a bar in East London after she finished filming Over The Rainbow on May 1

Fallen angel: With a table of drinks in front of her, Church cannot be roused by her friend as she sleeps on the sofa without her shoes
The 24-year-old singer was partying with friends in Shoreditch, East London.
The group arrived at the 333 Mother bar, a favourite of Amy Winehouse, at 1.30am, shortly after she had finished filming Andrew Lloyd Webber's BBC1 talent show Over The Rainbow on May 1.
The group began downing champagne and cocktails before Miss Church eventually passed out.
After an hour, she was carried from the bar by friends without her shoes and bundled into a taxi.

The 24-year-old singer looks worse for wear as she has a night of boozing after finishing filming Andrew Lloyd Webber's BBC1 talent show

Snooze star: Charlotte dreams a little dream as she catches 40 winks
Miss Church achieved worldwide fame as an 11-year-old classical singer and performed in front of the Pope and the U.S. President.
But a string of turbulent relationships followed in her teens and she was frequently pictured smoking and stumbling out of pubs.
Miss Church, who is estimated to be worth £11million, once famously boasted that she drank ten double vodkas on nights out.

Charlotte Church went to the East London bar after filming her spot on the BBC's Over The Rainbow show
She and her boyfriend, the rugby player Gavin Henson, had their first child, Ruby Megan, in September 2007.
And fans had hoped her days of debauchery had finally finished with the birth of her second child, Dexter, in January last year.
But the singer had good reason to let her hair down after stunning millions with her fantastic new slimline figure on BBC1.
She claims to have attained the remarkable weight loss not through dieting but simply eating and drinking less - though the scales might have complained a bit the morning after this big night out.Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1279230/Charlotte-Church-returns-wild-ways-boozy-night-left-her.html#ixzz0oJohoGu4

Zoinks! Online: "Whitney Houston is a 'has been.' .....

I used to love Whitney Houston. Back in the day she was this picture of clean cut, fun and loveable. With monster hits like “I Will Always Love You,” “Greatest Love of All,” and “I Wanna Dance With Somebody,” she was what Celine Dion was before she went Vegas. When Houston hooked up with Bobby Brown, the truth about this Roni was that Whitney WAS a sweet little girl, but then Bobby got a hold of her and this tender Roni became crap-a-roni.She became a drug addict and pretty much lost respect of a lot of fans and critics. I’m not blaming Bobby Brown here – at least not fully. But it seems to me that when musicians change their lifestyles around to one that is not what people are familiar with, they become nut jobs. The same thing happened to Mariah Carey. She was a nice singer with an annoying high pitched voice that dogs could only hear. Then she hooked up with P. Diddy to become some weird thug life but not really singer/rapper? Her popularity pretty much went south. Jennifer Lopez was the same issue. When she became J.Lo, I was like, WTF!? She went from nice actress/musician to ‘don’t be fooled by the rocks that she got, she’s still, she’s still Jenny from the block.’ What block was this? A mental block? Now, she seems to be back to normal, as does Mariah Carey.I’m not saying that thug life or rap or R&B music is bad, I’m saying it doesn’t fit their images of why they sold albums. I can’t see P. Diddy being a successful country music artist. I can see him stealing, I mean ‘sampling’ a country music song, but that is about it.So when I read an article about a Whitney Houston concert not going so well, from ABCnews.com titled, “Whitney Houston Says Drug Use Reports ‘Ridiculous’” to which it stated “Singer Whitney Houston was released from a Paris hospital on Wednesday after suffering a respiratory infection and she called media reports that she was using drugs again ‘ridiculous,’” I had to wonder.Had she not gone down this path, Houston’s excuse may have been believable. She stated, “My health is terrific, but this is a time when I get a lot of allergies.”Her “performance during her "Nothing but Love" world tour in Australia was panned by some critics and some fans walked out, complaining she was off key, out of breath and looked exhausted.”But since you open up that side to fans, then they will speculate the same conclusion all the time. It may not be true, but that is something Houston has to combat. Hopefully, this story has a happy ending. Because the real news is that Whitney Houston’s first release in seven years is actually bringing her back to music dominance.BYLINE:Jason Tanamor is the Editor of Zoiks! Online. He is also the author of the novels, "Hello Lesbian!" and "Anonymous." Email Jason at jason@zoiksonline.com. Read more: http://www.zoiksonline.com/2010/04/whitney-houston-is-has-been-and-we-love.html#ixzz0oJjernEP

USA TODAY: On tour, Whitney Houston is hitting some sour notes

By Edna Gundersen and Steve Jones, USA TODAY

In her prime, nobody could touch Whitney Houston's towering gospelized mezzo-soprano. Sadly, that once-glorious voice is showing signs of serious deterioration, decline and distress. And some worry the same could be said for the diva's career.

Globally renowned for her pristine pipes, Houston lately has been a target of stinging criticism and derision for a series of overseas concerts marked by awkward stage demeanor, meandering chatter and, most tarnishing, impaired vocals.
MORE: The critics have not been kind
PHOTOS: A diva's tumultuous year

"A national scandal"

is how London's The Independent described the first stop on the U.K. leg of her Nothing But Love tour. The April 13 show in Birmingham "should never have happened," critic Simon Price wrote. "Her voice, seemingly about an octave deeper than the Whitney who sang the hits, is ragged and raw. ... Between songs, wheezing and panting and occasionally breaking into a scary Wicked Witch of the West cackle, she plays for time." Similar pans plagued her in

Dublin, London and Australia, where some fans booed and demanded refunds. The scathing notices have soured a meticulously plotted comeback and stained the legacy of one of pop's finest singers.

Houston faced a friendlier crowd at Sunday's show in Zurich, where fans reacted with "enthusiastic applause," according to 20 Minuten. But the singer "has lost her radiance," Aargauer Newspapers reported. "Her voice has just suffered too much." Sian Rayment wasn't upset about spending $120 for a ticket to the London show, but "I wouldn't go again," he says. "You feel sorry for her more than anything else. ... Everyone knows (her voice) is gone now. She could've stayed in the studio and recorded new albums, with no one the wiser."

Trouble on the tour

"They should pull the plug on the tour," says Jim Farber, music critic for New York's Daily News. "It's an embarrassment to have her out there. It doesn't sound like she has the stamina or range to deliver live at this point. And the excuses she keeps coming up with for her poor performances are starting to strain credibility."
Though hints surfaced earlier, evidence of Houston's diminished powers mounted with promotion surrounding the Aug. 31 release of I Look to You, her first album in seven years. A Central Park performance for Good Morning America Sept. 1 was "a flat-out disaster," Farber says. "I can't believe she didn't cancel or postpone it." Instead, Houston, 46, booked an Australian trek for February and the current European run, instigating a steady barrage of barbs and parries. After postponing four dates because of a respiratory infection, Houston blamed ensuing vocal glitches on allergies, air conditioning, talking too much and a temperamental upper range. No U.S. dates have been announced. Her bungled vocals shocked fans who expected the smooth delivery they heard on the well-received Look, a glossy but sentimental pop-soul set that doesn't test her range or vigor.

Bobby Brown kept her away from the stage 10 yrs

The superstar's slump may be more humiliating than the tabloid-chronicled drug abuse and troubled marriage to

Bobby Brown that kept her away from the stage and studio for much of the past decade, says Rolling Stone contributing editor Anthony DeCurtis. "It's one thing to stumble; it's worse to become a punch line," he says. Her career "may well be done, but I don't believe you can say that definitively. America loves a redemption story, and she was in a position to deliver a really good one." But she failed the humility test on Oprah, he says. "People weren't particularly satisfied ... and started sharpening the knives. She has a high hill to climb, and it's getting higher."

Essence Magazine

Essence magazine entertainment director Cori Murray says all is not lost, but it's going to take time for Houston to regain her vocal footing. "There have been other singers that have overcome their drug pasts and have gone on to have great careers," Murray says. " Natalie Cole comes to mind, as does Chaka Khan. If she can't hit that note in I Will Always Love You like she used to, she has to find another way to sing it so that the audience can still feel the passion of the old Whitney." Houston's record company, Sony BMG, and her public relations representatives at PMK-BNC did not respond to interview requests for this story.

A lofty legacy to maintain

Few have occupied a taller throne in pop royalty than Houston, who arrived 25 years ago with an impeccable pedigree (mother Cissy Houston, cousin

Dionne Warwick, godmother Aretha Franklin), starlet looks and a preternatural voice capable of deftly delivering slick soul, dance-pop and soaring ballads. She spawned armies of copycats, inspiring Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, Christina Aguilera, Beyoncé and Jennifer Hudson. Her 1985 self-titled debut sold 13 million copies and yielded three of seven consecutive No. 1 hits. The Bodyguard, the 1992 soundtrack with her signature take on Dolly Parton's I Will Always Love You, sold 17 million copies and is ranked 14th in album sales history by the Recording Industry Association of America, which places Houston fourth among top-selling female artists. She has collected six Grammys from 25 nominations.

Her clout has waned: Though I Look to You has sold a respectable 956,000 copies, it was shut out of Grammy consideration. Yet fans rushed to buy her concert tickets, hoping to witness her former glory. At the first of three London shows, after Houston failed to scale the heights of I Will Always Love You, she assured the audience, "OK, hold on, it's going to come." It didn't.

Afterward, while critical pens dripped venom, fervent fans reacted with disappointment and sympathy.
Jennie Connolly of Herne Bay, England, described the show as "a class act" but confessed that reports of booing at earlier concerts had lowered her expectations. "You could see she was struggling with her voice, but she was giving it her best," she said.

Rebecca White of Norwich, England, who attended with her daughter, was "very disappointed" but remained a steadfast fan, buying a greatest-hits set the next day. "We wanted to go and give her a hug and tell her to try again later on in her life when she truly can sing again," White said.

Can Houston sing sublimely again?

Maybe, says Eric Arceneaux, an R&B artist and vocal coach based in Washington. He has closely studied Houston's singing habits for decades and first noticed deterioration and huskiness in the early '90s, when she developed nodules after abusing her voice. The cracks, deeper tone, shortness of breath and inability to reach those skyscraping notes can be explained by smoking, past drug use and a lack of proper training, he says.
"Whitney is immensely talented but technically deficient," Arceneaux says.

Customized vocal exercises

Houston's tendency to push her "chest voice" into the stratosphere, rather than rely on the lighter, gentler "head voice," may sound dazzling, "but it's extremely damaging. It causes hoarseness, irritated vocal folds, calluses. It often requires surgery and rehabilitation. "Whitney was known for a free, flute-y head voice, and now it's just air," he says. "That tells me something's really wrong, because it's usually the last thing to go." Age is an unlikely culprit, he says, considering opera singers reach a prime ripeness in their 40s and "Patti LaBelle (at 65) is still hitting high notes."

Customized vocal exercises and a healthy lifestyle could salvage Houston's instrument. "The damage may not be fully reparable, but she could restore some clarity," Arceneaux says. Houston could scrap touring and maintain a recording career, Farber says. "With a voice that glorious, you could lose a lot and still have a lot left." DeCurtis envisions a successful rebound provided Houston agrees to relinquish the queenly status and adjust to less-demanding material. "I see the problem more as psychological than physical," he says. "You can't be working in diva mode if you're not delivering on the diva promise. "Is it possible to sing a different kind of song when that bravura aspect is so central to who you are? She would have to see herself in a different way. Does she want to? That's the question."

Contributing: Traci Watson from London