NOTE: TO ALL FANS OF MS WHITNEY HOUSTON, THIS IS AN HONEST AND NON-DRAMATIC REVIEW AND FAR FROM MEAN. I WRITE WHAT I HEARD AND SAW AND FELT. I HAVE THE UTMOST RESPECT FOR MS. HOUSTON, ARGUABLY THE GREATEST POP SINGER OF ALL TIME. IF YOU CANNOT ACCEPT MY REVIEW, YOU'RE WELCOME TO LEAVE.
Apparently, Mr. Manager, who was the first person to post the first review and pictures of the concert on the world wide web (yeah! I scooped the entire world!), has been bashed, grilled and then crucified in all the Whitney forums in cyber-space all over the world for writing a supposedly 'hate' review of her first come-back concert after a year and a half of not performing. Let me make this clear: I am not a Whitney hater, and no one paid me to write this review (some Whitney fanatics even claim that I was paid off by rival camps despite being an 'independent blog' - puh-leese! - my readers know I don't need the cash). My honest review has become 'legendary' in all the forums in the USA, where they seem to generally agree that Whitney's performance on Saturday night (based on some youtube clips) was an improvement on her previous performances. What??? So she has sounded worse before? Check out what these other bloggers who were present at the concert thought as well:
1. Klubbkidd (also entertainment journo for The Malay Mail, English Malaysian daily)
2. Shah
3. Moira
It was a historic night for Malaysia as thousands of Malaysians watched painfully the downfall of a diva. I cried. Here was one of the last century's greatest voices, reduced to a croak and a whimper.
Live & Loud KL 07 starring Whitney Houston last night was one of the highlights of the local music industry's calendar of events this year. But what a disaster it turned out to be. For Miss Houston and her fans, that is. But more on that later.
Nikki, Anuar, Lah, Azan, Mod, Jac, Noryn and Sofea opened the show at around 9pm. Backstage, it was a quiet frenzy as everyone got ready, looking their best. Noryn even helped Sofea touch up her make-up.
Ahmad, a new make-up artist, offered to do Nikki's make-up and hair for free. A trial, as it were. Thank you Ahmad.
I estimated around 5,000 people packed the grounds of Bukit Kiara.
Opening the act was Nikki, singing a medley of Can You Feel It and Rhythm Nation. Initially the plan was to hook her to a harness and hoist her 15 metres up in the air and then have her 'fly' in onto the stage. But the idea was scraped due to safety issues. The back-up plan was to raise her instead from underneath the stage on a riser.
Accompanying Nikki was a 9 piece ensemble led by music director Aylwin Santiago. Nikki whistled her way through, and I received several sms's from people I knew in the audience who were apparently impressed with Nikki's flawless performance. The girl is turning into a confident entertainer and performer, and she knows it.
While Nikki was running up and down the stage like she owned it, I spotted this couple in the crowd.
After her opening act, Nikki had to rush backstage for a quick outfit change for her closing song, Lady Marmalade. How many people does it take to zip a dress? Three, apparently.
I like Ahmad's work and work ethics. I dare say we shall be seeing more of Ahmad and his assistant Syed in the future.
Nikki strutted all the way to the front, in the glare of the spotlight and belted out the song, and whistled yet again at the climax. The crowd cheered. A very makan hati moment.
Backstage, Noryn and Anuar waited their turns.
The opening act over, the eight Malaysian artistes and Live & Loud KL 07 organiser Remy (centre crouching) took an exclusive pic for Mr. Manager. [Lah, Mod, Noryn, Azan, Nikki, Anuar, Sofea, Jac and Remy, crouching]
Then Ning arrived, late, from Seremban where she just finished a dinner show. She must have driven like an F1 driver to get back to KL in less than an hour. [Nikki, Chris, Remy, Ning and Aylwin.]
We were all ushered to the VIP Grandstand.
And the view from our RM1,000 seats was this:
I must say that the stage was a dream concert stage. The production team was from Singapore and the stage itself was flown in from London. The sound and light systems were magnificent, really international class.
That's Shaggy (Mr. Bombastic) who performed after the Malaysian artistes. Shaggy was in excellent form and got the crowd into a wild frenzy. Energy levels were high and we were all expecting to be blown away when Whitney came on. So after Shaggy finished his 45 minutes set, we waited. And waited.
AND WAITED. Where was Miss Houston? Overheard, all around me, were all sorts of unkind and snide remarks:
In the mean time, this blogger was seen smooching up to the organiser and man behind Live & Loud KL 07, Remy. Exclusives, perhaps, for The Malay Mail? Hmmmmm.
The crowd was tired, and somewhat pissed from the constant announcement by the DJ that "no photography or video filming of Miss Houston is allowed, and anyone caught taking pictures or taping Miss Houston will have their cameras confiscated." Yeah, right. Try catching 5,000 happy snappy handphone waving manic Malaysians.
Finally, after about one hour, Miss Whitney Houston finally came on stage. Way past midnight. And I was shocked at what I saw and heard.
Whitney Houston has put on weight and her paunched belly was not only evident but clearly meant to be seen by all and sundry. Yes, we know you're off the drugs and increased weight is your only way of telling us that you're sober in no uncertain terms. But that wasn't the only horror.
The voice was shrill, strident in the upper chest register and when she switched into head, it was a whimper of a falsetto. The vocals just came across as being very tight at the higher end of the registers. Nevertheless, she tried very, very hard to up the energy but we all sat riveted to our seats as we witnessed the most embarrassing performance on stage by a song goddess, no less. She even looked haggard and exhausted, and kept fiddling with her hair/wig/extensions.
Her choice of repertoire was good but the delivery of the songs was inconsistent. Some were actually bearable whilst others were just sad. Gone is the golden voice that I grew up singing along to, the voice that sang songs which make up the soundtrack to my life. I am probably one of her biggest fans, and tonight I couldn't help but sit silently in total disbelief and horror. I didn't expect to hear the same Whitney from The Bodyguard; that would have been unrealistic. But what I heard was simply too shocking. The deterioration in her vocal range and tonal timbre was scary. Nevertheless the crowd was kind, and clapped her on. Malaysians are nice.
Mid-way through the concert, she invited her daughter Bobbi Christina to join her on stage. It was painful to watch daughter cheer mother on, propping her up with words of encouragement, knowing full well that the Whitney Houston standing in front of us now is a mere shadow of the living goddess who ruled the pop world only a decade ago. It was a horrible, horrible performance by any standards, and this was supposed to be Whitney's long awaited spectacular world come-back tour??? There really was nothing spectacular about it, let alone come-back.
When the music began for And I Will Always Love You, I cringed. How on earth was she going to pull through this song that you and I know requires greater-than-great vocals? Everyone sat at their seats' edge. This was going to be something worth watching, the final and absolute nail in the coffin.
She confidently launched into the song, and ad-libbed all the way. Way to go, girlfriend! The tone was sweeter this time, but that was because the key was brought down to sit comfortably in her sweet range. Then she finally got to the big chorus. At the entry to the climax, I held my breath when she turned her back and faced her band instead, as if she knew she wasn't going to hit THAT famous high note. The whole Bukit Kiara was cringing and hoping and crying all at the same time. We were watching history in the making as a diva pulled herself together for that one final moment of glory, or downfall.
But Whitney must have felt the empathy coming from the audience who continued cheering. She walked back to the mic, took a deep breath and damned the torpedoes and gave it her best shot. The crowd exploded into deafening applause. It wasn't a glorious note. It didn't give me goosebumps. In fact, it wasn't even a beautiful note by any reckoning.
But it was a beautiful ugly note. I cried a tear. Here is an artiste, a true artiste who sang from the heart, even if the greatest voice of the 20th century is now just a beautiful memory. Here is a living legend who went to hell and back and she obviously did her very best last night, was extremely sincere and genuine in her interaction with the audience and was not ashamed to wear her heart on her sleeve. For that I applaud her. What's left of the voice was all forgiven.
Miss Whitney Houston, ma'am, let's be honest, you've lost it. But I will always love you, nevertheless.
REPERTOIRE:
1. If I Told You That
2. Medley: Saving All My Love For You, Greatest Love Of All, All At Once, You Give Good Love
3. Exhale (Shoop Shoop)
4. Heartbreak Hotel
5. It's Not Right
6. Step By Step
7. My Love Is Your Love
Costume Change
8. I Wanna Dance With Somebody
9. How Will I Know
10. I Go To The Rock
11. I Believe In You and Me (first 2 verses)/I Will Always Love You
Encore
12. I'm Every Woman
Apparently, Mr. Manager, who was the first person to post the first review and pictures of the concert on the world wide web (yeah! I scooped the entire world!), has been bashed, grilled and then crucified in all the Whitney forums in cyber-space all over the world for writing a supposedly 'hate' review of her first come-back concert after a year and a half of not performing. Let me make this clear: I am not a Whitney hater, and no one paid me to write this review (some Whitney fanatics even claim that I was paid off by rival camps despite being an 'independent blog' - puh-leese! - my readers know I don't need the cash). My honest review has become 'legendary' in all the forums in the USA, where they seem to generally agree that Whitney's performance on Saturday night (based on some youtube clips) was an improvement on her previous performances. What??? So she has sounded worse before? Check out what these other bloggers who were present at the concert thought as well:
1. Klubbkidd (also entertainment journo for The Malay Mail, English Malaysian daily)
2. Shah
3. Moira
It was a historic night for Malaysia as thousands of Malaysians watched painfully the downfall of a diva. I cried. Here was one of the last century's greatest voices, reduced to a croak and a whimper.
Live & Loud KL 07 starring Whitney Houston last night was one of the highlights of the local music industry's calendar of events this year. But what a disaster it turned out to be. For Miss Houston and her fans, that is. But more on that later.
Nikki, Anuar, Lah, Azan, Mod, Jac, Noryn and Sofea opened the show at around 9pm. Backstage, it was a quiet frenzy as everyone got ready, looking their best. Noryn even helped Sofea touch up her make-up.
Ahmad, a new make-up artist, offered to do Nikki's make-up and hair for free. A trial, as it were. Thank you Ahmad.
I estimated around 5,000 people packed the grounds of Bukit Kiara.
Opening the act was Nikki, singing a medley of Can You Feel It and Rhythm Nation. Initially the plan was to hook her to a harness and hoist her 15 metres up in the air and then have her 'fly' in onto the stage. But the idea was scraped due to safety issues. The back-up plan was to raise her instead from underneath the stage on a riser.
Accompanying Nikki was a 9 piece ensemble led by music director Aylwin Santiago. Nikki whistled her way through, and I received several sms's from people I knew in the audience who were apparently impressed with Nikki's flawless performance. The girl is turning into a confident entertainer and performer, and she knows it.
Nikki: Vern, I'm nervous. I'm very nervous. My stomach's all knotted up. I'm going to be on the same stage as Whitney Houston!!! I'm going to faint!No, I'm not cruel. I just know when to layan and when not to layan.
Me: Excellent. Faint. I'll wake you up when it's all over.
While Nikki was running up and down the stage like she owned it, I spotted this couple in the crowd.
After her opening act, Nikki had to rush backstage for a quick outfit change for her closing song, Lady Marmalade. How many people does it take to zip a dress? Three, apparently.
I like Ahmad's work and work ethics. I dare say we shall be seeing more of Ahmad and his assistant Syed in the future.
Nikki strutted all the way to the front, in the glare of the spotlight and belted out the song, and whistled yet again at the climax. The crowd cheered. A very makan hati moment.
Backstage, Noryn and Anuar waited their turns.
The opening act over, the eight Malaysian artistes and Live & Loud KL 07 organiser Remy (centre crouching) took an exclusive pic for Mr. Manager. [Lah, Mod, Noryn, Azan, Nikki, Anuar, Sofea, Jac and Remy, crouching]
Then Ning arrived, late, from Seremban where she just finished a dinner show. She must have driven like an F1 driver to get back to KL in less than an hour. [Nikki, Chris, Remy, Ning and Aylwin.]
We were all ushered to the VIP Grandstand.
And the view from our RM1,000 seats was this:
I must say that the stage was a dream concert stage. The production team was from Singapore and the stage itself was flown in from London. The sound and light systems were magnificent, really international class.
That's Shaggy (Mr. Bombastic) who performed after the Malaysian artistes. Shaggy was in excellent form and got the crowd into a wild frenzy. Energy levels were high and we were all expecting to be blown away when Whitney came on. So after Shaggy finished his 45 minutes set, we waited. And waited.
AND WAITED. Where was Miss Houston? Overheard, all around me, were all sorts of unkind and snide remarks:
"The cops pulled her over for drunk driving."
"She went back to the hotel for a quick top-up."
"She's passed out."
In the mean time, this blogger was seen smooching up to the organiser and man behind Live & Loud KL 07, Remy. Exclusives, perhaps, for The Malay Mail? Hmmmmm.
The crowd was tired, and somewhat pissed from the constant announcement by the DJ that "no photography or video filming of Miss Houston is allowed, and anyone caught taking pictures or taping Miss Houston will have their cameras confiscated." Yeah, right. Try catching 5,000 happy snappy handphone waving manic Malaysians.
Finally, after about one hour, Miss Whitney Houston finally came on stage. Way past midnight. And I was shocked at what I saw and heard.
Whitney Houston has put on weight and her paunched belly was not only evident but clearly meant to be seen by all and sundry. Yes, we know you're off the drugs and increased weight is your only way of telling us that you're sober in no uncertain terms. But that wasn't the only horror.
The voice was shrill, strident in the upper chest register and when she switched into head, it was a whimper of a falsetto. The vocals just came across as being very tight at the higher end of the registers. Nevertheless, she tried very, very hard to up the energy but we all sat riveted to our seats as we witnessed the most embarrassing performance on stage by a song goddess, no less. She even looked haggard and exhausted, and kept fiddling with her hair/wig/extensions.
Her choice of repertoire was good but the delivery of the songs was inconsistent. Some were actually bearable whilst others were just sad. Gone is the golden voice that I grew up singing along to, the voice that sang songs which make up the soundtrack to my life. I am probably one of her biggest fans, and tonight I couldn't help but sit silently in total disbelief and horror. I didn't expect to hear the same Whitney from The Bodyguard; that would have been unrealistic. But what I heard was simply too shocking. The deterioration in her vocal range and tonal timbre was scary. Nevertheless the crowd was kind, and clapped her on. Malaysians are nice.
Mid-way through the concert, she invited her daughter Bobbi Christina to join her on stage. It was painful to watch daughter cheer mother on, propping her up with words of encouragement, knowing full well that the Whitney Houston standing in front of us now is a mere shadow of the living goddess who ruled the pop world only a decade ago. It was a horrible, horrible performance by any standards, and this was supposed to be Whitney's long awaited spectacular world come-back tour??? There really was nothing spectacular about it, let alone come-back.
When the music began for And I Will Always Love You, I cringed. How on earth was she going to pull through this song that you and I know requires greater-than-great vocals? Everyone sat at their seats' edge. This was going to be something worth watching, the final and absolute nail in the coffin.
She confidently launched into the song, and ad-libbed all the way. Way to go, girlfriend! The tone was sweeter this time, but that was because the key was brought down to sit comfortably in her sweet range. Then she finally got to the big chorus. At the entry to the climax, I held my breath when she turned her back and faced her band instead, as if she knew she wasn't going to hit THAT famous high note. The whole Bukit Kiara was cringing and hoping and crying all at the same time. We were watching history in the making as a diva pulled herself together for that one final moment of glory, or downfall.
But Whitney must have felt the empathy coming from the audience who continued cheering. She walked back to the mic, took a deep breath and damned the torpedoes and gave it her best shot. The crowd exploded into deafening applause. It wasn't a glorious note. It didn't give me goosebumps. In fact, it wasn't even a beautiful note by any reckoning.
But it was a beautiful ugly note. I cried a tear. Here is an artiste, a true artiste who sang from the heart, even if the greatest voice of the 20th century is now just a beautiful memory. Here is a living legend who went to hell and back and she obviously did her very best last night, was extremely sincere and genuine in her interaction with the audience and was not ashamed to wear her heart on her sleeve. For that I applaud her. What's left of the voice was all forgiven.
Miss Whitney Houston, ma'am, let's be honest, you've lost it. But I will always love you, nevertheless.
REPERTOIRE:
1. If I Told You That
2. Medley: Saving All My Love For You, Greatest Love Of All, All At Once, You Give Good Love
3. Exhale (Shoop Shoop)
4. Heartbreak Hotel
5. It's Not Right
6. Step By Step
7. My Love Is Your Love
Costume Change
8. I Wanna Dance With Somebody
9. How Will I Know
10. I Go To The Rock
11. I Believe In You and Me (first 2 verses)/I Will Always Love You
Encore
12. I'm Every Woman
26 comments:
Thanks for the pics. They're great. But your overblown commentary sucks 1,000 times more than she probably did.
Thanks for ur review and pictures. That sad to read because Whitney was The Voice The Legend and now... I don't know if she lost her voice she should sing live but then maybe she is trying to bring it back :/
i'm a big fan of Whitney... i'm just sad by reading all this.... poor Whitney... lagenda dunia is sinking.... but like u said "I Will Always love you" Whitney.... one of the greatest a nd the best voice ever!!!
yeap
vern ...
membesar dengan lagu whitney
siapa yg boleh lupa ?? still teringat my fav song " I Believe In You and Me "
apa2 pun
hebat or nope...
“I decided long ago never to walk in anyone's shadow if I fail, if I succeed at least I did as I believe.”-Whitney Houston
n thanks again vern,couse berkongsi citer kat kitaorang yg dapat nak join
Once a junkie, always a junkie. Junkie. Junkie. Junkie. Junkie. Junkie. Junkie. Junkie. Junkie. Junkie. Junkie. Junkie. Junkie. Junkie. Junkie. Junkie. Junkie. Junkie. Junkie. Junkie. Junkie. Junkie. Junkie. Junkie. Junkie. Junkie. Junkie. Junkie. Junkie. Junkie. Junkie.
i heard nikki did great. bravo
Hello Mr. Vern,
tak kisah komen2 awak pasal yg lain ttg Whitney.
tapi agak terkejut komen awak pasal perut Whitney.
baca baik2.rasanya tak begitu elok buat komen perut camtu.ramai pembaca blog ni yg berbadan besar.mmg terasa.salah ke org gemuk menyanyi?
tak kisah lah badan dia dah naik.naik disebabkan drug ke kuat makan ke.itu bukan hak org lain nak komen.
tapi komen pasal suara tu tak kisah langsung sebab penyanyi selalu dipandang kekuatan vokal.
Mr. Manager: Ever since you came to my blog months ago, whenever I hear anything about Malaysia I think of you! When I saw that Whitney was there for the concert, I just knew you would have been there for the show, so when I saw your comment on Dan's site I smiled and then jumped over here to read your re-telling of the show. Too bad there isn't video online yet. Thanks for sharing!
Jules
House of Jules
I went to her concert back in 87 or 88 in SF. It was a bad show because she had the flu so she improvised or add libbed too much to the point that the melodies were completely changed. I predicted that her KL performance would not be a good one whatmore with her "laloqness".
i was there right from elliot yamin's performance until kak whitney's. i have to say shaggy (and his crew) were superbbbbbbbbbbbb!!!
I was there too and I totally agree with you Vern. Check out my review of the concert on my blog.
I think you comments were really unkind. Give her a break since she was on drug for a long time. Definitely her pipes are still there...what she lack was stamina and that she can regain with time. With a powerful voice like hers...please don't expect her to belt out all her songs in overdrive. That can only happen during studio production. For gods sake, she is 44. I gave her accolades for her comeback. It may not be like her concert in "Whitney in Washington"..but to the nay say I can safely say to you guys that I was there and I think she is back. The reason why she picked KL was because she needs to get back her confidence back singing in front of a live audience. We love you Whitney!!!! Of yes..regarding the long silence on I will always love you before that dramatic ending...it's her standard act. Watch her old performance and learn and please get the facts right!
hei there mr. manager, I was there at the concert too and i must admit that she wasnt at her best, BUT she wasn't as bad as you described. All i can say is that she held back during her performance.
i think your comment about whitney performance is a bit too much...she clearly isn't the voice like she use to be but it is not that bad.... i think all the inticipation and the wait..(oh my god ..THE WAIT) makes her performance a bit dissappointing.... espacially perfoming after shaggy who was superb that night.... all n all i reallyenjoy her that night, give her a break... it was her first concert after a while......
by the way how can u say nikki's performance is flawless..... shouting isn't a part of singing...
and the way she moves...it was all over the place.... that girl needs a lot of practice in the booty shaking department.... she is quite ok most of the times but her performance that night is not flawless......
First of all, thank you so much for dropping by and correcting me =) Nikki eh? i'll remember that! =P
I think ur expectations were too high for Miss Whitney. We ought to give her credits for her comeback. True, she was a junkie, but for the fact that she has turned around and now working hard, that's just good enough.
She didnt just 'sing' at Live and Loud; she PERFORMED. It definitely was not her best, but it was good. Or at least, it wasnt BORING!
You can say she's losing it. but you cant say she has LOST it. She can still come back as gloriously as ever if she wants to. AND as long as she doesnt turn back into a junkie once more.
The crowd and ME and YOU still love her =)
again, thanks for the info. Nikki did well =D
Take care.
vern... just can't believe the way u commented whitney's singin' skills. anyway, if this is true... then it's way too far from what i expected. how i shred my tear after reading ur post, it shows how hard for me to mend my broken heart. so damn sad!!!
seriously, mr vern.
were you really on planet earth the last 8 yrs? the whole world knows of whitney's trouble with the drugs & bobby etc and the fact that she was on that stage on saturday is an achievement in itself.
go whitney!
Hey, it's still great to see her in Malaysia. Eventhough her singing wasn't that good but it's great to have her back. :)
Honestly guys.Leave the man alone.He was right!I was there,and it was horrendous.
Why does criticism have to be viewed as insulting?
Gimme a break to the idiot who asked Vern to get his facts right. So she drugged up and went through the whole shit with Bobby.Yes we know that.But to say it's an achievement for her to go onstage - THAT'S insulting!
Maybe we expect more of her,than some people who just think her onstage is enough.Sheesh!
Whitney rocks... but she didn't in her comeback concert.Same shit people gave Britney during her comeback at the MTVVA.
take it in stride and LEARN!Fans have every right to share their views.
My review is on http://klubbkidd.blogdrive.com
vernon, everyday, your blog is the first thing that I READ.
and seriously, you guide nikki well.im soo proud of her.she is so talented! fantastic!
everyday, I come to your page and keep on playing all her clips.especially emotion.oh god.thats much better than whitney, i guess.hoho
shes totally and A list singer! you go girl, nikki!
thanks to you, vernon.
i was there that night too. leaving out the singing techniques and stuff like that as im no expert to comment on that, i was quite disappointed in her performance.seems like not worth the wait of almost an hour.
but shaggy was the best!really had fun during his performance =D
x seperti yg diharapkan..
nway..i will always love you whitney..
p/s: nasib baik tiket free..;p
I was there, and it's true that Whitney didn't perform her best that night, but at least she didn't lip sync, and i just watched her performance the year before for Olympic games, and that show was really a disaster! At least her show in live and lous was better..but yeah..maybe we're too harsh to her..nobody's perfect. But of God can give people so many chances, why not we give Whitney another chance..ok? I Love You Whitney!!!
Her yelling and barking voice is probably one of the most irritating sounds ever produced by a human-being.
It's all about (crude) power and technique. I don't understand how and why some people find it pleasant to listen to.
In pop industry, Whitney is equivalent to Sharapova: a mindless ball-bashing. Technically, very mono-dimensional. And, boring to watch.
And that's the very reason why she never made it BIG at the other side (read: the better taste) of the Atlantic. :)
Guys...what vernon said was right man..i'm standing 20 meters from Whitney Houston that night..Most of the people dissapointed on what they see...Thanks to Shaggy...Man Of The Night...
To Vernon..carry on blogging man...we love u...!!!!
hi mr. manager,
back in 2003/2004 i watched nikki sang lady marmalade in college's concert. that was before she choose to sing professionally.
i didn't really know her personally. but i think she has a good voice.
jss.
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