Open-Ended Interview with Whitney Houston, was a promotional Interview which ARISTA/BMG sent to radio stations to promote the release of her “My Love Is Your Love” album. She talks about the recording process, the producers, the nomination of “When You Believe” for the Oscar and future projects at the time.
You can DOWNLOAD it here, but remember you need to be logged in!
Just wanted you to let you all know, that I am currently scanning my whole scrapbook for the world to see. I have scanned already about 650 pages which is only a fourth of my collection. It takes a lot of time but I think it is worth it. So be on the look out of new entries in our Press-Center.
Starting on Monday, TWV will have “Whitney Picture Week“. We will post nothing but pictures; unless of course some new news come up; and we will still post other things, but we want to dedicate a week to Whitney’s fabulous photos over the course of her life. This will be our slow but surely way of sipping back into doing weekly themes, like we use to do. I hope you all do not mind. #NBL *Tara* and Roland
CHECK IT OUT HERE…
Oprah sat down with Cissy Houston I can only begin to describe as a revealing interview for Oprah’s Next Chapter. Cissy and Oprah left no stone unturned as they talked about the late Whitney Houstons life. Check it out here:
(Thanks to: Ashley Miller for the upload)
The Barbados Music Awards honored Whitney Houston yesterday, January 19, 2013, with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Barbadian singers Niki Nicole, Rhesa Garnes, Ruth Collymore and Toni Norville took the stage, delivering emotional and fitting renditions of ‘I Will Always Love You’ and ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’ among other tracks. With just minutes left in the set, 79-year-old Cissy Houston stole the spotlight, making both herself and the crowd burst into tears.
Cissy arrived on January 12, 2013:
Emily “Cissy” Houston is in Barbados. The American soul and gospel singer is here for the eighth annual Barbados Music Awards, which will be staged at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, Two Mile Hill, St Michael, on Sunday at 8 p.m.
The 79-year-old Grammy-winning recording star, who is the mother of late singer and actress Whitney Houston, arrived at the Grantley Adams international Airport yesterday afternoon from New York.
A member of her entourage said it was a long flight and Houston was tired, so she could not speak to the Press at that time.
Houston will be receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award and will be presenting local gospel singer Sister Marshall with the Living Legend Award.
Niki Nicole, Rhesa Garnes, Ruth Collymore and Toni Norville will present a tribute to the late Whitney, which will end with a performance by the legend herself.
She will also be participating in the Whitney Houston tribute and will be speaking at the Turning Music Into Gold workshop at the Savannah Hotel tomorrow. (CA/NS)
(Source: nationnews.com | JANUARY 12, 2013)
And here is an interview with Cissy Houston:
Emily “Cissy” Houston emerged from her hotel room at exactly 1 p.m. The woman who is a stickler for promptness was sporting a sleeveless polka dot top and white linen shorts, proving that at age 79, though she walks with a cane, she still has a stellar fashion sense.
As we sat down together at Barbados’ Crystal Cove Hotel, she told me “You have to speak up loudly”, concerned about the music, and then cracked a warm smile.
The woman who proudly describes herself as the “matriarch of her family” was enjoying her first visit to Barbados, relishing her escape from the chilly winter weather of Newark, New Jersey, where she resides. Cissy, who was in town for the Barbados Music Awards, admitted she didn’t know much about the event but was honoured to be here.
“I don’t know too much about the award, but all awards are great, because it’s people getting honoured for what they do,” she said.
At 79, though she has been slowed from the effects of ageing, Cissy has kept looking good through the years.
“I try to eat right and exercise, though I don’t exercise as much as I should,” she said, flashing her trademark smile.
But underneath the smile that she willingly gives is a mother who is still reeling from the pain of loss in the tragic death of her daughter Whitney Houston.
As much as any parent is fully able to bounce back after losing a child, especially one that was considered one of the greatest singers of all time, who faced her public and private battles with drug addiction, Cissy has managed to rebuild her life, though she admits that she is by no means over her daughter’s death.
“It’s been very difficult losing my baby, very difficult,” Cissy says. “I’m by no means over it, by no means in very good shape. I’m just depending on God to help me through.”
God and her faith have been integral parts of Cissy’s life ever since she was a child growing up in the church. Cissy, who is one of eight children, used to sing gospel music with her sisters and brothers as part of a singing group The Drinkard Four (Drinkard is Cissy’s family name).
“My faith has remained the same,” she said. “I’ve always had good faith in God and I’ve always trusted him to guide me and see me through. He’s been really good to me. When I did wrong, he’s been able to bring me out.”
But coping with the loss of her only beloved daughter has taken a toll on Cissy.
“Right now I’m the matriarch of my family. My sisters and brothers are gone . . . . There were eight of us. I’m the last one, the baby,” she said. “I lost a brother right after my daughter died, my last one. So it’s been very difficult.”
When you live in the public eye, sometimes picking up the pieces after a tragedy can be difficult under the glare of the spotlight. Cissy, though, has managed to stay within her familiar confines of home in New Jersey, which has been her haven.
“During the last year I think I’ve gotten even stronger because I’ve depended on God,” Cissy said. “I’m not overly religious and all that kind of stuff. I just trust in Him. I’ve always trusted in Him. As a young girl I learned how to, because my parents died very early.”
The only time within the last year that Cissy has been visible to the public has been on episodes of the family reality show The Houstons: On Our Own.
“Well, that was really not my reality; it was my daughter-in-law’s reality,” she said candidly. “She asked me to be on it, but if you noticed I was not in every segment. I went to help her, and that’s it.”
Dealing with family issues after Whitney’s death, especially her relationship with her granddaughter Bobbi Kristina, is one that has received special attention.
Along with playing out family dramas in the public eye, Cissy has also made some personal changes to her life, in terms of scaling back her living arrangements.
“Newark is where I was born. It was where I grew up,” Cissy said, laughing. “It’s where I’m going to stay. I doubt it very much if I’m ever going to move out of Jersey. Well, I’m really too old. I just moved from one house to an apartment building. It’s much smaller . . . . You know I had a big house, but there’s nobody there but me, so I decided to scale down and I’m very happy. People in the building are very nice.”
Though she’s experienced the change of address over the past year, Cissy’s biggest change has been adjusting to a life without her daughter Whitney in it. Next month will mark the one-year anniversary of her death, and nobody is more aware of that date than her mother.
“I know with the help of God I’ll get through it,” she said.
Cissy remains close to her two sons Gary Garland and Michael Houston from her two previous marriages.
“One son lives by me and my other son is Atlanta,” she said.
Now that she’s forging ahead with her life, Cissy has written a book that will be out on January 29.
“I decided to write it because everybody else wrote something and didn’t write the right thing,” she said. “The book is about her and me and our relationship. I wrote it this past year. The book is Remembering Whitney – Love, Loss And The Night She Died.
Cissy admitted that writing the book proved to be very therapeutic for her.
“I got a lot of things that came out of me. I remembered a lot of things that she and I did together,” she said. “It’s about her growing up. Everybody has their own opinion of everything. I get sick of people just writing, writing and they don’t know what they’re talking about. Of course, it bothers me but when you’re in the limelight, you got to go through all that kind of crap and you learn to deal with it.”
As Whitney’s mother, Cissy would know more than most people who only saw her daughter through the lens of a camera. She raised her, dried her tears, shared in her triumphs and tragedies, and did the unimaginable as a parent – bury her child. But despite the pain, Cissy finds solace and peace in her role as a parent and in the daughter that mesmerized the world.
“She had her problems like most young people do today,” Cissy said. “I taught Whitney the same values I had, but most kids when they grow up, they do their own things. Sometimes they get into things that they can’t get out of. I’m sure any mother will tell you. Nobody raises their children to be what they sometimes turn out to be, but . . . .”
Almost a year after’s Whitney’s death, Cissy has proved that she has the strength to go on, as difficult as it may be at times.
“I’m doing what I always do. I sing, go to church, I go different places, I’m here, I do what I’ve always done. I’ve worked all my life, before Whitney, after Whitney,” she said. “I’m pretty much the same.”
But if you think that Cissy has regrets about anything, she doesn’t.
“I’ve tried to give my children the values and the things they should know and do, and that’s what I did,” she said. “And I’m not sorry that I did anything in my life. I’ve done it. I miss my daughter immensely. Sometimes I really have some bad times, but I didn’t do anything that I should not have done. There’s no book on raising children. You do what you can, you love them and give them the values and the things you’re supposed to give them and then it’s up to them.”
(Source: nationnews.com | BY SHERIE HOLDER-OLUTAYO | SUN, JANUARY 20, 2013)
In celebration of Whitney Houston’s life and unparalleled career, Madame Tussauds has chosen to immortalize the beloved artist in wax – not once, but four times at four separate and distinct points of her life, which will be showcased at each Madame Tussauds Attraction in the U.S. This will represent the first time in the more than 200-year history of Madame Tussauds that the attraction has created four distinct wax likenesses of a single subject represented at different points of their life.
The four new wax figures, which honor the performer at memorable points of her career, will be unveiled at a special ceremony in early February at Madame Tussauds New York in Times Square. The figures will then be individually installed in each of the four U.S.-based Madame Tussauds attractions in New York City, Washington, D.C., Hollywood and Las Vegas accompanied within immersive and commemorative settings.
“Mention Whitney Houston’s name and you can almost hear her performance of the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ at Super Bowl XXV, her incredibly powerful take on ‘I Will Always Love You,’ the soulful ‘I Look to You’ or the catchy hit ‘I Wanna Dance with Somebody,’ immediately playing in your head,” said Rosemary Preta, Director of Marketing, Midway USA, Merlin Entertainments Group. “She was a true and rare talent and we are exceedingly proud to be adding her wax likeness to our attractions in the United States.”
Speaking on behalf of the family and The Whitney Houston Estate, Pat Houston said: “We were extremely honored when Madame Tussauds’ approached us about doing not one, but four figures of Whitney from different points in her 30-year career. This is something we are excited to do for the fans.”
Each of the wax figures was created by a team of specially trained artists at Madame Tussauds’ studio in London, England. The figures were first perfectly sculpted in clay then molded in wax before artists accurately recreated skin tone, including every freckle, mole and dimple. Hair is then inserted one strand at a time and hairdressers, make-up artists and stylists then finish off the look. The painstaking process takes four months to complete at an approximate cost of $1.2 million for the four figures.
Each of the wax figures will be featured in a unique pose and costume, recreating a significant moment of Houston’s incredible career.
Madame Tussauds New York
In 2009 Whitney Houston released “I Look to You,” which was her first studio album in six years, and quickly reminded listeners why she was one of the greatest artists of all time. The album debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 — becoming her fourth number one album — and has gone on to sell more than 2.5 million copies worldwide. At Madame Tussauds New York, Houston will be dressed in an elegant gold sequined floor-length gown evocative of the one she wore in the “I Look to You” album photo shoot.
Madam Tussauds Washington, D.C.
On January 27, 1991, Houston delivered one of the most stirring renditions of the “Star Spangled Banner” ever recorded at the start of Super Bowl XXV. It was a moment that held national significance due to the fact the U.S. was at war in the Persian Gulf and one that became a defining moment of her career. At Madame Tussauds Washington, D.C., Houston will be portrayed as she appeared on that day and dressed in a recreation of the white track suit with red, white and blue detailing that she wore with a white headband.
Madame Tussauds Hollywood
Houston took on her first major acting role when she starred as singer Rachel Marron in 1992’s “The Bodyguard.” The film was a box office success, becoming the second highest grossing release of the year, and the soundtrack, which features Houston’s cover of “I Will Always Love You,” sold 45 million copies worldwide and has gone on to become the best-selling soundtrack of all time. At Madame Tussauds Hollywood, Houston will be depicted as Rachel Marron wearing a replica of the chromed-silver “Queen of the Night” costume she famously wore in the film. Warner Bros kindly lent the original outfit to Madame Tussauds studio artists to ensure an exact recreation.
Madame Tussauds Las Vegas
The first single from Houston’s second studio album was titled “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)” and earned the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 30th Grammy Awards in 1988. The song’s accompanying video became one of Houston’s best recognized music videos and ran in heavy rotation on MTV, VH1, and BET. At Madame Tussauds Las Vegas, Houston’s wax figure will be styled in the same way she appeared in the video, wearing a tight purple-pink tank dress and blonde curly hair.
(Source: madametussauds.com)
Here is the Digital Booklet of “I Will Always Love You: The Best Of Whitney Houston”, enjoy and don’t forget to go out and buy your own copy!
Listen to a great new track of Whitney Houston “Never Give Up” which will be released on the new Greatest Hits Album “I Will Always Love You: The Best of Whitney Houston”.
