Whitney Houston. Gospel choir prodigy raised by soul royalty, Super Bowl anthem reinventor, the rare voice the drag community refuses to parody, reluctant face of pop music's "crossover" wars, three-octave talent behind the best-selling soundtrack in history.

She grew up singing in the choir at New Hope Baptist Church, trained by a mother, Cissy Houston, who'd once backed up Aretha Franklin, with Dionne Warwick as a cousin and soul music running through the family before Whitney Houston ever picked up a microphone professionally. In 1991, her team made one quiet change, shifting The Star-Spangled Banner from a stiff 3/4 waltz into 4/4, and turned the national anthem into a charting Super Bowl hit. The Bodyguard soundtrack still outsells Saturday Night Fever, Titanic, and Purple Rain. And when Diane Sawyer asked her, on camera, to name her biggest devil, Whitney didn't say cocaine. She said: "me."

Host Michael Osborne and guest John Watts wrestle with the narrative of her addiction and an abusive marriage, and how we understand her talent. They dig into the night she was booed at the 1989 Soul Train Awards and met Bobby Brown hours later, her close bond with Robyn Crawford kept just out of public view, and the squeaky-clean "princess" image Clive Davis built that never matched the goofball she actually was at home.

Famous & Gravy is a celebrity biography podcast. Every episode asks: Would you want that life?

If you enjoyed this episode you may also like Episode 74 "The Masterclass Act" (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Episode 101 "Soul Queen" (Aretha Franklin).

LINKS

New York Times obituary for Whitney Houston

Whitney Houston's 1991 Super Bowl National Anthem performance

Whitney Houston's 2002 interview with Diane Sawyer

Whitney Houston's 2009 interview with Oprah Winfrey

Dead or Alive — the Famous & Gravy quiz game

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