Singer/Actress Whitney Houston - In Retrospect

What kind of accolade could aptly describe that female voice of Whitney Houston that influenced most of the aspiring singers and entertainers around the world? A modern nightingale? Perhaps, the comparison between that king's favorite bird and of Ms. Whitney is that her singing style and the fresh velvety-soulful voice that she resonated all over the world through her popular songs will reveal her uniqueness until she wrote thirty last Saturday.

The news...

Because of that, Sunday's broacast skyrocketed from last year's event with a 46% increase in ratings. In total, the averaged to 39 million viewers, all watching on to see the music community bid farewell to beloved one of their own.

From LL Cool J's opening prayer to Jennifer Hudson's tribute above, the awards were packed with condolences for the fallen singer.

The 2012 Grammys only follow the 1984 show for the highest rated Grammy broadcast, the year before Whitney released her first studio album. ( Part and parcel of Perez Hilton's blog about the singer's death)

My high school classmate who now resides in the US posted the news on her Facebook Mobile that reads: OMG! I can't believe my idol Whitney Houston died! She's only 48!

My mind traveled back during my high school freshman's days as this classmate of mine began imitating Whitney Houston via her song " One Moment in Time" for the vocal solo category during our Literary Musical Night for the school's intramurals.

I also remember that her cousin who's one year ahead from our level as her rival in school competition who's also singing Ms. Houston's songs.

We always jested that she can never win over her cousin with the song "The Greatest Love of All" . So the rest of our high school years saw her as the second fiddle to her cousin's winningest singing career in school.

Their rivalry continued on radio singing search. Until she became a karaoke master at the local restaurant and met her future beau.

During this Facebook days, she resurfaced as the main vocals of the local act in one of the states in the USA.

And still she cannot forget her fanatic days with the penultimate singer of America, that is, Whitney Houston.

Learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all...

Clive Davis catapulted the singing career of Whitney Houston as he spotted her during her teen modelling days.

My collection of song-hits when I was in high school almost feature Whitney's albums and songs from cover to cover.

• Girl power of the 80s really start with this lady as she delivered the upbeat tune of "I Wanna Dance With Somebody." Every high school girl was swooning about this ditty and it manifested through the way they approached us, boys during that time.
• Who can ever forget the most-imitated song during my high school life, "One Moment In Time?" The nightingale of our batch, who's now in the USA, used to sing this during high school program at the audio-visual room or at the open stage.
• During our senior year, "You're Still My Man," is often the jingle of those who were brokenhearted but can't admit that they were dumped by their boyfriends already. So, as we scanned our song-hits and my friend strummed his guitar, we used to jest by replying, "Where Do Broken Hearts Go?".
• Well, The Bodyguard movie catapulted Whitney Houston's career both as an actress and singer. Her rendition of Dolly Parton's original penned song, "I Will Always Love You" became her most admired-in-fact-signature song that lasted 14 weeks or so at the US Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart. It reverberated all over the world and upcoming singers here in the Philippines, even Charice mimic Ms. Houston's rendition. This was one of our movie analyses during my college days.
• Movies like, Waiting to Exhale with the hit song, "Exhale (Shoop, Shoop)", and The Preacher's Wife or The Prince of Egypt with "When You Believe" (duet with Mariah Carey-her closest rival), proved to be her most memorable films to date.
• Children will always imitate her singing, "The Greatest Love of All." Although, it's been sung by George Benson first, Whitney's version is more popular than the first.
• Almost all her songs were popular among her fans. Being one of them, how I wish the song, "Miracle" be re-issued again so that it can be number 1 this year.

To her fans, both singers and impersonators, Whitney Houston will be remembered as one of the pillars of pop music in history, not as a drug user.

To us, Whitney, you will always be an inspiration to be better persons, inside and out.