WHITNEY HOUSTON, AND "I LOOK TO YOU".

WHITNEY HOUSTON, AND "I LOOK TO YOU".
Okay, I'm usually a kind person, and I always say kindness as an attribute is far under-rated as a positive trait to possess. But I admit my intentions for turning on "Good Morning America" on ABC this morning, were less than kind. The truth is, I was looking forward to seeing a "performance" I felt sure would be--if not credible-- at least terribly amusing.
The woman known for years as the "train wreck", the woman suffering from terrible addictions and tremendously poor decision making, the woman everyone laughed at, not with: Whitney Houston, was going to sing, live, in Central Park.

The audience gathered was enormous, and the expectations seemed as high as, well, Whitney & Bobby Brown used to be.
But when she walked onstage to an adoring, cheering crowd, she looked radiant. Much heavier than her "crack" days, but still slender and once-again beautiful, I was now suddenly encouraged, but by no means, convinced.
Then she offered to sing the title track from her new CD, "I Look To You", noting that "You" referred to "all of you...", as she gestured towards the crowd, adding "...and to..." as she paused, quietly--reverently--and thrust her arms gently towards the sky.
And then, she sang. Her voice is back, and more splendid than I remembered("I Wanna Dance With Somebody", 1987)more powerful("I Will Always Love You", 1992)and more tender than anything in my memory(though Judy Garland's iconic "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" leaps to mind).
For all you Michael Jackson fans out there, who feel cheated out of a "comeback", I'd urge you to give Whitney a listen. She was a huge voice in the 1980's and 1990's, and was silenced by her own addictions and disorders. But this time, kids, there's a happy ending.
To heck with YouTube, I'm headed to the store to get the CD.