Top

Whitney Houston National Anthem

February 12, 2012 by · Comments Off on Whitney Houston National Anthem 

Whitney Houston National Anthem, When news came down about the death of music legend Whitney Houston at the age of 48, I immediately thought back to the singing the national anthem at the Super Bowl in 1991.

It occurred during the Persian Gulf War and when Super Bowl officials went looking for a singer to make this singing of our national anthem special, they apparently agreed only one person could do the song justice at this critical time in our nation’s history.

Houston took the famous song that many just think of as a nuisance when it is played before every sporting event and made it a spectacle of her own. How many times does a song that is played as often as “The Star Spangled Banner” bring a nation to tears? It did with Houston’s version and it garnered radio play days and weeks after she sang it live on TV.

While many young people are destined to be athletes or artists, Houston seemed destined to be a singer. Born to Cissy Houston, cousin of songstress Dione Warwick, Houston began singing in church and then as a backup singer for the likes of Chaka Kahn and some of the Jackson Brothers.

She immediately caught the eye of record producer Clive Davis and he helped her produce her first album which came out in 1985.

Houston dominated the music charts in the 1980s and 1990s before assorted personal problems derailed her career. A high-profile marriage and a breakup to Bobby Brown and self-admitted addictions to drugs and alcohol took her out of the public spotlight.

Her Super Bowl national anthem appearance is one that will live on forever. With a crowd waving American flags and jets flying overhead, a nation was united by Whitney Houston’s singing of a beautiful song during a difficult time.

Bottom