Aretha Franklin Cancels Whitney Houston Funeral Performance
Why Aretha Franklin cancels Whitney Houston Funeral Performance? Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin cancelled her performance at Whitney Houston’s funeral due to health problems. The 69-year-old singer was scheduled to sing an emotional rendition of Houston’s “The Greatest Love of All” at the late singer’s funeral at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey.
A few days after singer Whitney Houston was found dead in a bathtub at a Beverly Hills Hotel, Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin released a statement saying:
“I just can’t talk about it now. It’s so stunning and unbelievable. I couldn’t believe what I was reading coming across the TV screen. My heart goes out to Cissy, her daughter Bobbi Kris, her family and Bobby”.
Aretha Franklin cancels Whitney Houston Funeral Performance due to unexpected foot and leg problems she encountered after she gave a concert Friday. However, she sends best wishes to Whitney Houston’s family. She said via her spokesperson:
“Regretfully, I am so sorry that I was unable to be with you at Whitney’s service today. I had every intention of being there. But unfortunately I had terrible leg spasms and locked leg muscles until 4:00AM this morning following my concert last night, which I’ve been having for the last few days. I feel it necessary and very important to stay off my leg today as much as possible until concert time this evening. My heart goes out to my dear friend Cissy, Dionne, Bobbi Kristina and the rest of the family. May God keep them all”.
Yet, many are criticizing the soul legend for her absence. But even without her, Whitney Houston’s funeral is still a star-studded intimate affair. Stevie Wonder and Alicia Keys both performed musical tributes. While Kevin Costner, who starred opposite Houston in the 1992 hit film, “The Bodyguard”, urged those around the world to “dry our tears, suspend our sorrow – and perhaps our anger – just long enough to remember the sweet miracle of Whitney”. Famed soul singer Dionne Warwick and Houston’s cousin read out a funeral poem and introduced music greats from the past and present.
Meanwhile, Clive Davis, the founder of her label Arista Records, who discovered and molded Whitney Houston into a global pop phenomenon, said shortly before she died that Whitney had promised she was getting back into shape. He said, “You wait for a voice like that for a lifetime. You wait for a face like that, a smile like that, a presence like that, for a lifetime. And when one person embodies it all it takes your breath away. Music was her passion. Whitney lived music. Whitney loved music”.
So its really fine even Aretha Franklin cancels her funeral performance. Let us just wish her good health. And consider her age, health and the fact that she, too, is mourning.
Whitney Houston recorded stirring love songs and vibrant dance tunes during a 30-year career that peaked with her 1992 signature hit “I Will Always Love You” and paved the way for a generation of singers that followed. Among the greatest singers of the 1980s and 1990s, and later admitted to heavy use of cocaine, marijuana, alcohol and prescription pills. She suffered a turbulent personal life and marriage to singer Bobby Brown. Her death at age 48 shocked her family, fans and the music industry after she was found underwater in a hotel bathtub on the eve of the music industry’s Grammy Awards. Whitney Houston’s cause of death has yet to be determined. Whitney Houston surely will be missed. Watch Whitney Houston Funeral.
Category: Entertainment