There’s no doubt that musicians face huge challenges to remain centered and whole, in an industry that seems to rip pieces away from their very soul at times. From the fans to the machine – to the very process of creating their work – the vulnerability is sometimes painfully obvious. The very thing that draws us to amazing talent like Whitney Houston, the courageous vulnerability, is what often becomes their undoing.
The ultimate question becomes: What do artists need to create to keep themselves safe from becoming undone? Because stories like Whitney Houston’s are not uncommon. Stars rise and fall with the fickle tastes of fans, and when an artist is as meteoric as Whitney, the fall to the ground is far and long. Her difficulties were not only exploited in the media, they were – to some degree – exploited by Whitney herself, choosing a reality show as a vehicle for her brand. Under the best of circumstances, that road is twisted – just ask the long list of reality stars held up to public scrutiny (and editing and distribution).
Whitney Houston made courageous leaps long before Being Bobby Brown, battling for sobriety and most recently reinvigorating her career and her brand. She took the brave leap from music to film. “The Bodyguard,” with Kevin Costner is what leaps to everyone’s minds when we talk about her film presence, but for me, it’s her more subtle performance in “Waiting to Exhale” that always got my attention, because it was far from her own journey.
Seeing Whitney play an icon, even as beautifully as she did so in The Bodyguard, was not a stretch. It was believable because she was believable – always authentic in her music, to see that embodied in the film was wonderful, but not a surprise.
But in Waiting to Exhale, amidst a great ensemble of veteran actresses like Angela Bassett, well that’s where we saw her acting chops come out. The softness she delivers her parting line to an outdated lover, the laughter she joined, but did not dominate – every piece of that film showed a side of Whitney – a collaborative side – that we seldom saw as a superstar. From every high note, performance to performance, she was what we demanded she be – an icon.
I think we all agree that Whitney Houston was far more than that. She courageously took on great, collaborative projects, most recently in the remake of “Sparkle.” I’ve had the great honor to be friends with Oscar Winner Irene Cara – the actress who crossed that same barrier and brought Sparkle to life the first time. I know from years and years as a coach, working with top artists that celebrities crossing media barriers from film to music to producer and back again is a difficult and amazing journey. 
They risk failure in a far more public way than mere mortals. But it’s the courage and the vulnerability to take those risks that keeps artists alive – in every definition of the word.
I think, now, in the end, like Michael Jackson and Amy Winehouse, our job now is to let Whitney Houston rest. The drugs – the chaos – the heartache – it’s all over. Like a great painter, only her artistry lives on. We have to remember that she was, of course, a real person – someone’s daughter …someone’s mother. She belonged to them. But if you connect the dots to the music…and the rest of her work, the legacy belongs to all of us.
Kelli Richards
President and CEO
The All Access Group, LLC
