No Problem...

The Observer: Houston, you don't actually have a problem
Barbara Ellen The Observer, Sunday 9 May 2010

What's with the open season on Whitney Houston? Her show in Rome is the latest to be slated on an ill-fated tour beset with complaints, mockery and demands for money back.

As a Whitney fan, it's plain that she's not what she was. I've winced at clips of her "singing" live, with her thumb seemingly jammed in an invisible car door. Nor is she as lithe and gorgeous as she was in her youth. Then again, who is?

At her peak, Houston was a true talent – with a vocal range that made Mariah Carey sound as if she was being attacked by killer bees. But her drug-strewn fall in the past doesn't mean she does not deserve respect for the musical force she once was. Nor our compassion.

Indeed, with Houston's apparent "situation" all over the press, one has to wonder why people persist in buying tickets for her shows and then complain. My guess is that it's for the sport of denigrating this poor woman, in what amounts to a disgusting spectacle of showbiz bear-baiting.

Let's hope these people don't get a penny back. Considering what they went for, they've already had their money's worth.

NEWSFILE: 9 MAY 2010