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When last seen at the BET awards on June 18, Whitney Houston's appearance and voice betrayed any belief that she is clean and sober.
When a young, bubbly Houston hit the scene in the mid 80's she was a media darling. Arista painted a picture of a sweet, girl next door with a powerful and soulful voice. For nearly 10 years they enjoyed the fruits of their image-making labor, until Houston married. Most people "settle down" when they find their soulmate - Whitney seemed to do the direct opposite. For nearly two years the media, fans and probably even Arista have tried to place the blame for Whitney's cancelled concert dates, backstage tantrums and soured image on husband, Bobby Brown. But Bobby is a scapegoat for those that don't want to admit that Whitney was never necessarily the innocent girl next door. Most of her good girl image was created by a record company who knew that someone with such a powerful voice could cross the music boundaries and make them mucho dinero - as long as they could make her appeal to a very wide audience! The truly amazing thing is that Whitney managed to live within that image for so long. So why don't I believe Whitney was blindly led down a road of drugs, public domestic disputes and baby's mama drama? A couple of reasons: - The Jersey native has never publicly aligned herself with the squeaky clean image. She's been known by former staffers and close friends to be a tough customer prone to putting you in your place. And admitted on Oprah that she is not to be played with because she can give as good as she can get! - On the flip side, what Whitney has aligned herself with consistently is Bobby. She has steadfastly stood by her husband throughout his very public legal woes. And has said in more than a dozen articles how much she loves him, believes in him and relates to him. - No one is innocent one day and becomes a party girl the next. She had it in her all along and was probably partying and enjoying herself before but was able to be more discreet about it until she hooked up with the ever controversial, and outspoken, Brown. Where Whitney is right now may be an extreme, but probably not altogether alien to her either.
The copyright of the article Where In The World is Whitney? in R&B/Soul Music is owned by . Permission to republish Where In The World is Whitney? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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