A sad kind of love song

Whitney Houston defied the ash cloud and sailed into Dublin on Friday on her latest tour. We sent four Ticket writers along to the 02 to see her show. Here’s their reaction

ANTHEA McTEIRNAN

‘She may have the Lord but it looks like she’s losing the plot’

“Seems like the atmosphere’s changing a bit, huh?” Well yes, and it isn’t the volcanic ash, Whitney. The soul diva, who once remarked that she made “too much money to ever smoke crack,” found herself doing something else she might have supposed she made “too much money” to dabble in last Friday when she developed an Irish ferry habit. How would we Irish fans know if she really loved us? The journey proved it, babbled Houston.

There was a lot of babbling at the O2 on Saturday. “Let me say first, I’m gonna sing,” she declared. But Whitney didn’t sing enough. She may have “the Lord”, but it looks like she’s losing the plot. Yes Dublin did “wanna dance”, yes “we will always love you”, but the “greatest love of all” may be to remember you just the way you were. Didn’t we almost have it all? Not on Saturday night we didn’t Whitney.

LAUREN MURPHY

‘Not comically bonkers, not even particularly entertaining – just sad’

Where to start? The suspicion of lip-synching? The clichéd video montage of homeless people? The cringeworthy between-song patter? Perhaps it’s best to start and finish with a simple fact: Whitney Houston cannot sing live anymore. Her latest album revealed a performer whose voice had been undeniably ravaged by age and drug use, but her inability to hit the high notes was overlooked by the fact that she was finally back in the game.

Unfortunately, without her adept backing singers to carry these songs, all the audience would have heard was a wheezy karaoke caricature of a once-great singer. Songs like How Will I Know?and I Wanna Dance With Somebodyhave lost all the vim and vitality that made them exuberant pop classics, while I Will Always Love Younow sounds like the most feeble power ballad of all time. Not comically bonkers, not even particularly entertaining – just sad.

SINÉAD GLEESON

‘Everyone paused for the big note on I Will Always Love You’

At the end of Whitney Houston’s first song she stretches out her arms in a Jesus-like pose. Twenty minutes later, she’s beatifically solving the seating problems of a young girl in the front row. Sadly, that’s as far as miracles went on a night that opened optimistically but left many scratching their heads and well, feeling a little sad. Whitney is a legend, no question, but her vocals, even at a much lower register, frequently flagged and her lung busting backing singers filled the gaps.

There were flashes of that staggering voice, but too often the tired singer went through the motions, dropping out to let the crowd sing along. Everyone, including Whitney with a trip to her refreshment table, paused for the big note on I Will Always Love You.She took a good run at it, but like the gig itself it was never quite what it could have been.

ANNA CAREY

‘Sometimes impressive, sometimes deeply uncomfortable’

Even those who had no time for her particular brand of sugary ballad always had to admit one thing about Whitney Houston: the woman could sing, even if she often wasted her amazing voice on bland material. But times have changed. The saddest part of Houston’s sometimes impressive, sometimes deeply uncomfortable, O2 show were the moments when we were reminded of what she used to be able to do, back when she could effortlessly hit notes instead of bellowing them.

If Houston embraced her new huskier voice, she could learn to interpret songs in a new and exciting way as Marianne Faithfull, whose sweet voice was destroyed and then reinvented to extraordinary effect, did before her. But if she continues to let her backing singers and even the audience pick up the vocal slack, as she did tonight, she’ll continue to be a shadow of her former self.