Even before she became a global megastar with the best-selling soundtrack for The Bodyguard, that featured perhaps the most iconic female ballad of all time (I Will Always Love You), Whitney Houston achieved another moment in Pop culture history – that was just as much iconic, if not more.
Soon after the record-breaking success of her first three studio albums, which transformed her into the best selling female artist in the world – around that time, Whitney was asked to perform at the XXV Super Bowl event in the year 1991.
It was a particularly challenging time in the United States, as the country had just gone into Gulf War with several security concerns pertaining to a possible terrorist attack that loomed over the event.
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With an unprecedented deployment of security forces at Florida’s Tampa Stadium, Houston took the stands to perform the anthem, dressed-down to a sports jump-suit – that, in time, has become symbolic of this iconic performance.
With a slowed down tempo, giving her more time to linger the notes, Whitney Houston nailed every bit of that hell-of-a-difficult song, and sang it so flawlessly that it made it sound like that was exactly how it was always meant to be sung.
The vocally powerful and emotionally-charged rendition became a blueprint for all national anthem performances thereon, that have been sung by female performers, ever since January 27, 1991.
The event was viewed simultaneously by the troops deployed at war and their families watching from home, instilling a sense of national pride and uniting the country in the feeling of patriotism.
The performance was released as a single by Houston’s estate and her record-producer Clive Davis, and it went on to peak at #20 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts – becoming the only version of the National Anthem to do so.
It was only topped by the re-release of the same in 2001, after the 9/11 attacks – when it yet again entered the charts and peaked at #6. Houston donated all the proceeds to charity.
Years later, as the performance continues to be cemented as one of the most iconic television moments in history, you continue to see young female performers walk along the same footprints laid down by Houston and her musical producer Ricky Minor, who birthed and vocally arranged the version along with the singer.
The elongated belted notes, the soaring crescendos and that iconic head voice note in the finale that can work the nerves of nearly every singer in contemporary music – almost every version that has been sung by female performers since 1991 – is ‘the-Whitney-Houston-version.’
Not just for the magnitude of it’s impact in Pop culture, but also for her breathtaking vocal performance – the version remains the greatest rendition of the anthem, that has ever been sung.