At the dawn of the monumental success of The Bodyguard film and it’s accompanying soundtrack, and the 2-year long worldwide tour that transformed Whitney Houston into a global phenomenon of unparalleled stature, the singer was all set to appear at one of the most major award ceremonies concluding the whole era.
It was at the 1994 American Music Awards in which Houston had scored a whopping 8 nominations, in what was essentially a celebration of one of the most decorated Pop records of all time.
To make the moment even more grand, Houston put her vocals to test with a medley performance put together with the help of her band composer – Rickey Minor.
The songs she was going to sing included – I Loves You, Porgy from Porgy & Bess, And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going from Dreamgirls and I Have Nothing from her own film – The Bodyguard, which was being honored that night.
Each of those songs were immensely powerful and vocally demanding on their own, and yet to put them all to be sung together back-to-back in a 10 minute medley was quite a challenging task even for one of the most premiere balladeers of our time.
Needless to say, Houston delivered a standout performance singing her face-off for 10 straight minutes, as the audience clapped, cheered-along and stood-up mid-performance in awe of what they heard.
It wasn’t just immediately deemed one of the greatest moments on the AMA stage but also one of the best award-show performances in general.
The iconic medley and it’s nerve-wrecking behind-the-scenes preparations were well documented in the singer’s posthumous biopic, released by her estate and label in the year 2022 – I Wanna Dance With Somebody, in which Naomi Ackie lip-synced to the voice of Houston to bring the iconic moment to life once again, on the big screens.
Relive the moment here:
Also watch the side-by-side comparison of the scene from the movie and the original performance:
Truly a remarkable performance.