Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown: A match made in ... hell?

Le Progres, France

The 'Devil and Whitney Houston'

"It took no more than a single blackened soul to smear her beautiful story. In her case, it was the singer Bobby Brown, who plays the bad boy of the saga: lying, deceitful, violent and in particular, a malevolent initiator. He introduced her to cocaine and to the most harmful version of the drug, crack. That would be dangerous to anyone, but for a singer it is suicide."

By Thierry Meissirel

Translated By Philippe Guittard

February 13, 2012

France - Le Progres - Original Article (French)

Like Jean-Paul Marat, Jim Morrison, or artist Mike Kelley, Whitney Houston was found dead in the bathtub - in the bathroom of her suite at a Los Angeles hotel. It was a sad way to end a breathtaking two-decade-long career that saw her sell over 170 million albums worldwide. It was a career at the top that was as sudden as it was temporary, and a decline that was marked by drugs and scandal.

It is ultimately a banal story. All up-and-coming singers dream of success. But those too young, who climb all the steps at once, falter at the glorious summit of Olympus. Back in the 1930s, blues player Robert Johnson said that to succeed, he had to make a pact with the devil. Whether it's Whitney Houston, Amy Winehouse or Kurt Cobain, the devil takes the form of insurmountable pressure from overly-enterprising fans and easy money - and especially of the false remedy to it all: alcohol and drugs. In fact, one must be incredibly strong to handle success. One has to be a McCartney or a Mick Jagger, with feet firmly planted on a tax domicile ...

SEE ALSO ON THIS:

The Independent, U.K.: Whitney: The Diva Who Had – and Lost – it All
Liberation, France: Michael Jackson: Mirror of Our Alienated Lives

Le Monde, France: Michael Jackson: The Death of a Way of Doing Business
Nachrichten, Switzerland: Jackson: Symbol of a Near-Dead Music Industry
Folha, Brazil: Neverland Was Never Forever
Le Figaro, France: Michael Jackson: A Man Who Lived His Life in Reverse
Le Figaro, France: Jackson: The Tragic 'Genetically Modified' Icon of Globalization
Novosti, Russia: Russian Fans of Michael Jackson Still Devastated
El Universal, Mexico: Hugo Chavez Scolds CNN for Coverage of Jackson's Death
ZS News, People's Republic of China: 'When Michael Jackson Visited Mainland China'

But Whitney was born into showbiz, so she should have known about the pitfalls. Whitney's Aunt Dionne Warwick was a star, her mother was a renowned singer. She jumped into Aretha Franklin's lap and learned to sing from Aaron Neville. When in 1983, legendary producer Clive Davis helped her record her first album, she was already a model, and her gorgeous face had made her a well-known personality. But as the Americans say, everything came "too much, too soon": tout est allé. She was the first woman whose first record ranked number one, and then she had seven number one songs in a row, topping the Beatles and the Bee Gees no less.   

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It took no more than a single blackened soul to smear her beautiful story. In Whitney's case, it was the singer Bobby Brown, who plays the bad boy of the saga: lying, deceitful, violent and in particular, a malevolent initiator. He introduced her to cocaine and to the most harmful version of the drug, crack. That would be dangerous to anyone, but for a singer it is suicide. Nothing has as harmful an effect on the vocal cords. And the career of beautiful Whitney sank. Before the singer chose to sink herself ...