Whitney Houston was inducted into the Rock And Roll Corridor Of Fame final evening (November 7), with Alicia Keys giving an induction speech for the star.
Houston was joined by Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode, The Notorious B.I.G., T. Rex and more in the class of 2020 inductees.
Throughout the ceremony, which was broadcast on HBO, Keys paid tribute to the late star, who died in 2012. “Whitney Houston is one among one,” she stated. “There isn’t a one like her and there by no means shall be.”
Keys spoke of Houston’s affect on her life and profession, recalling “listening to her music and dancing round the home and leaping on my mattress singing her songs into my hairbrush”. “This golden voice with vary and runs and energy like none and a face and a presence like royalty,” she stated. “She was each little lady’s admiration.”
She continued to speak concerning the first time she met the singer and their subsequent friendship, remembering that Houston had demanded Keys write a music for her.
“We had been kindred spirits and instantaneous sisters,” she stated. “We did work collectively on ‘Million Greenback Invoice’, a music I wrote for her album ‘I Look to You’. We laughed a lot that I assumed we’d by no means be capable to end the music. We referred to as one another ‘Mima’ and I cherish each second that I bought to speak to her, be in her lovely firm, and love her.
“Everyone knows what a miraculous singer Whitney was—maybe the best voice of our time. Everyone knows how her unprecedented success introduced Black ladies into absolutely the highest reaches of the music business’s pantheon. Everyone knows her music will reside eternally. That music, that eternal voice, is her ultimate beneficiant present to us, and she’s going to now be one of many brightest lights ever to shine within the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame. Congratulations, Mima. We miss you.”
After Keys’ speech, Houston’s mom Cissy and her supervisor and sister-in-law Pat accepted the honour on her behalf.
“I’m so very, very proud that Whitney’s being inducted into the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame,” Cissy stated. “She wished to be one thing, not something. She labored laborious at it too.”
Pat added: “That is one thing that Whitney at all times wished. I keep in mind in 2009 we had been in London and Whitney checked out me and stated, ‘That is actually particular, however there’s just one factor lacking—I bought to get the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame.’”
The 2020 Rock & Roll Corridor Of Fame induction ceremony befell just about after being postponed from May to November due to the coronavirus pandemic. The worldwide disaster will even have an enduring affect on the occasion, with the Corridor Of Fame bosses permanently moving the ceremony to autumn quite than spring.
