NEW YORK (AP) — It sounds unattainable, however that is the magic of it. On Thursday, a brand new Whitney Houston music arrives 13 years after her demise.
English singer Calum Scott is accountable. The only is a duet between Scott and Houston, a balladic reinterpretation of the timeless “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me),” utilizing Houston’s authentic vocal stems. (Stems are the person musical components that, when mixed, make up a music.)
“It wasn’t even something I could have dreamt as a possibility, and the fact that I’m getting to do it is, geez, one of the honors of my career,” Scott informed The Related Press. Houston’s voice is one which soundtracked his childhood — courtesy his mother — and he refers to Houston as one of the influential performers in his life and the lives of many.
“Timeless,” he describes her.
Here is how the brand new music got here into existence.
Recording with an enormous
Such an endeavor could not be doable with out the approval of numerous events. Particularly, it required Pat Houston, Whitney’s sister-in-law and the executor of her property, and Main Wave, which acquired the copyrights to hit Whitney Houston songs as a part of a 2022 deal.
Pat Houston says the concept for Scott’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)” truly got here from Main Wave. They had been acquainted with Scott’s dwell cowl model of the music from his stint opening for Ed Sheeran in 2024. On that tour, Scott stripped the 1987 traditional down right into a ballad, mixing it with Robyn’s “Dancing On My Own.”
After listening to what Scott might do with the music — taking it from its up-tempo pop spirit to a big-hearted ballad, whereas additionally bearing in mind that 2025 marks the fortieth anniversary of Houston’s music profession — Pat Houston was on board. It was one more alternative for celebration. “I said, you know what, this is a no-brainer. This is the Houston style. So, let’s go with this,” she mentioned.
“Whitney was a balladeer and that’s why we all fell in love with her,” she continued. “And Calum turned the song into a beautiful ballad.”
From pop hit to ballad
First, the Houston property and Main Wave supplied Scott with the unique vocal stems, produced by her longtime producer Narada Michael Walden. Then Scott recorded the music with producers Jon “MAGS” Maguire, Andrew Yeates and Charlie T within the U.Okay. in “about a week,” he remembers. They had been joined by a string part, which gave further dimension to their somber tackle the music.
“Take a pop song and make it sad,” Scott jokes of his strategy.
Recording the ballad made sense as a result of, as Scott factors out, the lyrics to the unique music are a bit melancholic. “You want to dance with somebody who loved you, you know, you’re not actually dancing with them,” he says. It is about craving. However in an early demo, the refrain was recorded in a minor chord — which sounded a bit too miserable. The change was made swiftly; even slowed, the music wanted a few of that Houston ebullience.
One other early choice: The brand new music would begin with simply Houston’s voice, alone, within the first verse. “Whitney starts the song because this is her song,” Scott says merely. “I would never dare stand in front of Whitney for that first verse.”
Eagle-eyed (eared?) followers would possibly discover the sound of a snare drum bleeding into her vocal on that verse — as a result of it was initially recorded to tape, not digitally, and since “we can’t change anything like that because those are etched into the song and into her vocal,” says Scott. “And to remove it would be taking a piece away.”
It is one of many causes they stored the music’s iconic key change within the final refrain as properly.
“I really had to dig for those high notes,” he says of the recording. “It was an honor just to harmonize with her.”
Getting the blessing
Scott appeared to the unique songwriters for approval — the dream staff of George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam. They had been instantly on board.
“Some people would have come in and they would have added something … to boost their visibility next to Whitney. And he had the boldness to tear it all down and just have acoustic piano, just Whitney, and then give her the first verse,” mentioned Merrill. “And I mean, this is his project. To me, that’s showing such respect.”
That, they usually acknowledge Scott as a virtuosic vocalist. “His music really features his voice, as with Adele or Whitney, and rightly so because he can carry it off,” mentioned Rubicam. “There aren’t just hundreds of people who can carry that off with his kind of power.”
“They’re a good vocal match together,” she provides. “They both got a lot of emotionality and command also of their vocal instrument. … Whitney could overpower a lot of people. But for Calum, he’s confident and he had a vision about it and they both are meeting at an emotional level.”
A duet and a collaboration — however not a tribute
“I felt like I gently walked alongside Whitney,” says Scott. The music is supposed to really feel alive, channeling the spirit of Houston — not a tribute, however an lively single. It is why their model of “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)” shall be featured on his new album “Avenoir,” out Oct. 10.
“This is as much part of my story as any other song on the album,” he says. “Just being given the honor of it has been, you know, I could die a very happy man now.”
“Forty years ago, this particular song was hot then and it’s hot now,” says Pat Houston. “So why not keep producing. But it’s the right connection, it’s the right platform and it certainly is the right artist to collab with her on this.”
