Australia is proving to be one audience that the big guns are having trouble impressing lately. After a very luke warm response to The Circus featuring Britney Spears Tour in 2009, Whitney Houston is the most recent superstar not to be given the thumbs up down under.
Whitney Houston kicked off the Aussie leg of her Nothing But Love tour in Brisbane to some of the most scathing reviews of her career. It has been reported that quite literally hundreds of fans who paid up to AU$600 (£390) walked out of her first show in Australia since 1988.
Things didn't seem to get better for the diva in Sydney as she coughed, sweated and mumbled her way through her back catalogue of hits to a fourteen thousand strong crowd.
And while apparently a Melbourne crowd was much more supportive to The Bodyguard star... one thing is for sure... the Whitney Houston of 2010 is not the Whitney Houston of the 1990's.
Surely this comes as no big surprise to anyone? After her highly publicised 20 year struggle with 'partying' and a tumultuous marriage to R&B bad boy Brobbie Brown it's not that far of a stretch to realise that the voice is not what it once was.
Having defended Britney Spears from the Australian public before, does Whitney Houston deserve the same treatment... or is it the Australian public who needs to be defended a little bit this time around?
Whitney Houston is one of the few (living) icons of the industry, her previous feats in the music business speak for themselves and she will always be revered for the voice that captured the imagination and the inspiration of its time. Is that voice still there? No. Will it ever come back and be what it was? No. Does this make her any less Whitney Houston? No. Do we care? Yes, obviously we do or her Australian dates wouldn't be making headlines all around the world. It is sad when we see an icon struggle and when we see an icon and have to realise that the past is gone and things will never truly be the same.
BUT... do Australians have to be so honest and in some cases, downright nasty about it? Yes and no. Australia is very different from the rest of the world when it comes to celebrity. It is very rare for there to be a celebrity sighting that is big enough to whip the Aussies into a frenzy. It's not like in London where the sight of an X-Factor finalist from 2006 sipping a Pumpkin Spiced Skim Milk Grande Late in South Kensington can cause a paparazzi palava! Australia is a place that also isn't graced by the huge acts as often as the O2 Arena or Madison Square Garden, so when they're forking out hundreds of Australian dollars for tickets they expect to get what they paid for. And when they like it, they say it and when they don't... boy do they say it. Australians aren't necessarily particularly nostalgic either, they wont love something just because it's promoted as a "comeback" like the Americans. It takes a little more to pull on the Aussie heart string.
This isn't to say that Australians can't be entertained... the likes of Pink, Boyonce and Christina Aguilera have managed to knock the socks of the Acer Arena more than once in their careers.
So Australia... while you are applauded for your honesty and your ability to stand up to the diva's and the rest of the world and say 'give us our money back!' Once again it needs to be said that art is ever changing and people are ever changing and enjoy rather than berate. Feel lucky that you got to see one of the greats, albeit not being that great, and realise that while the voice is no longer the voice... the artist is still the artist, and she will forever be Miss Whitney Houston.
Lights, camera now you're on, just remember you've been warned. Enjoy it now... coz it wont last...
- Whitney Houston & Deborah Cox "Same Script, Different Cast"
No comments:
Post a Comment