カナダde日本語ホイットニー・ヒューストンが４８歳で死去

2012.02.12 (Sun)

ホイットニー・ヒューストンが４８歳で死去

８０年代から９０年代後半までポップ・ミュージックの女王として君臨したホイットニー・ヒューストンが４８歳という若さで亡くなられたそうだ。ホイットニーは、１２日の第５４回グラミー賞の発表・授賞式に出席するためロサンゼルスに滞在中で１１日は同ホテルのパーティーに出席するとみられていた。

広報担当者のクリスティン・フォスターによると、土曜日（日本時間の日曜日）にホイットニーは亡くなったが、その原因や死亡した場所は不明だそうだ。一方、ホイットニーのウィキペディア（英語）によると、未確認情報だが、ビヴァリーヒルズのホテルで入浴中に亡くなられたと書かれている。

大学時代にホイットニーをよく聞いた覚えがあるが、バンドを組んでいた連中も彼女を絶賛していた。彼女の声はとても安定していて、声量がある上に声の質がとてもよく、耳に心地よかった。

母親がゴスペル・シンガーのシシー・ヒューストンで、ディオンヌ・ワーウィックの従姉妹だった。又、アレサ・フランクリンが名付け親だという。そのため、子供の頃からヴォイス・トレーニングを積んでいたそうだ。

最初は、子供の頃、教会で歌い始めた。１０代になると、チャカ・カーンやジャーメイン・ジャクソンなどのバックで歌った。1983年に敏腕プロデューサーのクライヴ・デイヴィスの目にとまり、アリスタ・レコードと契約した。その後、彼女の歌が注目され、世界で最も売れるアーティストとなった。ホイットニーは、クリスティナ・アギレラやマライア・キャリーなど若い世代の歌手にも影響を与えた。

又、ホイットニーの成功は音楽界だけに留まらず、その妖艶な容姿とスタイルが認められ、ケヴィン・コスナーと共演した初主演映画「ボディーガード」などがヒットし、話題になった。

しかし、１９９２年にR&Bの歌手でありダンサーでもあったボビー・ブラウンと結婚した頃から、どんどんと下り坂となっていく。ボビーの影響を受けてか、コカイン、大麻などのドラッグにはまり、かつては美しかった声がしわがれた耳障りな声に変わり、端正だった容姿も、激痩せして、がさつで不気味な容姿へと変容を遂げていった。夫からも家庭内暴力を受け、ホイットニーへの賞賛や栄光は、ゴシップや醜聞による非難へと変わっていった。レコードの売り上げも落ち込んでいった。

それは、米国内だけで5千5百万枚のレコードを売り上げ、ポップ・ミュージック史上、世界で最も売れていたアーティストの悲劇的な転落だった。

２００４年から翌年にかけてリハビリ生活を続けたり、2006年には、ボビー・ブラウンとの結婚生活に終止符を打つべく離婚申請書を裁判所に提出し、同年10月に離婚が成立した。２０１０年には、東京を皮切りに復活ワールド・コンサートも試みたが、英国でのコンサートで息切れしたり、パリ公演では呼吸器の感染症で入院するなど、薬物中毒から完全に立ち直れなかった。

そして、今日、カリフォルニア、ビヴァリーヒルズのホテルのバスタブの中で死去しているのが発見されたという。

ロナルド政権時代にシークレット・サービスに勤務していたフランク・ファーマー役のケヴィン・コスナーが、殺人予告されストーカーに狙われるスーパースター、レイチェル・マロン役のホイットニーを守る映画「ボディガード」の一部の動画を初め、Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, Mariah CareyのＭｉｘをアップしておく。

この世では、ジェット・コースターのような人生を送ったホイットニーだけど、彼女の美しい声はいつまでも人々の心に刻まれるだろう。天国では、安らかに眠れ♪

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参考記事：

Pop singer Whitney Houston dead at 48
The Associated Press Posted: Feb 11, 2012 8:09 PM ET Last Updated: Feb 11, 2012 9:10 PM ET

Whitney Houston, who ruled as pop music's queen until her majestic voice and regal image were ravaged by drug use, has died at the age of 48.

Houston's publicist, Kristen Foster, said Saturday that the singer had died, but the cause and the location of her death were unknown.

News of Houston's death came on the eve of music's biggest night ― the Grammy Awards. It's a showcase where she once reigned, and her death was sure to case a heavy pall on Sunday's ceremony. Houston's longtime mentor Clive Davis was to hold his annual concert and dinner Saturday. It was unclear if it was going to go forward.

At her peak, Houston the golden girl of the music industry. From the middle 1980s to the late 1990s, she was one of the world's bestselling artists. She wowed audiences with effortless, powerful, and peerless vocals that were rooted in the black church but made palatable to the masses with a pop sheen.

Her success carried her beyond music to movies, where she starred in hits like The Bodyguard and Waiting to Exhale.

She had the perfect voice, and the perfect image: a gorgeous singer who had sex appeal but was never overtly sexual, who maintained perfect poise.

She influenced a generation of younger singers, from Christina Aguilera to Mariah Carey, who when she first came out sounded so much like Houston that many thought it was Houston.

Addiction woes
But by the end of her career, Houston became a stunning cautionary tale of the toll of drug use. Her album sales plummeted and the hits stopped coming; her once serene image was shattered by a wild demeanour and bizarre public appearances. She confessed to abusing cocaine, marijuana and pills, and her once pristine voice became raspy and hoarse, unable to hit the high notes as she had during her prime.

"The biggest devil is me. I'm either my best friend or my worst enemy," Houston told ABC's Diane Sawyer in an infamous 2002 interview with then-husband Bobby Brown by her side.

It was a tragic fall for a superstar who was one of the top-selling artists in pop music history, with more than 55 million records sold in the United States alone.

She seemed to be born into greatness. She was the daughter of gospel singer Cissy Houston, the cousin of 1960s pop diva Dionne Warwick and the goddaughter of Aretha Franklin.

Houston first started singing in the church as a child. In her teens, she sang backup for Chaka Khan, Jermaine Jackson and others, in addition to modeling. It was around that time when music mogul Clive Davis first heard Houston perform.

"The time that I first saw her singing in her mother's act in a club … it was such a stunning impact," Davis told Good Morning America.

"To hear this young girl breathe such fire into this song. I mean, it really sent the proverbial tingles up my spine," he added.

Before long, the rest of the country would feel it, too. Houston made her album debut in 1985 with Whitney Houston, which sold millions and spawned hit after hit. Saving All My Love for You brought her her first Grammy, for best female pop vocal. How Will I Know, You Give Good Love and The Greatest Love of All also became hit singles.

Another multiplatinum album, Whitney, came out in 1987 and included hits like Where Do Broken Hearts Go and I Wanna Dance With Somebody.

Early critical praise
The New York Times wrote that Houston "possesses one of her generation's most powerful gospel-trained voices, but she eschews many of the churchier mannerisms of her forerunners. She uses ornamental gospel phrasing only sparingly, and instead of projecting an earthy, tearful vulnerability, communicates cool self-assurance and strength, building pop ballads to majestic, sustained peaks of intensity."

Houston's decision not to follow the more soulful inflections of singers like Franklin drew criticism by some who saw her as playing down her black roots to go pop and reach white audiences. The criticism would become a constant refrain through much of her career. She was even booed during the Soul Train Awards in 1989.

"Sometimes it gets down to that, you know?" she told Katie Couric in 1996. "You're not black enough for them. I don't know. You're not R&B enough. You're very pop. The white audience has taken you away from them."

Some saw her 1992 marriage to former New Edition member and soul crooner Bobby Brown as an attempt to refute those critics. It seemed to be an odd union; she was seen as pop's pure princess while he had a bad-boy image, and already had children of his own. (The couple had a daughter, Bobbi Kristina, in 1993.) Over the years, he would be arrested several times, on charges ranging from DUI to failure to pay child support.

But Houston said their true personalities were not as far apart as people may have believed.

"When you love, you love. I mean, do you stop loving somebody because you have different images? You know, Bobby and I basically come from the same place," she told Rolling Stone in 1993.

"You see somebody, and you deal with their image, that's their image. It's part of them, it's not the whole picture. I am not always in a sequined gown. I am nobody's angel."