Hudson As Houston: Stars Turn Out To Honor Whitney’s Memory, Music

Hudson as Houston was the highlight of a video sendoff taped this week to honor the late Whitney Houston, as a bevy of stars including Jennifer Hudson, Usher, and Halle Berry showed up to honor the late singer.

As the Los Angeles Times noted, the Recording Academy and Grammy producers were handcuffed last February when Whitney Houston died barely a day before the Grammy telecast. Unable to put together a fitting homage for the telecast, the Grammys gave her a final sendoff this week with a tribute show, “We Will Always Love You: A Grammy Salute to Whitney Houston” at Nokia Theatre. The tribute will be aired next month.

The show featured Jennifer Hudson as Houston,along with a number of other singers who stepped up to pay tribute by performing Whitney Houston’s songs. Hudson gave a stirring performance of “I Will Always Love You,” and channeling the powerful vocals of Houston in the late 1980s, also sang a number of other hits. The Hudson as Houston performance also included a medley of “I’m Every Woman,” “How Will I Know” and “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.”

The Whitney Houston tribute was more than just songs. Other stars gave speeches, including Halle Berry.

“She inspired a generation of little girls and women to believe in their own dream and to know that they had within themselves the greatest gift of all,” Berry said as she struggled through tears. “I was one of those little girls who then became a woman who never ever, ever, stopped loving Whitney Houston.”

But for many, the highlight of the night was the Hudson as Houston performance, The Associated Press noted. Hudson noted that Whitney Houston was a big part of her life musically, saying the singer has been “like this outline, this blueprint for myself.”