Birmingham boos for Whitney Houston

Apr 14 2010 By Alison Dayani

I HAD a sense of trepidation for the opening night of Whitney Houston’s tour of the UK.

With all the cancelled shows, bouts of illness, poor reviews and that ‘interesting’ performance on X Factor, I was more anxious than excited whether I would actually see the legendary singer in action.

But was she saving all her love for Birmingham?

Reports of the troubled 46-year-old being breathless and disorientated during Australian concerts, sadly turned out to be true.

Fans had paid up to £100 a ticket for this big return, but it was all a long way away from the fresh, glowing talent seen at her peak in late 1980s and early ’90s.

The past decade of drug battles, rocky marriage and divorce from Bobby Brown seems to have taken its toll and although the voice was still there, the stamina was not. The one hour 45 minute show was constantly broken up with water breaks and chats with the audience to catch her breath,

Early on the show was hit by technical problems when stage engineers had to come on and get a faulty microphone working.

The straw that finally broke the crowd’s back was when after about six songs, the diva disappeared to let her brother Gary and the backing singers perform some of her tracks while she took a 15 minute break. The video of One Moment In Time rather than a live performance created boos around the arena.