Whitney’s gone, but her family’s ready to cash in
A film. A show. Even a new make-up line...
WHITNEY Houston’s incomparable talent was lost just over a decade ago, after her drug-related death at the age of 48.
However, it can be revealed that her estate has signed a series of mega commercial deals which will make a fortune all over again — for her family.
The strategy will kick off with a film, I Wanna Dance With Somebody, released in the UK by Sony on Boxing Day and starring British actress Naomi Ackie.
That will be followed by a Broadway show about Houston’s life, a gospel album of unreleased songs, a Vegas spectacular show — and the return of the muchderided ‘hologram tour’.
In addition, a deal has been signed with MAC for a range of Whitney Houston make-up (with products labelled ‘Nippy’, after the star’s childhood nickname).
A Whitney perfume is out already, as is a range of merchandise encompassing everything from T-shirts to keychains. But there are also plans to position the singer in the charts again, masterminded by firm Primary Wave, which took a stake in Houston’s estate three years ago.
It tasted success after putting out her cover of Stevie Wonder’s Higher Ground last year and now intends to re-release more of her less familiar recordings.
The irony is that while the singer’s last years were plagued with money issues, funds are now set to pour in as never before.
One of the beneficiaries will be her brother Michael, who admitted after her death that he was the one who introduced his sister to drugs. Her other brother Gary also benefits from the estate, while his wife Pat is the executor in charge of finalising the deals.
Whitney’s mother Cissy, with whom she had a tricky relationship, is the other beneficiary.
Houston drowned in a hotel bathtub on the eve of the Grammy Awards in 2012, after a cocaine binge. Nick Broomfield, whose 2017 film Whitney: Can I Be Me focused on the star’s struggles, told me: ‘I am not surprised by all the commercial plans. It is entirely in keeping with that bunch of people.
‘It is well known that there were troubles in her relationships with the brothers and mother. Clive Davis [Whitney’s record producer] did a brilliant job of selling her and re-packaging her, but she grew up in Newark and it was very rough. Both of her brothers were seriously addicted to drugs and that’s how she got into it.’
He adds: ‘By the time of her death, Whitney was supporting an enormous entourage of people, starting with her family, who now run the estate. She was an incredibly generous woman, who had a big heart.’
In an interview, Pat Houston has said: ‘Her legacy is music, and it’s about preserving her legacy. We’re only going to do projects that make her shine and she would have wanted this.’
The 2019 arrangement with Primary Wave saw the company acquire 50 per cent of Whitney’s estate, which was valued at $14 million. But the Whitney movie alone may net treble that amount.
Primary Wave’s Adam Lowenberg said he wanted ‘one or multiple songs from the Whitney catalogue to go top 10 or top 20’. He added: ‘Our goal, as the stewards of Whitney Houston, is not just to have a bump in sales but to continue after the movie has run.’
The family declined to comment on the latest developments. They released their own documentary a year after Broomfield’s called, simply, Whitney.
The hologram tour, An Evening With Whitney Houston, ended in Vegas in June, despite being scheduled to run until 2023. Critics called it a ‘shameless money grab’ and complained the hologram didn’t look like the singer.