How Whitney Houston Made the Most Iconic Version of the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ in 2 Takes

• Whitney Houston’s version of the national anthem remains iconic more than 30 years after she performed it.

• One of Houston’s producers explained how the singer nailed the song in the recording studio.

• “She naturally knew what to do, and that’s the magic,” producer Rickey Minor said at a pre-Grammys event.

More than 30 years after Whitney Houston’s performance of the national anthem at Super Bowl XXV, and it’s safe to say that her performance remains iconic.

Rickey Minor, who helped produce the song, recalled how Houston’s performance came together at a pre-Grammys event in Los Angeles honoring Houston last week.

The singer visited Los Angeles in 1991 after testing for “The Bodyguard” and recording the song at the request of the NFL. Despite protests from the NFL, however, Houston, Minor, and bassist-arranger John L. Clayton had slowed down the song, apparently in an effort to further highlight Houston’s vocals and infuse the song with a more dramatic feel. .

To prepare for the recording, Minor asked Houston if she needed anything.

“She said, ‘No, just play it (the song), everything will be fine,’ so I played it once and she listened,” Minor said at the event. “She said, ‘Okay, I get it. She goes, and she does it, and there’s really nothing to do. So I just had to do it a second time, just because “She was already warmed up and I used just a little bit of that second song because ‘Rockets Red Glare’ was a little more powerful than the first time.”

Viewers in stadiums and on televisions around the world would actually hear the pre-recorded track when Houston performed at the Super Bowl. As Minor previously revealed to ESPN in 2016, Houston sang into a dead mic while the pre-recorded track played — a decision that was made out of pure necessity.

“There’s no way to repeat the sound of the crowd coming at you,” Minor said then. “You don’t know where the first note starts.”

Regardless, Houston’s rendition of the national anthem would be considered one of the best, if not the best, In the years and decades to come, Helena Andrew-Dyer of the Washington Post writing Houston’s version “overruled all other versions.”

Reflecting on her historic performance, Minor credited Houston, who has won six Grammys during her career, for her unique and natural ability to sing and perform music.

“She had that instinct,” Minor said at last week’s pre-Grammys event. “She knew exactly what to do. You didn’t have to tell her anything. She naturally knew what to do, and that’s the magic. Every time she sings, it’s different every time, because she sings from a deeper place – not from her head but from her heart. It was a bigger place.”

Although Houston was criticized for singing a pre-recorded piece of the national anthem at the Super Bowl, the singer silenced her critics when she sang the national anthem live later that year at a concert television show aimed at raising funds for soldiers fighting in the Persian Gulf. War.

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