NEW YORK \u2014 It sounds impossible, but that’s the magic of it. On Thursday, a new Whitney Houston song arrives 13 years after her death. <\/p>\n
English singer Calum Scott is responsible. The single is a duet between Scott and Houston, a balladic reinterpretation of the timeless \u201cI Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me),\u201d using Houston’s original vocal stems. (Stems are the individual musical elements that, when combined, make up a song.)<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t even something I could have dreamt as a possibility, and the fact that I’m getting to do it is, geez, one of the honors of my career,\u201d Scott told The Associated Press. Houston’s voice is one that soundtracked his childhood \u2014 courtesy his mom \u2014 and he refers to Houston as one of the most influential performers in his life and the lives of many. <\/p>\n
\u201cTimeless,\u201d he describes her.<\/p>\n
Here’s how the new song came into existence.<\/p>\n
Recording with a giant<\/p>\n
Such an undertaking couldn’t be possible without the approval of a number of parties. Specifically, it required Pat Houston, Whitney\u2019s sister-in-law and the executor of her estate, and Primary Wave, which acquired the copyrights to hit Whitney Houston songs as part of a 2022 deal. <\/p>\n
Pat Houston says the idea for Scott’s \u201cI Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)\u201d actually came from Primary Wave. They were familiar with Scott’s live cover version of the song from his stint opening for Ed Sheeran in 2024. On that tour, Scott stripped the 1987 classic down into a ballad, blending it with Robyn’s \u201cDancing On My Own.\u201d <\/p>\n
After hearing what Scott could do with the song \u2014 taking it from its up-tempo pop spirit to a big-hearted ballad, while also taking into consideration that 2025 marks the 40th anniversary of Houston’s music career \u2014 Pat Houston was on board. It was yet another opportunity for celebration. \u201cI said, you know what, this is a no-brainer. This is the Houston style. So, let\u2019s go with this,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhitney was a balladeer and that\u2019s why we all fell in love with her,\u201d she continued. \u201cAnd Calum turned the song into a beautiful ballad.\u201d<\/p>\n
From pop hit to ballad<\/p>\n
First, the Houston estate and Primary Wave provided Scott with the original vocal stems, produced by her longtime producer Narada Michael Walden. Then Scott recorded the song with producers Jon \u201cMAGS\u201d Maguire, Andrew Yeates and Charlie T in the U.K. in \u201cabout a week,\u201d he recalls. They were joined by a string section, which gave additional dimension to their somber take on the song. <\/p>\n
\u201cTake a pop song and make it sad,\u201d Scott jokes of his approach.<\/p>\n
Recording the ballad made sense because, as Scott points out, the lyrics to the original song are a bit melancholic. \u201cYou want to dance with somebody who loved you, you know, you’re not actually dancing with them,\u201d he says. It’s about yearning. But in an early demo, the chorus was recorded in a minor chord \u2014 which sounded a bit too depressing. The change was made swiftly; even slowed, the song needed some of that Houston ebullience. <\/p>\n
Another early decision: The new song would start with just Houston’s voice, alone, in the first verse. \u201cWhitney starts the song because this is her song,\u201d Scott says simply. \u201cI would never dare stand in front of Whitney for that first verse.\u201d <\/p>\n
Eagle-eyed (eared?) fans might notice the sound of a snare drum bleeding into her vocal on that verse \u2014 because it was originally recorded to tape, not digitally, and because \u201cwe can\u2019t change anything like that because those are etched into the song and into her vocal,\u201d says Scott. \u201cAnd to remove it would be taking a piece away.\u201d <\/p>\n
It’s one of the reasons they kept the song’s iconic key change in the last chorus as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really had to dig for those high notes,\u201d he says of the recording. \u201cIt was an honor just to harmonize with her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Getting the blessing<\/p>\n
Scott looked to the original songwriters for approval \u2014 the dream team of George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam. They were immediately on board.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome people would have come in and they would have added something … to boost their visibility next to Whitney. And he had the boldness to tear it all down and just have acoustic piano, just Whitney, and then give her the first verse,\u201d said Merrill. \u201cAnd I mean, this is his project. To me, that\u2019s showing such respect.\u201d<\/p>\n
That, and they recognize Scott as a virtuosic vocalist. \u201cHis music really features his voice, as with Adele or Whitney, and rightly so because he can carry it off,\u201d said Rubicam. \u201cThere aren\u2019t just hundreds of people who can carry that off with his kind of power.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re a good vocal match together,\u201d she adds. \u201cThey both got a lot of emotionality and command also of their vocal instrument. … Whitney could overpower a lot of people. But for Calum, he\u2019s confident and he had a vision about it and they both are meeting at an emotional level.\u201d<\/p>\n
A duet and a collaboration \u2014 but not a tribute<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like I gently walked alongside Whitney,\u201d says Scott. The song is meant to feel alive, channeling the spirit of Houston \u2014 not a tribute, but an active single. It’s why their version of \u201cI Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)\u201d will be featured on his new album \u201cAvenoir,\u201d out Oct. 10.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is as much part of my story as any other song on the album,\u201d he says. \u201cJust being given the honor of it has been, you know, I could die a very happy man now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cForty years ago, this particular song was hot then and it\u2019s hot now,\u201d says Pat Houston. \u201cSo why not keep producing. But it\u2019s the right connection, it’s the right platform and it certainly is the right artist to collab with her on this.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 It sounds impossible, but that’s the magic of it. On Thursday, a new Whitney Houston…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":217770,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5130],"tags":[51353,185,171,4345,975,358,3187,10190],"class_list":{"0":"post-217769","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-ap-a-wire","9":"tag-celebrities","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-houston","12":"tag-music","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-tx","15":"tag-wires-bot"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115184846025304726","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}