 By
Courtney Rubin and Stephen M. Silverman
Officially, Wednesday night's concert in
Hamburg, Germany, was billed as the "Soul
Divas": Dionne Warwick, Natalie Cole and
Whitney Houston. But by evening's end, reports
PEOPLE, the show belonged to Houston.
The sellout crowd of 12,000 at the town's
Colorline Arena cheered loudest when Houston,
40, appeared onscreen in video clips shown
between sets by Warwick - who is Houston's
cousin - and then Cole, 55, who followed the
62-year-old "Do You Know the Way to San
Jose?" singer on the program.
Two hours into the show, when Houston finally
appeared onstage, the crowd rose to its feet.
"It's been such a long time since I
performed in Germany - too long, thank
you," the six-time Grammy winner told fans.
"It's been such a long time since I
performed, period," she added with a shrug.
The singer, who spent time in a substance-abuse
facility in March and has not toured since 1999,
was dressed in a figure-hugging silvery-gray
corseted gown that she had to keep pulling up.
At one point, Houston asked Warwick to entertain
the audience while she scurried offstage to
adjust her dress as several security guards
blocked her from public view.
"No, the people didn't pay enough for
that," Warwick hooted as she caught sight
of what Houston was doing.
Joked Houston as she returned center stage:
"We're not gonna do a Janet Jackson here in
Germany."
The show was, as Warwick called it, "a trip
down memory lane" for all three singers.
Houston's husband, Bobby Brown, escorted her on
and offstage and watched from a seat in stage
left as his wife delivered her greatest hits,
including "How Will I Know" and
"Saving All My Love."
She also pulled Brown into the spotlight for a
few steps during her rendition of "I Wanna
Dance with Somebody." She closed her set by
kneeling in the center of the stage, as if in
prayer, before suddenly popping up and blowing
kisses goodbye.
She returned 15 minutes later for a finale with
Cole and Warwick - the only time all three
"soul divas" appeared together. Their
song: "That's What Friends Are For."
The German mini-tour will continue Friday in
Munich, and on July 22 Houston will make her
Chinese debut in Shanghai.
The
pictures posted on this page are initial media
photos of Whitney in concert in Hamburg. (Click images to view in larger scale).
¡@
Resource(s):
People Magazine [July 2004]
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WHITNEY
RETURNS IN OWN 'DIVAS' SHOW
