Celine to pay tribute to Whitney Houston (via video)

November 11, 2012 at 07:41 PM

How many keys down?

I've just compared them, Celine's new version is 1 semitone lower than the original Whitney version. It seems odd that she would lower the key even though she was pre-recording it. She could have easily sung it in the original key! :confused:

November 11, 2012 at 09:59 PM

Maybe because it could be live :rolleyes:

One is allowed to hope lol

November 11, 2012 at 10:09 PM

I've got a question for everyone who doesn't care if she's singing for real or not...

Why ? Seriously, why ?

She's a SINGER, not a model, her job is to SING. She gets paid MILLIONS to do that one thing. How can you not feel ripped off when she's faking her job ? And it's not like she openly says "yeah I lip sometimes". She's voluntarily faking it, more and more, while she keeps saying she doesn't. How is that honest ?

"Ohhhh but we already know she can sing" - You're right, I totally agree. But that's not an excuse. I don't care how much and how well she sang in her early career, her job is to SING. You can't/don't want to anymore ? Well, I don't think it's very honest to go around and fake your job, even more so when people pay (big amounts) for that. I don't know of many bosses who'd tell their employees "ohh I know you can do the job, so you can just fake it from now on and get paid anyway".

"Everyone else in the industry is doing it, so she can do it herself" - Again, how's that an excuse ? Some people steal stuff, does that make it okay for everyone else to do ? No. And not everyone lips. There are manyyyy great singers, performing many shows/years, world tours etc. who never lip a word. Of course if you're talking about Britney Spears, Kesha, and other cheap pop music like that, well yeah, they lipsync a lot, but then again, their careers aren't built around their voices, or the fact that they can sing wonderfully, or the fact that they're considered the best singer in the world. They're entertainers, it's not the same thing.

"She can't sing like she did 10-15 years ago anymore" - Work around it then. Like all the, you know, other singers who sing live all the time. Lower the keys of your song, change the arrangements, whatever.... but SING them please.

"No one can truly know if she's lipsyncing or not" - That's not true. Some people have better ears than others, and when you know what to look for, it can be pretty easy to know if she's singing live or not. And sadly for her, she's doing a pretty bad job at hiding it in my opinion.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not "hating", merely stating and questionning facts. I love her and I love her voice, and I think she still got a great voice despite getting older, but I get a weird feeling when I see the "best singer in the world" faking her job, while people are almost encouraging her to do so. Maybe I'm just weird...

Thank you. I mean, one thing I love about being a fan of Whitney is that I knew that even throughout all her troubles, even on her worst days, if she's scheduled to perform I know that she was gonna give a live performance. Sure some of them in recent years were a mess, but at least she was honest and she put her soul on the line and gave the best she could. That's why when someone shows a horrible clip of Whitney struggling on stage, i reply that it's still better than tons of Celine's and Mariah's performances in the past 10-15 years since they lipped them or lipped some of the difficult parts.

I am a huge fan of Celine and Mariah too, but in the past few years I find myself analyzing on wether they are singing live or to pre-recorded vocals instead of sitting back and enjoying them, and I hate that. They are supposed to be along with Whitney the greatest singers of their generation, and I find it sad that I don't trust them anymore because they lipped so much and fooled many fans and crowds that they were singing live.

I know that with Celine, she has a big amount of shows in Vegas and that it would be too much on her voice, BUT I would have rathered seeing her not go overbored with all these shows becoming a commercial machine, and instead sing less or more conservative and do it the right honest way. But as soon as Celine didn't show up for the live taping of this Grammy tribute, I knew that it was because she didn't want to sing live and wanted to pre-record everything in order to make it perfect. Personally, I would have rathered an honest live tribute, even if not 100% perfect, then a lipped one. The performance would have been more iconic, she might have become emotional, she might have took a pause and got the crowd envolved, she could have felt the crowd. I mean to lip the Greatest Love of All as a tribute for Whitney Houston? If there was one occasion, one artist and one song where she should have sung live, it's this one.

And to me it's so apparent even from the 4 seconds clip. That big belt even sounds "unnatural", almost electronic. But oh well, she's still Celine and I know she can still sing, I just wish she went back to becoming a genuine true live performer and artist like she used to be, instead of becoming a money machine.

Edited November 11, 2012 at 10:19 PM by wboxoffice

November 12, 2012 at 12:40 AM

about the lipping thing....

Some people do not realise the amount of stress that could be included in performing live in an event like this. The comparison versus Withney who was a great singer, The fear of missing a note in such an event. The implication of doing that kind of mistakes live, versus doing a prerecorded track(maybe) where some fans only will take notice. Celine has done so much great performances, where she has put everything on the line , a lot more than any other artist, and she continue to offer very good live stuff. What do you want from this woman ? I'm sure she does the best she can, but she is not strupid enough to put her carreer on the line to please a few people. That's the way it is, and i'm sorry but if it is not enough , i think that Celine doesn't care about that.

and i must add, even if she has gone to L.A. and done the best performance ever, some would critisize her for trying to steel the spotlight and to prove she is a better singer than Withney, it was a no win situation for her. She has done a tribute because she wanted to pay hommage, nothing else.

Edited November 12, 2012 at 12:50 AM by québecflower

November 12, 2012 at 02:35 AM

If some people are not happy that Céline lips sometimes, well go listen to Rihana, Britney, Madonna and company!! Céline sang live during her TV special, aren't you happy? Of course not... :wacko:

November 12, 2012 at 02:52 AM

If some people are not happy that Céline lips sometimes, well go listen to Rihana, Britney, Madonna and company!! Céline sang live during her TV special, aren't you happy? Of course not...

Of course it's really nice that she perfomed live, but she's a SINGER ! It's her job to sing ! The events where she performs live shouldn't be treated as "special", it should be the NORM. You get paid huge amounts of money to do that, so just do it already ! As far as I know, nobody is forcing her to perform shows, record albums etc..., so why does she need to lipsync at all ?

November 12, 2012 at 02:58 AM

Of course it's really nice that she perfomed live, but she's a SINGER ! It's her job to sing ! The events where she performs live shouldn't be treated as "special", it should be the NORM. You get paid huge amounts of money to do that, so just do it already ! As far as I know, nobody is forcing her to perform shows, record albums etc..., so why does she need to lipsync at all ?

Well many singers don't sing live - EVER!! We know Céline can sing and it's up to her to decide if she wants to do it 100% live, 50% live or 0%. I also prefer when she sings 100% live but it's HER decision... and it's a common thing in the industry. And if we don't like it, well it's also our decision not to listen.

November 12, 2012 at 03:03 AM

about the lipping thing....

Some people do not realise the amount of stress that could be included in performing live in an event like this. The comparison versus Withney who was a great singer, The fear of missing a note in such an event. The implication of doing that kind of mistakes live, versus doing a prerecorded track(maybe) where some fans only will take notice. Celine has done so much great performances, where she has put everything on the line , a lot more than any other artist, and she continue to offer very good live stuff. What do you want from this woman ? I'm sure she does the best she can, but she is not strupid enough to put her carreer on the line to please a few people. That's the way it is, and i'm sorry but if it is not enough , i think that Celine doesn't care about that.

and i must add, even if she has gone to L.A. and done the best performance ever, some would critisize her for trying to steel the spotlight and to prove she is a better singer than Withney, it was a no win situation for her. She has done a tribute because she wanted to pay hommage, nothing else.

Artists and singer have performed LIVE for very stressful events for a lonnnnnng time. Yes, a Whitney tribute would be stressful and blablabla, so she has to lip ? (I'm pretty sure the other singer at the tribute performed live too). That opens the door for a lot of faking I think. Grammys, Oscars, big events... they should all be lipped ? Because it's "stressful" for the artist and everything has to be perfect ? Well that's a pretty lame excuse, because people have performed live on these kind of events for as far as you can remember, including Celine. The "lipping" thing is pretty recent in showbusiness. And I'm not talking about good ol' lipping like music videos, top of the pops, or special one-off performances where everyone expects lipping, and the lipsync was pretty obvious. I'm talking about faking live shows, having only high notes prerecorded, and lipping in places where you should be expected to perform truly LIVE. That's dishonest, at best.

November 12, 2012 at 03:10 AM

Well many singers don't sing live - EVER!! We know Céline can sing and it's up to her to decide if she wants to do it 100% live, 50% live or 0%. I also prefer when she sings 100% live but it's HER decision... and it's a common thing in the industry. And if we don't like it, well it's also our decision not to listen.

Explain me how the fact that a lot of "singers" (which I don't consider singers btw, to be a singer you have to SING) don't sing live, makes it okay for everyone else to do ? YES, we know she can sing, and that's what's pretty sad about the whole thing actually. Why does she lip at all ?? Nobody is forcing her to perform so many shows, so that's not an excuse either. I agree with you that she can lip all she wants, but then don't advertise it as a LIVE concert, and make people pay big amounts of money to go watch you move your lips to a pre-recorded track. How can you think that's an honest thing to do ?

November 12, 2012 at 03:30 AM

So wait...who is singing? Just Usher, Jennifer Hudson and Celine? Or is Britney singing too? I forget who is actually performing now.

November 12, 2012 at 03:38 AM

Sorry can some of you guys wait for the frecken performance and see first before judgement!

Im soooo tired of this

kev x

November 12, 2012 at 03:56 AM

So wait...who is singing? Just Usher, Jennifer Hudson and Celine? Or is Britney singing too? I forget who is actually performing now.

PERFORMERS:

Celine Dion - Greatest Love of All

Jennifer Hudson - Medley of I'm Every Woman / How Will I Know / I Wanna Dance With Somebody

Usher - I Believe in You And Me

Cece Winans & Yolanda Adams - Count on Me

PRESENTERS

Halle Berry

Britney Spears

LL Cool J

Taraji P. Henson

Also Clive Davis (Whitney's long term business partner at Arista) and Neil Portnow (President of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences) will make speeches.

The focuse of the 1 hour special however will be Whitney Houston as they will show performances, interviews and footage of her. It remains to be seen if other celebrities will also appear on taped video and give some words, but there's only so much they could fit in one hour (minus the commercials)! But all in all what an honor for Whitney that The Grammy Awards have put this together, they have never done anything like this for any other artist.

Edited November 12, 2012 at 04:03 AM by wboxoffice

November 12, 2012 at 04:02 AM

Explain me how the fact that a lot of "singers" (which I don't consider singers btw, to be a singer you have to SING) don't sing live, makes it okay for everyone else to do ? YES, we know she can sing, and that's what's pretty sad about the whole thing actually. Why does she lip at all ?? Nobody is forcing her to perform so many shows, so that's not an excuse either. I agree with you that she can lip all she wants, but then don't advertise it as a LIVE concert, and make people pay big amounts of money to go watch you move your lips to a pre-recorded track. How can you think that's an honest thing to do ?

To be fair we've been through this a billion times.

And she's lipped the same percentage of her shows since 1991, 70 percent is still live so it's wrong to claim that people are just paying to watch her mime.

And yes, it would be nice if she just stopped lipping altogether. Alas, the world is not a perfect place, what can you do about it? Regardless, it's certainly not only pop tarts like Britney who lip, many real vocalists like Mariah have always lipped as well (not that it makes it right, it just makes it commonplace).

In the end I'm beyond grateful that she has managed to preserve her voice the way she has.

Edited November 12, 2012 at 04:07 AM by Your_Su_Phu

November 12, 2012 at 08:15 AM

I've just compared them, Celine's new version is 1 semitone lower than the original Whitney version. It seems odd that she would lower the key even though she was pre-recording it. She could have easily sung it in the original key!

I know, if she was pre recording, should be in the original key, but im glad that only was 1 semitone lower. :wink:

They could low the key a whole tone, or even more, so, im glad :-D

That isn't much difference with the original key

I think that she's lipped, im a MASTER in that things :giggle: but let's see, i don't care if she lip that song,

I mean after that she started to use pre-recorded in the "anymooore" NOTHING will be bother/hurt/surprise me anymore! :giggle:

November 12, 2012 at 10:04 AM

Someone made a promo poster, kinda cool.

http://oi48.tinypic.com/59o5g.jpg

November 12, 2012 at 02:11 PM

Explain me how the fact that a lot of "singers" (which I don't consider singers btw, to be a singer you have to SING) don't sing live, makes it okay for everyone else to do ? YES, we know she can sing, and that's what's pretty sad about the whole thing actually. Why does she lip at all ?? Nobody is forcing her to perform so many shows, so that's not an excuse either. I agree with you that she can lip all she wants, but then don't advertise it as a LIVE concert, and make people pay big amounts of money to go watch you move your lips to a pre-recorded track. How can you think that's an honest thing to do ?

Just don't pay to see her concerts where she sing about 80% live. Simple.

I hope you don't think most singers who go on World Tours sing 100% live. You would be really disappointed... Who can sing live night after night while traveling the world, move around and still make people happy? And that's the way it is! :giggle:

November 12, 2012 at 05:46 PM

Just don't pay to see her concerts where she sing about 80% live. Simple.

I know that she lips some songs (more than 20% actually). I can choose wether or not I still want to pay to see her show. The problem is, mannnny people, who aren't hardcore fans, are 100% sure they're paying to see the real deal, which is sad considering that they're seeing her lip many songs without them even knowing. False advertisement don't you think ? If they still want to see her show, great, but people should know beforehand that some songs won't be performed live. That would be a lot more honest.

I hope you don't think most singers who go on World Tours sing 100% live. You would be really disappointed... Who can sing live night after night while traveling the world, move around and still make people happy? And that's the way it is!

Many singers still do that. Of course, I'm not talking about cheap pop singers, who shouldn't even be called singers in the first place. And don't worry, I won't be disappointed, I know my fair share about show business, I've been a full time musician since I'm 15, and I now own a recording studio and an audio production business. I've got a pretty good idea how those things work. :wink:

Edited November 12, 2012 at 05:47 PM by calmar

November 12, 2012 at 05:59 PM

correction - this is what someone wrote on youtube:

I'm one of the fans who attended the taping and I can tell you that this performance was live since she messed up the lyrics during the first stanza and she had to sing the song twice because of that. You obviously don't have a clue about what you're talking about.

re:

Really, you flew all the way from Belgium even though the contest was only for people who lived in Quebec? Funny thing is, I actually KNOW someone who was in the audience, and she didn't mess up the lyrics, it was lipped and it was all at 3 am after they finished filming the tva tv special. Anyways, I'm still happy that she's part of the tribute and Celine has been nothing but nice towards one of her idols Whitney, but I would have rathered her give a more genuine live tribute, but it's OK.

Edited November 12, 2012 at 06:06 PM by browseceline

November 12, 2012 at 06:04 PM

I've got a question for everyone who doesn't care if she's singing for real or not...

Why ? Seriously, why ?

She's a SINGER, not a model, her job is to SING. She gets paid MILLIONS to do that one thing. How can you not feel ripped off when she's faking her job ? And it's not like she openly says "yeah I lip sometimes". She's voluntarily faking it, more and more, while she keeps saying she doesn't. How is that honest ?

"Ohhhh but we already know she can sing" - You're right, I totally agree. But that's not an excuse. I don't care how much and how well she sang in her early career, her job is to SING. You can't/don't want to anymore ? Well, I don't think it's very honest to go around and fake your job, even more so when people pay (big amounts) for that. I don't know of many bosses who'd tell their employees "ohh I know you can do the job, so you can just fake it from now on and get paid anyway".

"Everyone else in the industry is doing it, so she can do it herself" - Again, how's that an excuse ? Some people steal stuff, does that make it okay for everyone else to do ? No. And not everyone lips. There are manyyyy great singers, performing many shows/years, world tours etc. who never lip a word. Of course if you're talking about Britney Spears, Kesha, and other cheap pop music like that, well yeah, they lipsync a lot, but then again, their careers aren't built around their voices, or the fact that they can sing wonderfully, or the fact that they're considered the best singer in the world. They're entertainers, it's not the same thing.

"She can't sing like she did 10-15 years ago anymore" - Work around it then. Like all the, you know, other singers who sing live all the time. Lower the keys of your song, change the arrangements, whatever.... but SING them please.

"No one can truly know if she's lipsyncing or not" - That's not true. Some people have better ears than others, and when you know what to look for, it can be pretty easy to know if she's singing live or not. And sadly for her, she's doing a pretty bad job at hiding it in my opinion.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not "hating", merely stating and questionning facts. I love her and I love her voice, and I think she still got a great voice despite getting older, but I get a weird feeling when I see the "best singer in the world" faking her job, while people are almost encouraging her to do so. Maybe I'm just weird...

I agree, well said. I said something similar a while back comparing Broadway singers and 2 people here came charging in about it. She's a singer, people pay $200+ at the Vegas show to see & hear her sing live. It could be a huge scandal and hurt her credibility if it was really brought out into the public that she lips these shows. YEs some singers lip but many DO NOT. People think they're "sticking up" for Celine but face it, it's disappointing.

November 12, 2012 at 06:06 PM

PERFORMERS:

Celine Dion - Greatest Love of All
Jennifer Hudson - Medley of I'm Every Woman / How Will I Know / I Wanna Dance With Somebody
Usher - I Believe in You And Me
Cece Winans & Yolanda Adams - Count on Me

PRESENTERS

Halle Berry
Britney Spears
LL Cool J
Taraji P. Henson

Also Clive Davis (Whitney's long term business partner at Arista) and Neil Portnow (President of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences) will make speeches.

The focuse of the 1 hour special however will be Whitney Houston as they will show performances, interviews and footage of her. It remains to be seen if other celebrities will also appear on taped video and give some words, but there's only so much they could fit in one hour (minus the commercials)! But all in all what an honor for Whitney that The Grammy Awards have put this together, they have never done anything like this for any other artist.

Ohhh I wanna see Cece & Yolanda sing. That's a great song from the movie "Waiting To Exhale".

November 12, 2012 at 06:07 PM

Many singers still do that. Of course, I'm not talking about cheap pop singers, who shouldn't even be called singers in the first place.

Andrea Bocelli, Sarah Brightman, Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera, George Michael, Il Divo and many more are vocalists (or are considered like) and they lip-sync in their concerts although their careers are built around their voices. Singers in Broadway shows like ''The Phantom of the Opera'' also lip-sync... I even watched a report about it on TV.

We are not talking about cheap pop singers like Britney and Rihanna here.

calmar, 99% of your posts are always about lip-syncing. :rolleyes: Why don't you try to change your speech once in a while? You've been rambling and complaining for years about it. LOL! Seriously...

Edited November 12, 2012 at 06:26 PM by Calypso

November 12, 2012 at 06:16 PM

Andrea Bocelli, Sarah Brightman, Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera, George Michael, Il Divo and many more are vocalists and they lip-sync in their concerts. Singers in Broadway shows like ''The Phantom of the Opera'' also lip-sync...

We are not talking about cheap pop singers like Britney and Rihanna here.

I agree. And that's as bad as Celine lipsyncing. But those are still extremely pop/commercial singers, yes they have a voice, but after a while they become money-machines more than singers. That doesn't mean it's impossible for a singer to do what they do, and sing 100% live.

November 12, 2012 at 06:29 PM

I've just compared them, Celine's new version is 1 semitone lower than the original Whitney version. It seems odd that she would lower the key even though she was pre-recording it. She could have easily sung it in the original key!

I've got curious if Whitney sang that LIVE in the original key in the whole last decade.

November 12, 2012 at 06:42 PM

I've got curious if Whitney sang that LIVE in the original key in the whole last decade.

I'm not sure but I think this performance (June 1999 at Oprah) isn't in the original key. It sounds lower. Plus she's straining in some parts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3htnObbDCs

Edited November 12, 2012 at 06:45 PM by Calypso

November 12, 2012 at 06:44 PM

calmar, 99% of your posts are always about lip-syncing. Why don't you try to change your speech once in a while? You've been rambling and complaining for years about it. LOL! Seriously...

I think it's a pretty interesting topic, and kinda refreshing actually, when 95% of the other posts are about very superficial things, like her new dress, her hair, the cover of the new album, or going all crazy about a new faked and lipped performance. I just don't care about those things. And I'm sorry if you think I don't post enough things like "OMG i looooOOoOOve her !!!!" or "OMGGG SHe SOO beautiful and perfect omg i cry evertim"

November 12, 2012 at 06:59 PM

I've got curious if Whitney sang that LIVE in the original key in the whole last decade.

Most of her early live performances seemed to be -1, although in the mid-late 90s this changed to -2. However, during the last world tour in 2009-2010, the song was -4, and it was shortened cutting out the big note. :blink:

November 12, 2012 at 07:13 PM

Celine's performance of this song during the the 80's was in the original key right?

This song is like a piece of cake for her. She just sings it so effortless. :wub: I don't want to sound biased but IMO she sings it better than Whitney.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlipIFDgBYU

Edited November 12, 2012 at 07:18 PM by Calypso

November 12, 2012 at 07:23 PM

You're damn right she sings it better! She's Céline Dion!

November 12, 2012 at 07:47 PM

You're damn right she sings it better! She's Céline Dion!

How could it be better, Celine just copied Whitney's studio version note for note. If anything, she also still had accent problems so that automatically gives the edge to Whitney (although that wasn't Celine's fault). Whitney has sung it many times live effortlessly like the studio version, but she has also sang it so many times very differently, re-inventing the song into something so epic that destroys the original version. Whitney will always own GLOA, when she sang it she was just so beautiful, so effortless, so natural... I wish Celine would change things up with this new version and be artistic, but chances are that she's gonna copy it again note for note.

Anyways here are first some Whitney performances where she sticked close to the original studio version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJQdbcWR4co

And here are some different interpretations which I actually think are much superior to the studio version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMU0ycZEMzY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8HZyscvrrE

Edited November 12, 2012 at 07:51 PM by wboxoffice

November 12, 2012 at 07:56 PM

Why do certain coffees taste better than others? Celine is Lavazza while Whitney is Juan Valdez.

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