Whitney Houston is arguably the best voice of all time, and her performances were the literal example of a musical genius. When Houston sang she made everything seem entirely effortless, and no matter what the notes were that she was singing, they came so fluidly, as if she did not even have to work at reaching them.
Houston re-entered music charts on Wednesday with a greatest hits album that raced into the top 10 of the U.S. Billboard 200, selling 101,000 copies in just 24 hours after the singer’s sudden death.
“Whitney: The Greatest Hits,” which includes songs such as “I Will Always Love You” and “My Love is Your Love,” hit number six on the album charts, selling over 90,000 copies.
Houston was 48, and passed away in her Beverly Hills hotel room, on the eve of the Grammy Awards, and the night before her good friend, Clive Davis’s pre Grammy party.
“There’s certainly going to be a resurgence in Whitney music. We’ll hear it on the radio a lot and that will lead to people listening to it, and downloading it on iTunes,” said Bill Werde, editorial director of music publication Billboard.
After the death of Michael Jackson, his album sales skyrocketed in Los Angeles, and the same goes for record sales for Amy Winehouse in London after her passing.
“It’s sad when people discover an artist this way, but it is what happens when an artist dies,” said Werde.
As fans of Houston hurried to revive the singer’s music, single digital track sales of Houston’s rose to more than 887,000 songs downloaded in 24 hours.
The song that sold the most copies was Houston’s biggest ballad hit, “I Will Always Love You” with more than 195,000 copies downloaded, fueled by Jennifer Hudson’s emotional performance of the song in a tribute to Houston at the Grammy awards.
Earlier last week Houston’s record label Sony Music Entertainment apologized after a price hike “mistake” on two of the singer’s albums on iTunes just hours after her death. They say that the price was not originally supposed to rise; yet the upped prices remained for the entire span of the weekend.
In a previous article last week, I wrote about Adele’s accomplishments with her album 21, and all of her Grammy Awards for the record. Houston’s greatest hits compilation, however, may just knock that from the top spot on the Billboard 200 album chart next week, as the music of, perhaps the most amazing artist of all time, is now being rediscovered by an entirely new audience. This just goes to show that Whitney Houston may physically be gone, but her gift of song will stay with us forever.
