Recorded 30 years ago, “‘The Concert for a New South Africa” was Whitney Houston’s first-ever live concert album and a showcase of her vocal power.
“Find your strength in love,” Whitney Houston sings near the end of a new live album, “The Concert for a New South Africa (Durban).” She spends a full minute delivering those five syllables.
The song is “Greatest Love of All.” At the start of the final line, Houston darts from note to note. On the word “strength,” her amazing alto blooms, climbs and adds vibrato. When she reaches the word “love,” she playfully skips through several notes and lets the last one linger, the power of its beauty matching the message.
Houston was some singer, and that’s reaffirmed by “The Concert for a New South Africa (Durban).” Sadly, the album also shows how the pop diva’s incomparable talent was misspent before she died in 2012 at the age of 48.
The album will be out Friday, following the limited theatrical release of a film commemorating the 30th anniversary of Houston’s three 1994 concerts in South Africa — in Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town. They celebrated a newly unified nation following apartheid and the election of Nelson Mandela as president.
This album captures the first, held in Durban on Nov. 8, 1994. It is also Houston’s first-ever live concert album.
“Never have I felt so much love,” Houston tells the stadium crowd. Ten of the digital album’s 21 songs (there are 24 tracks total, including an intro and three versions of the same song, which include the live track, a previously unreleased studio recording and a remix) feature titles with the word “love” or some variation, and huge hits are sprinkled throughout the set. They include “I Will Always Love You,” “How Will I Know” and “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me),” all fun to hear in such a festive setting.
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Alas, the scale of the event only amplifies Houston’s tendency to over-sing. Her delivery seems intended for the top row of the stadium, which is understandable but exhausting when listening through earbuds. Maybe you had to be there.
The vocal theatrics are often a mismatch for inferior material, and Houston wrings lyrics as if to trying to remove the suds. Compounding the excess are her large supporting cast’s dated, overcooked arrangements, which range from sappy synths to hair-band guitar solos, although there are quality contributions from the horns and backing vocalists.
The second half of the show achieves moments of grace. Houston dials it down on “Love Is,” a lovely ballad that also appears on the album in a previously unreleased studio recording from 1990 and a remix. Houston delivers her persuasive reading of “Greatest Love of All,” and a bouncy “Touch the World” meets the occasion.
The best stretch comes when Houston takes the audience to megachurch. “Jesus Loves Me” becomes a children’s song for all ages as she displays an uncharacteristic soulfulness in the tradition of Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin.
That’s followed by “Amazing Grace,” and when Houston twists the word “wretch” with violent vulnerability, the lyric sounds as heartfelt as anything she ever sang.
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