Eastbourne: remembering the genius of Whitney Houston

The show – which has wowed audiences and critics in the West End and around the world – is a celebration of the music and life of one of the greatest singers of all time.

It stars Elesha Paul Moses (What’s Love Got To Do With It?, The Voice, The X Factor) in the title role, supported by a live band.

Fans will enjoy three decades of nostalgic hits, including I Wanna Dance With Somebody, One Moment In Time, I’m Every Woman, I Will Always Love You, My Love Is Your Love, So Emotional Baby, Run to You, Saving All My Love, How Will I Know, Million Dollar Bill and The Greatest Love Of All.

Elesha said: “I absolutely adore Whitney. She is a hero of mine so to be able to step onto stage and sing her wonderful, iconic and timeless songs is an honour and a privilege. This is a fabulous show and whether you are after a romantic night out with your partner or some fun reminiscing with your friends, I can guarantee you will have the most amazing night out.”

Before her death in 2012, Whitney Houston had been hailed as the most awarded artist of all time, by Guinness World Records – with six Grammy Awards and 30 Billboard Music Awards among her 415 titles.

“That voice is just effortless, isn’t it,” says Elesha. “Everything she sang just worked. She could do such acrobatics with that voice. I am still learning. I am just trying to match her tone and what she did on stage. I am pretty quick at picking things up but because I love the songs it is so much easier. I used to listen to her so much when we were younger and we were in the car with my mum and dad and we used to just go for a drive. And in the car we would have Whitney and Madonna and Mariah Carey and Terence Trent D'Arby and all those sorts of singers on the CD changer.

“My dad used to love it but he couldn’t sing so he would just hum, and I used to mimic them, just to try to sound like those singers and that’s really how I learnt to sing. I would try to sing things like perhaps Mariah Carey and Whitney.”

And it’s that era that Elesha wants to evoke. As a mum herself, she doesn’t want to contemplate the tragedy that befell Whitney: “I just don’t want bad thoughts about her. I want to think about what she represented when she was younger.”

The great thing is just to be working

“It was weird at first with the lockdown because we didn’t know how long it was going to be and then with the thing of not being able to go out, it was like ‘Hey, what’s going on here!’ But I tried to keep things as normal as I could for my children. I was a bit frightened for a while and I was bleaching everything and my husband was saying ‘No, maybe don’t do that!’ So it was just be sensible, sanitise, wash hands, but then after a while, my husband was able to start working again. He is a window cleaner with his own business, but then it was just me not working and the kids were off as well.”