Whitney Houston has become the latest musical icon to be the subject of a big-screen biopic – with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker actor Naomi Ackie playing the legendary singer in the new film Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody.
Of course, Whitney possessed one of the most recognisable and powerful voices in the history of pop music, so you might be wondering if Ackie herself is actually singing in the new film – in a manner similar to how Austin Butler lent his voice to several classics in Elvis – or if Houston’s original vocals were used instead, more like the approach taken in Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody.
Read on for everything you need to know.
Is Naomi Ackie singing in I Wanna Dance With Somebody?
The answer is no, at least not for the most part. Although there are a few scenes in which we do hear Ackie singing small portions of songs, for nearly all of the big numbers it’s the original recordings of Houston we hear, remixed for the sound of cinemas.
Even if we don’t actually hear her voice though, Ackie revealed in an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com that she was very much singing while shooting the scenes – in order for the performances not to looked faked.
“That was the biggest challenge really,” she explained. “Outside of the little bits of singing that I do in this film, it’s really about looking like the sound is coming out of my mouth.
“So it was having to have an understanding of how she sang, and really singing at the top of my lungs, so that my mouth placement was in the right place, and the vibrato was doing the right thing. And the riffs looked real. So that was the biggest challenge in terms of the singing outside of having to sing in public.”
Speaking in the press notes for the film, she added: “I can hold a tune, but I’m not a singer. To be a singer takes a certain level of personality in your voice, and I just don’t really have that. So in those moments when I sang her songs, I asked John to crank the music up as loud as it could go – it was rattling off the walls – and I could perform.”
One of the few scenes in which we do actually hear Ackie sing is towards the beginning of the film, when Whitney is pushed onstage and expected to sing Greatest Love of All. Since she is nervous, her singing had to sound more unpolished to begin with and so for this number Ackie herself sings the early verses.
“Then, midway through the song, she finds her confidence, her voice. She becomes Whitney,” explained director Kasi Lemmons. “And from that moment on, for the rest of the film it’s all Whitney.”
Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody is released in cinemas on Friday 23rd December 2022. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what’s on tonight.
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