Ariel Vidrio Week #4

"The Star Spangled Banner" Whitney Houston (Super Bowl 1991)

Whitney Houston's performance of "The Star Spangled Banner" in 1991 is considered one of the best of all time in popular music. She was inspired by Marvin Gaye's soulful rendition at 1983 NBA All-Star Game.  This was a noteworthy performance as Gaye took a song that was written by a (racist) white man and made it soulful (reminiscent of black music).  "He was just free" as Rickey Minor recounted in the 2018 documentary "Whitney."  Played in 4/4 instead of the waltz 3/4, Whitney had the freedom to hold out the notes and add gospel and jazz flavorings.  This was a shocking change, some even called the arrangement sacrilegious. This was a powerful moment for the black community.  "The Star Spangled Banner" is a song about war.  For the black community, acts of state violence have just often have been used against them as it has been used against the country's enemies abroad.  Even though this song was essentially written to about "the land of the freed," Whitney really highlighted that concept in this performance. Some would say, it was the kind of performance that could convert an atheist to believe in Jesus Christ. It was emotional and stirred something in the hearts of the people.

I thought this was cool.  Although climate change is a controversial topic,  it makes the issue a  human problem that everyone will collectively experience. There is a timer set for the human race's existence here on this earth and it is either shortened or lengthened depending on if we decide to act and change the policies that degrade our world's health.