Las Vegas Weekly

July 7, 2009 · 8 AM

Exclusive: Whitney Houston’s comeback to kick off in Las Vegas

By Robin Leach

Whitney Houston.

Photo: Arista Records

It’s supposed to be a super secret, and I know I’m going to be chastised for revealing it, but I simply can’t resist. Superstar Whitney Houston will start her concert comeback tour right here in Las Vegas. All the deal’s terms have been negotiated, and now it’s simply down to organizing the official announcement once the ink has dried on the crossed T’s and the dotted I’s!

First, though, comes her new single “I Didn’t Know My Own Strength” from the album I Look at You being released Sept. 1. The teaser was posted yesterday on YouTube but has since been taken down by Sony Music Entertainment. The first time we’ll hear her live will probably be on Good Morning America at the start of ABC’s fall schedule.

Whitney is “revved up and ready to go” on tour to promote her return to the pop music world, and it will all start here this fall at MGM Grand. I’m reliably told that it may even be several back-to-back performances in a mini-engagement!

The debut song proves that her incredible voice is as powerful and emotional as ever, if not better than before. Whitney also has returned to being the lively, beautiful glamour girl she was at the height of her success. The highly emotional ballad addresses all her troubles and turmoil when she “lost her way” in the world in a painful descent into drug abuse while she was married to singer Bobby Brown. That union ended in 2006.

Her musical comeback is being master minded by my friend recording guru Clive Davis, the head of Arista Records, who discovered her. She is one of the world’s top-selling singers with more than 140 million albums and 50 million singles sold worldwide. The Recording Industry Association of America ranks her the fourth best-selling female artist.

The last time Whitney was here was for a fight night at the Thomas & Mack Center promoted by Planet Hollywood chieftain Robert Earl where she permitted me to snap these photos. Welcome back, Whitney, and we’re thrilled Las Vegas will be the first to hear your extraordinary vocal talents all over again.

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

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