New Whitney Houston album to be released this year alongside new documentary
Next month's TV special, also titled “I Go to the Rock: The Gospel Music of Whitney Houston," will premiere on UPtv and Aspire TV.
A new Whitney Houston album and documentary have been announced for next month, a project boosted by a single from the late music icon that was released on Friday.
As People reports, “I Go to the Rock: The Gospel Music of Whitney Houston,” the upcoming LP and film on DVD, captures Houston’s love of gospel music. Its arrival on Friday, March 24 corresponds with the same-titled documentary TV special, hosted by CeCe Winans, on UPtv and Aspire TV, according to “Good Morning America.”
The doc will chronicle the singer’s first live performance at a local church and continue up to and including the recording and release of the soundtrack for “The Preacher’s Wife,” the 1996 multiple award nominee in which Houston starred opposite Denzel Washington and Courtney B. Vance. The acclaimed film’s soundtrack, boosted by Houston’s performances, remains the best-selling collection of gospel music in history.
Available for pre-order now, Houston’s posthumous album will feature six previously unreleased songs, with the lead single, “Testimony,” now on streaming platforms. Houston recorded the track at age 17, according to ET Canada. Per a press release on Houston’s website, the entire 14-track album includes “exhilarating versions of cherished gospel evergreens,” such as “Jesus Loves Me” and “His Eye Is on the Sparrow.”
Additionally, “I Go to the Rock” has songs that originally appeared on soundtracks for “The Preacher’s Wife,” “Sparkle” and “The Bodyguard.” There’s also what the Houston estate calls an “awe-inspiring live version” of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” which she and Winans performed at “VH1 Honors” in 1995.
The documentary highlights also include Houston’s milestone moments from the American Music Awards, the NAACP Image Awards, and Ebony’s 50th anniversary special, “GMA” reports.
Watch the trailer for “I Go to the Rock” above. The project comes about a month after the biopic “Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody” debuts in U.S. movie theaters.
Both the album and documentary are “a testament of Whitney’s heart,” says Pat Houston, executor of the Estate of Whitney E. Houston, in an official statement, People reports.
She notes that the singer’s “love for gospel music permeates through every song with love, compassion and conviction. To love Whitney is to love what she represents to all that love the gospel.”
“I salute this project,” Pat Houston added, “knowing that Whitney always stood on a solid rock for her love of gospel music.”
Listen to “Testimony,” a preview of “I Go to a Rock,” via the YouTube.com player below.
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