Two decades ago, there were no bigger names in music than Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston.
Their individual and unique powerhouse vocals flooded the airwaves and captivated and entire generation that still loves them to this day.
On Sunday, fans tuned in for the American Music Awards 50th Anniversary Special. The night kicked off with Mariah Carey performing hits from one of her greatest albums, The Emancipation of Mimi.
Later on, Jennifer Hudson took the stage to honor 22-time AMA winner Whitney Houston with a moving performance tribute.
But this was a mistake. It should’ve been Mariah performing the tribute, in order to finally put to rest years of rumors that the divas never really liked each other.
When in fact, they were actually each other’s biggest fans.
Respect for Jennifer Hudson
Before diving in, let’s make one thing clear: Jennifer Hudson is a treasure and a singular talent unto herself.
No one sings like Whitney did and to her credit, she didn’t try in any way to mimic Houston’s talents. Instead, she added her own flair to the performance. In fact, her performance once got Whitney’s own approval in 2010, when Jennifer sang “I Will Always Love You” at the BET Honors that year.
Additionally, there should be no complaints about Mariah’s performance either. Celebrating the 20th-anniversary of The Emancipation of Mimi, with MC performing “We Belong Together” was exactly what the world needed right now.
And may we just add, Mariah sounds just as good as she did in 2004!
But the truth is, Whitney Houston fans have always been concerned that their icon never got along with Mariah Carey, despite recording an Oscar-winning duet together.
Having Mariah pay homage might’ve put those rumors to bed – even though she’s been denying them for years.
Still, people have a hard time forgetting the early years of these two battling it on the charts.
Their “Rivalry”
Whitney Houston was already a pop icon and Grammy winner by the time Mariah debuted her self-titled album in 1990. The record sold 15 million copies globally; meanwhile, Whitney had just dropped her third album, I’m Your Baby Tonight, which sold 5 million copies in the same year.
For you young ones, both statistics were slam dunks in their day, but Mariah surpassing Whitney on her first try out immediately sparked questions of a rivalry.
Mind you, the woman hadn’t even met yet! But as these things go, after Mariah’s success, Whitney was asked in an interview, “What do you think of her?” Her initial reply was, well, snarky.
“What do I think of her? I don’t think of her.”
Now, to her credit, Whitney did try to follow up the comment by calling her a “good singer” but the damage was done then and the press had a field day pitting the women against each other from there.
So, it was time to change the narrative.
Their Friendship
Nearly a decade later, the world tuned in to the 1999 Oscars to watch Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston perform live for the first and sadly the last time together.
The pair sang their acclaimed duet “When You Believe” off the animated film Prince of Egypt soundtrack. The performance was electric and the song won the Oscar for Best Song.
Again, for younger readers, to put this into perspective – imagine if Taylor Swift and Beyonce recorded a duet together. This is the level we’re talking about.
The hope for the self-proclaimed divas was that their work together would finally put the rivalry rumors to rest.
“If we were ever going to come together on any kind of record, this is definitely the right one,” Mariah told MTV at the time.
“And really the coolest thing to me is that after all that drama and everybody making it like we had a rivalry, she was just really cool and we had a really good time in the studio.”
Whitney felt very much the same, and said as much on The Oprah Winfrey Show when she and Mariah appeared together on November 25, 1998.
“When we got together, it was like magic,” Whitney explained to Oprah. “We clicked, we laughed like old girlfriends.”
Remembering An Icon
Still, even after recording the duet together, rumors of a rift between the performers persisted.
Perhaps it’s just an unavoidable evil for superstar women.
Sadly, the chance to record or perform together again never materialized as Whitney died on February 11, 2012, just before the Grammy.
Mariah Carey was among the many famous faces to attend her funeral in Newark, New Jersey.
After that, Mariah made sure to praise Whitney time and time again, ensuring the world would forever remember them as friends.
“I don’t think people could ever really understand our relationship,” Mariah told Good Morning America. “There was always this supposed rivalry in the beginning and then we did the duet and became friends and I saw her toward the end and I loved her… her legend’s going to go on forever.”
“What has to change in our industry the most… is the pitting of women against each other,” she added to Variety in 2019. “We didn’t know each other — and she was one of the greatest of all time. And then we finally did a duet together that won an Oscar. We had the best time working together. It was female camaraderie. We both got it. We were like she doesn’t hate me. We’re actually having a great time together and this is more fun than I have working alone, ever. So I think camaraderie with women you respect is a huge deal.”