https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_ZunU2PcC4
From The Vault is back this week with a diva duo for the ages.
Today’s pick comes courtesy of the legendary Whitney Houston and the Queen of Christmas herself Mariah Carey: we give you their live rendition of ‘When You Believe’ at the 1999 Oscars.
After sending the world into a state of shock with the unexpected release of this ‘Prince Of Egypt’ duet, and steering it to #15 in the US and the Top 5 of several European countries, Nippy and Mimi had the honor of belting ‘Believe’ at the Academy Awards. The apex of the movie industry.
Dressed in white gowns and backed by a gospel choir, the divas gave a singing masterclass. Once again they proved that their otherworldly talent was not only confined to well-engineered recordings, but was elevated the more in the live environment. They blew the roof off the building with her melismatic showing.
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If you are familiar with just how much the media pitted these two queens against each other, you’ll digest just how iconic and symbolic this collaboration remains ’til this day. It totally went against the pre-conceived idea that (with females in the music industry) there’s only room for one top talent. Because Mimi and Nippy reigned in union.
We sincerely hope 2020 brings with it some big collaborations akin to this one; and with female unity in music on an upswing (or so it would seem on Instagram), we may be in for a treat.
Which diva pairing would you most like to see happen?
[Interesting Fact: The film version of ‘Believe’ won the award that night, and although Babyface penned additional lyrics to the single version, his name was left off the nomination submission sheet, preventing him from taking home an Oscar. It went solely to songwriter Stephen Schwartz. Still, Carey and Houston performed Babyface’s version of the song, because they were more familiar with it than the one present in the film.]
Your thoughts?