The recent premiere of I want to dance with someone is a sort of official and authorized biography of WhitneyHouston, which has the endorsement of his sister-in-law Pat and legendary music producer Clive Davis. The big novelty of the film is to show that she is her friend Robyn Crawford was his teenage girlfriend and later worked with the star for nearly 20 years..
The relationship was never confirmed until a few years ago when Crawford released an autobiography. Previously, due to the prejudices of the time, he was hidden for fear of losing sales and popularity.
Whitney and robin
Robyn met Whitney in 1980, when they both met as supervisors at a summer camp, aged 17 and 19, respectively. From the first moment they connected and formed a strong bond.
As Crawford wrote in the book In a Song for You: My Life with Whitney Houston for two decades they were flesh and blood. They were best friends and there was even an intimate relationship at first.
“Our friendship was deep. The beginning of that friendship focused on the physical part”Crawford said in an interview with NBC when he released the book.
At 56, she felt legitimized and needed to break a years-old silence. “I felt the need to stand up and share the woman behind her such incredible talent,” she said.
“It was during one summer that we met. It was the first time our lips touched. And it wasn’t planned, it just happened. And it was wonderful. And soon after we spent the night together. And that night was the night we touched. And that brought us closer together” Crawford said.
From romance to years of friendship
In the early 1980s, shortly after Whitney Houston signed her first recording contract with producer Clive Davis for the Arista label, the relationship with Crawford ended. In the movie, a record company executive asks her out on dates.
“He told me we should end our relationship because otherwise everything would be more difficult for both of us,” Crawford wrote in her book. “She said if people found out about us, they would use it against us, and in the ’80s that was how she felt.”
She added, “Whitney told me her mother had told her it wasn’t natural for two women to be so close, because we were always together.”
However Robyn did not walk away from Whitney’s life: she continued as her creative consultant, keeping their previous intimate relationship a secret. She became a confidant, advisor and recipient of their intimacies and doubtsas seen in the film starring Englishwoman Naomi Ackie.
“We never talk about labels, like lesbian or gay. We just live our lives and hope it stays that way forever,” she wrote.
His mother didn’t want him to be gay
Rumors of an alleged romantic relationship between Houston and Crawford have circulated for the past decade. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey in January 2013, CissyHoustonartist’s mother, said she was not sure of a romantic relationship between the two, but that it would bother him that his daughter was gay.
“Would it bother you if your daughter, Whitney, was gay?” Oprah asked him at the time. “Absolutely,” Cissy Houston replied.
Maybe that’s why Robyn decided to write her autobiography: “I felt the need to stand up and show the woman behind that incredible talent. I wanted to further elevate her legacy, respect her and share a story of who she was before fame, and this was also a way for us to embrace our friendship.”
Source: Clarin
