Live Performances
Houston performed "I Have Nothing" at the 4th Billboard Music Awards on December 9, 1993, receiving a standing ovation. Chris Willman of Los Angeles Times comment on the performance, saying "Houston's physically stationary, vocally mobile approach to the ballad―backlit behind the mike in a she-got-back-her-figure-flattering gown―effectively heightened the tune's diva dramaturgy, making it an easy highlight in a night otherwise short on compelling performances." She also performed a rousing 10-minute-medley of show tunes that ended with the song―"I Loves You, Porgy" from Porgy and Bess, "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" from Dreamgirls, and "I Have Nothing"―at the 21st Annual American Music Awards, where she won the record eight awards, on February 7, 1994. Jet magazine wrote about the AMA performance that "she brought the house down with her soulful, stirring medley renditions." On November 12, 1994, Houston sang the song during the concert in Johannesburg, South Africa, entitled Whitney: The Concert for a New South Africa, telecast live via satellite on HBO. The performance is found in VHS and DVD with the same title of the concert, originally released in December 1994, and later re-released on June 24, 2010. The song was also performed on the concert to celebrate the wedding of Brunei royalty, at the Jerudong Park Garden on August 24, 1996. Houston sang the short-edited version of the song along with "I Will Always Love You," which were followed by a standing ovation, at the 1st BET Awards on June 19, 2001, becoming the first artist ever to be given the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Though "I Have Nothing" is one of Houston's notable hits during her career, the song was performed solely on The Bodyguard World Tour (1993–94) among her ten tours. Houston performed the song as the final part of a medley which included the aforementioned songs from Broadway shows on first North American leg of the tour in 1993, but since the European leg in 1993, the song was performed solely without two show tunes on almost all the rest of the tour dates. Four performances of the song on the South American leg of the tour (1994) were broadcast on each country's TV channel: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on January 23, Santiago, Chile on April 14, Buenos Aires, Argentina on April 16, and Caracas, Venezuela on April 21.
Read more about this topic: I Have Nothing
Famous quotes containing the words live and/or performances:
“If all the world and love were young,
And truth in every shepherds tongue,
These pretty pleasures might me move
To live with thee and be thy Love.”
—Sir Walter Raleigh (1552?1618)
“At one of the later performances you asked why they called it a miracle,
Since nothing ever happened. That, of course, was the miracle
But you wanted to know why so much action took on so much life
And still managed to remain itself, aloof, smiling and courteous.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)