Houston pictured with her manager, Clive Davis. Photograph: Michael Buckner/Getty
It's been six years since the world last heard any new material from Whitney Houston. That's not to say the singer and her much-reported personal problems haven't been popping up on the media's radar during that time, particularly that of the National Enquirer. It's more that Whitney as we know her, the woman who seared herself into the world's collective memory with her glass-shattering rendition of I Will Always Love You, has been sadly otherwise engaged. Then, on Sunday evening, up pops a brand new song with the tongue-in-cheek title Like I Never Left, featuring everyone's favourite konvict, Akon.
The song spread across the web just long enough for it to be pulled in and streamed by various sites, before someone, somewhere removed all traces of it from MySpace and YouTube. The "three-minute-plus, mid-tempo love song" has received mixed reviews ahead of its official release sometime in autumn 2008, with criticism resting on how bland it is. That's not to mention the quality of Houston's voice, which we find difficult to discern from Akon's when he takes over on verse two. This could be down to over-production or it could be down to Houston's allegedly damaged vocal cords. Either way, it's a pretty limp return for the woman who was once described as The Voice.
