The trailer for I Wanna Dance With Somebody is out and we love this movie about one of the best voices in history.
Oops Goldberg! Kasi Lemmons directed the film, which is cast with Naomi Ackie, Stanley Tucci, Ashton Sanders, Tamara Tunie, Nafessa Williams, Clarke Peters and more.
I Wanna Dance With Somebody takes us on a happy and sad journey through the life and music of the greatest R&B singer of all time, Whitney Houston. The journey of the voice that stole our hearts, from a little girl singing in the chapel to owning some of the biggest stages in the world.
The trailer for the film shows a young Whitney being pushed onto the stage when her mother can’t sing one night. However, this was the show that put her in the spotlight. As soon as a record producer notices her in the crowd, the young musician’s journey begins.
Then she makes the world disappear with her powerful voice as she approaches her dreams and sings for an audience so big we can’t even imagine. She’s been criticized for not being “black” enough in her music, but she says the color of her music doesn’t matter because what matters is that she can sing.
As we look at scenes from some of her most famous performances and parts of her life that couldn’t be hidden, we’re told we’ll see a side of Whitney that we didn’t know before. In the background, a man says he just heard the best voice of his generation, but the singer’s music takes over the clip again.
The trailer always gave me goosebumps because that voice really steals the show, and Naomi Ackie’s performance as Whitney Houston really makes me think of her. We have a great trailer that only makes us more excited for the film.
The movie I Wanna Dance With Somebody is slated to open in theaters near you on December 21, 2022. So don’t miss this musical biography of Whitney Houston that will make you fall in love with her all over again.
How the critics reacted
Critics had mixed things to say about “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)”. In a review of Rolling Stone’s Vince Aletti album Whitney, he said of the song, “It’s not a good song.” Anagram of their original hit “How Will I Know,” and Narada Michael Walden gave it a similar prelude to Finish. This is “How Will I Know II,” and the plan isn’t too different from what Hollywood does with its hit sequels.” Robert Hilburn, the Los Angeles Times pop music critic, called the song “a deliciously rowdy tune with a little synthesizer background and dizzying joie de vivre from Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”.
Jon Pareles of The New York Times wrote a negative review of Whitney. He said listening to “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)” and “You’re Still My Man” is like “watching TV while someone fiddles with the color controls.” In 2006, Slant Magazine ranked the song #88 on its list of the 100 Greatest Dance Songs. They said, “With its title in parentheses, the rubbery bassline, the mushy horns, the ringing keyboards, and the semitone key changes, [the song] is the epitome of ’80s dance-pop.”
awards
At the 15th American Music Awards on January 25, 1988, “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)” won the award for Favorite Pop/Rock Single. Houston also won the Grammy for “Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female” for the song at the 30th ceremony on March 2, 1988. She was nominated for three awards that night. On March 30, 1988, the music video for the song was nominated for “Best Music Video” at the 2nd Soul Train Music Awards. Houston’s video won Best Music Video at the 1st Garden State Music Awards. In a poll for ITV in 2015, the British public chose this song as their fifth number one favorite from the 1980s. I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me) is ranked number 231 in Rolling Stone’s updated list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time for 2021.
How the chart worked
In early May 1987, “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)” was released as the first single from Houston’s second studio album. It debuted at number 38 on the Billboard Hot 100 on May 16, 1987. This was their highest-charting debut of the 1980s. It topped the charts six weeks later, becoming Houston’s fourth number one single in the United States. It was released on June 27, 1987, the same day that Houston’s album Whitney hit number one on the Billboard 200 (then called “Top Pop Albums”), for the first time ever by a female artist. It stayed at the top for two weeks, was in the top ten for nine weeks (more than any other song that year) and was on the chart for 18 weeks. The song was number one on the Hot 100 Single Sales chart for two weeks and on the Hot 100 Airplay chart for three weeks, which was her longest run at the time. The single also reached number one on the Hot Adult Contemporary chart, and Steve Thompson and Michael Barbiero’s dance/club remixed version of the song became Houston’s first chart-topping song on the Billboard Hot Dance/Club Play Songs chart, where it stayed at the top for three or two weeks. [20] [21] It also peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, then called “Hot Black Singles.” The charts came out on July 4, 1987. They stayed there for two weeks, behind Stephanie Mills’ “I Feel Good All Over,” which never made the Hot 100. It stayed on the R&B charts for 15 weeks.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified the single Gold on July 28, 1987 for shipment of 1,000,000 copies of the single. On February 13, 1989, the RIAA changed its criteria for certifying singles, so the single was again certified platinum for the same broadcast. This made it Houston’s first single to receive that honor. (Before January 1, 1989, you had to sell more copies of a CD to get a gold or platinum certification. The limits were 1,000,000 units (gold) and 2,000,000 units (platinum), showing fewer singles sold It was the fourth most popular single of 1987 on the Billboard Year-End Top Pop Singles chart it peaked at #2 on the RPM Year-End Top 100 Singles chart for 1987. On February 29, 1988, the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) gave the single a Gold Award.
The song was a huge hit around the world and at the time it was her most popular single. It was number one in fourteen countries. It was number 10 in the song’s first week on the UK Singles Chart ending 23 May 1987. Two weeks later, in the week ending 6 June 1987, it was number one on the chart and was there her second UK number – a single one. On August 1, 1987, the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) announced that the single was gold because it had sold 400,000 copies. According to The Official Charts Company, it sold 760,000 copies in the UK.[33] It was the first UK number one hit to be released as a CD single. The single also spent three weeks at the top of the singles chart in Belgium, four weeks in the Netherlands, five weeks in Germany, one week in Italy, seven weeks in Norway, six weeks in Sweden and six weeks in Switzerland. It also reached the top 5 in Austria and Ireland. Because the single was so popular in Europe, it stayed at the top of the European Hot 100 Singles chart for eight weeks. It was Houston’s second number one single and stayed at the top of Australia’s Kent Music Report chart for five weeks. The song also reached number one on the New Zealand Singles Chart and stayed there for four weeks, making it Houston’s first number one single in the country.
The single “I Want to Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)” sold 4.2 million copies worldwide. After her death, the song returned to No. 35 on the Billboard Hot 100, the same week that “I Will Always Love You” returned to No. 7. This earned Houston two Top 40 hits after her death.
Brian Grant directed the video for I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me) and Arlene Phillips provided the choreography. Phillips also worked with Houston on the How Will I Know video. In the video, Houston wears a pink dress and the purple background is shown from the same angle the entire time. At the beginning of this video, Houston has just finished a show. She goes backstage and the scene switches to other shots of her that are more vivid and colorful. The song then starts out big, with Houston dancing in different locations and wearing different dresses while dancers try to impress her. At the end of the song, she grabs a guy and asks, “Don’t you wanna dance? Say you want to dance.” The guy looks shocked and surprised. The video was remastered in 4K to celebrate Whitney’s 35th birthday. As of August 2022, it had more than 366 million views on YouTube, ranking behind Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time,” Madonna’s “La Isla Bonita,” Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” and “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.” ‘ by Lauper.